San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-04-22
LIVING INA BIG CITY.
LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING; WHAT 1T
MEANS AND HOW IT is DONE.

Would he Good for Bachelors-Also for
Groups of Girls, if Only They Could BE
Persuaded to Try 1t.
Light housekeeping has become almost a
scandalous term, because of its abuse here
and elsewhere; but, nevertheless, there is a
great deal of such housekeeping in New
York that is eminently respectable. Some
times the partners are man and wife; some
times they are bachelors, and sometimes,
though more rarely perhaps, young women
engaged, as the census says, in "gainful &C.
equations '-dressmalling, shop tending,
literary work, or what not. Most families
of this sort breakfast at home and dine at
restaurants. Nobody believes, of course,
that dining at restaurants is any cheaper
than dining at home.
In fact, it is vastly dearer, unless the res
taurants be of the fifteen cents meal va
riety But light housekeeping dispenses
with maid servant, hospitality and good
deal of rent. 1t is peculiarly well adapted
to those families of two, in which both hus-
band and wife help to earn a living. AS
the wife is out all day, she canno; 80, end to
household duties of n very eNact."., CIIr-
acter and as economy is the object the
family cannot employ maid servant.
CHEAP LIVING.
So two rooms, or at furthest three, are
rented instead of four, five or six; gas
stove is used only for an hour in the morn
ing; the house is heated by steam, shared
in common with other tenants, and thus
what is lost in the cost of restaurant din
ners is saved in rent, fuel and wages. I'm
furnished apartments of two or three rooms
in respectable parts of the city may be
rented at from IS to S25 a month.
Ifayoung couple chooses to occupy apart
ments in one of the great sanitary tene-
ments put up for the respectable poor, the
rent will fall considerably below the smaller
of these figures. The cost of breakfast is
a mere tribe, and really poor folk, that are
willing to put up with such an apology for
home, may live almost as cheaply in the
heart of New York as in the coGi;try. \
clever woman can make even such quarters
as these coy and attractive, and the posi-
bility of such d mode of life h. hasUeued
many marriage.
Bachelors living in this fashion manage
very comfortably, though, of course, at
greater expense, because few men are con-
tent to get their own breakfasts and attend
TO their own apartments. The homeless
habit prevents most bachelor housekeeping
from going beyond the light" stage,
though when once a maid servant becomes
a necessity, it is cheaper to have all meas
prepared at home. Few young men, how
ever, are content TO forego the glitter and
hum of the cheerful restaurant, with its
motley company and varied bills of fare.
Better and more wholesome dinners could
be prepared at home for less than half the
money, but the charm of contact with the
world is lost, and there is always the danger
that the absence Of one partner may leave
the other to dine alone.
WHY WOMEN DON'T CLUB.
Women seem to find it difficult to keep
house together Perhaps they are less
adaptable than men, or perhaps the strain
of constant contact, from which men may
escape by going out into the world, makes
friction inevitable. At any rate, there are
thousands of women living lonely lives in
boarding houses, when "all the comforts
Of a home" are within their reach if only
they choose to form housekeeping part
pership The dreariness of boarding house
life for women is a thing that men would
not endure In some of the poorer but
still respectable boarding houses the par
lor is rented to a physician, so that there is
no common room where dodgers may re-
ceive visitors.
All the ugliness of human life shows it
self at such places, yet women of delicate
sensibilities endure it, because they fancy
that they could not undertake the task of
housekeeping with other women. 81 don't
know any girl with whom I'd dare try such
an experiment" said an art student, when
this idea was suggested to her. Another
woman, who had established little home
of her own, confessed that she was very
we'll pleased that friend living in like
manner as herself had not taken apart
ments in the same house. For the 50, 50
or IS week that each of four women pays
for the discomforts of boarding house all
could have Il coy little home in common.
But in this whole city there are probably
only few score such homes.
Some charitable women in Brooklyn dis
covered that nearly dozen shop girls were
lodging in one moderate sized room, where
ts,sg r,.sNnarad their breakfasts In the morn