The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-02-25
LIVING IN A BIG CITY.
LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING; WHAT II
MEANS AND HOW IT IS DONE.

It Is Not Bad for Young Married Folks
Groups of Girls. IL Only They Could Be
Persuaded to Try It
Light housekeeping has become almost .
scandalous term, because OF its abuse here
and elsewhere; but, nevertheless. there is
great deal of such housekeeping in New
York that is eminentiy respectable. Some
times the partners are man and wife; some
times they are bachelors. and sometimes
though more rarely perhaps, young wonen
engaged, as the census says, in "gGinful oc-
cupations" essmsking, 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 st restaurants IS any cheaper
than dining at home
In fact, il is vastly dearer. unless the res
tanrants be of the fifteen cents meal va
riety. But light housekeeping dispenses
with maid servant, hospitality and q good
deal of rent. II Is peculiarly well adapted
to those families of two, in which both hus-
band aud wife help 10 earn living. As
the wife is out all day, she cannot attend 10
household duties of very exscting char
acter, and as economy IS ths object the
family cannot employ a 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, ard thus
what is lost in the cost OF restaurant din
- ft,al nd n
furnished apartments of two or three rooms
in respectable parts of the city may tie
rented at from S. TO SIS a month.
II ayouns couple chooses 20 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 triie, and really poor folk, that are
willing TO put up with such an apology for
a home, may live almost as cheapiy IN the
heart of New York as in the country. y
clever woman can make even such quarters
as these coy and attractive, and the posi-
bility of such mode OF life has FASTENED
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
necessity, it is cheaper to have all meals
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 or 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
nersh;p. The dreariness CT boarding house
life for women is thing that men would
not endure. In some of the poorer but
still respectable boarding houses the par
lor is rented to physician, SO THAI there is
no common room where dodgers may re
ceive visitors.
All the ugliuess OF human life shows 10
self at such places, yet women of defeats
sensibilities endure it, because they fancy
that they could not undertake the task of
housekeeping with other women Il don
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 bad established little hopt
of her own, confessed that she was very
well pleased that a friend living In like
manner as herself had not taken apart
menrs in the same house For the $, =
or IS a week that each of four women pay
for the di.comforts Of boarding house al
could have 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 wer'
lodging in one moderate sized room. where
they prepared their breakfasts in the morn
ing and sat at night unless the streets
proved more attractive Such women carr
from s. to 81 a week.
PROJECTED WORK
They must present q decent outward ap
pearance; but it has been discovered thai
in the case of the poorest the one visibl'
garment is almost the only scrap OF cloth