The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1897-04-16
HOUSEKEEPING.
A Phase of Modern City Life Which
Will Amaze Many in the Country.

"A Phase of Modern City Lie hicn
Will Amaze Many in the Country.
The time is approaching when house
keeping. as our grandmotherS under
stood it, will become lost art, says the
San Francisco Argonaut. There was a
day when the model housewife spun
her own linen and dipped her own
candles. Then she advanced to the
stage of a frivolous disregard of these
accomplishments. and bought her lin
en- and her candles. but knit her chill
dren's stockings and had still-room
full of jams and pickles of her own
making. To-day she would no more
make her pickles than she would un-
dertake to build the bed she sleeps on.
The craft of housekeeping. which in
the eyes of our grandfathers was our
grandmothers' most considerable at
traction. is to-day almost extinct.
In the great cities things are so ar
ranged that it is possible to live COM
fortably in your own apartment with
out any of the friction of household
management which has turned so
many heads white and rutfled the peace
of so many hearths. In any city an
apartment of from three rooms up
can be hired for from twenty to two
hundred dollars a month. This can be
made habitable by furniture jobbers at
tWenty-four hours notice The janitOr,
the laundryman. and the livery stable
keeper are at hand. ready to proffer
their services. Each apartment house
has its own corps of these supernumer-
aries. who are willing, for a considera-
ton. to tighten the burden of the house
wife. Close at hand. if not in the build
ing itself. is cafe. where good meals
are served at all hours. When there
are few children in the family. the cafe
is generally patronized. If the house
hold consists of only Darby and Joan,
and they happen to be young and act
I've, they dispense with the services Of
this convenient caterer. make their own
brea kfast in their rooms. and go out
TO different restaurants for lunch and
dinner. Those who wish to have the
privacy of home life at their meals
can find a waiting crowd of butchers.
bakers, and grocers. who eagerly offer
prlce-listS and pass books, and will un-
dertake to procure and serve whatever
may be desired, if the objects of their
attentions Will undertake to pay the
bills they send in. Even that tough
est of housekeeping problems. the serv-
ant-girl question, is reduced to it's
smallest possible Importance. for in
such style of living few servants are
needed. In fact, where the family is
small, it is possible to dispense with
them entirely, as the janitor and ele-
vator-boy attend to the o"lside work.
and any house-cleaning association will
furnish reliable charwoman as often
and as early as can be required
Altogether, the modern woman is
having things made as easy for her as
possible. In ten years she will no
more think of busting her own room
than of making her own shoes. Even
that most unanswerable problem, what
shall she do with her children? is rap
idly solved. There are now day nur-
series for the children of working
women. where child is taken care
OF for from ten to twenty cents day.
The time is at hand when institutions
of this kind. Well-run and high-priced,
will be on every block. superseding the
old nursery of the domestic regime.
In all probability the child will be bet
ter cared for than it was when left to
the charge Of an ignorant mother and
an Irish nurse-girl. Whether however,
the arrangement will be satisfactory to
the mother herself is another side of
the matter 1t will take a good deal
of civilization to transfer the maternal
instinct from the individual to the
race.