The San Francisco call., 1899-10-16
HOME SCIENCE AND
HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY.
I. THE HOME CONSTRUCTION.

HOME SCIENCE AND
HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY.
I. THE HOME CONSTRUCTION.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL.
II men lived like men indeed. their houses
would be temples, which we should hardly dare
njure, and in which 1t would make US holy to
be permitted to live. l would have, then.
our ordinary dwelling houses built to last. and
built to be lovely, right and full of pleasant
| ness as may be. within and without, and with
such differences as might express each man S
character and occupation and partly his his
tory.
grasp for something better than its past
mas known, each man may be said to
to record his history. The majority pre-
fer not to look backward, and the new
mousse enshrines no memory of the early
days of it's owner which may have been
| in dugout or log cabin or III one of the
uncompromtSingly hideouS little boxes
that make the suburbs Of many cities.
But RuSkin, whose words open this pa
per, is, as usual, right in his demand that
the house of man shall be something 1t
seldom occurs to US to make lt--a temple
wherein ordered and harmonious growth
may be part of the daily life The house
should be the best and utmost expression
of the home spirit; the best adaptation or
means to ends; the utmost convenience
and comfort for all under its roof; the
greatest ease in necessary work; the best
space for individual as well as family life
How is this TO be brought about? The
contractor, whose business it is to make
as much show for the money spent as
curtail in whatever is out of sight. Cheap
building houses made to SELF are the
first consideration. Houses made to last
and to improve with age have not yet en-
tered our thought of Construction
At this point we see, then, certain
needs defining, themselves, and we may
well group them under their dlStnct
heads. We are TO consider
a, The individual plan.
b. General sanitary aspects.
C. Materials and their handling.
d. Construction and its ethics.
In the limited space at command only
suggestions under each head can be given,
but it is hoped that the reader will gain
from them some new thought as to the
real nature of building and what it may
stand for in every human life. We have
first to consider, then,
The Individual Plan.
1t will at once be insisted that there
can be no need of this, in face of the fact
that we have many books, large and
small, all devoted to the plans for all
sorts and. conditions of men and their
dwelling places. There are admirable ones
to be mentioned. but this does not affect
in the slightest the discovery made by all
who buy house that they would have
built it quite otherwise at certainly one,
and it may be many points 1t is but
very recently that the architects confer
ence in one of our great cities brought
mendation that they turn their attention
to the architecture of farm houses, and
better future thereby for the farmers S
wife and children, at present compelled
to live in structures of a hideousness cal
culated to kill out the sense of beauty as
thoroughly Is we find it killed out in the
mass of our people.
This is one phase. and it applies TO
workmen's houses of all degrees. An
other and quite as important one is that
according to the different pursuits of the
family should be the type OF room Of
fered them. A pair just beginning life
together may take the average. fiat or
small house. But presently, with chill
dren and their needs to consider it is
found that the nursery, or the living room
which must perhaps serve this purpose,
has no sun and thus is made. unfit for the
growing child, whose birthright is sun
shine and the strength and healing it
means for all With the departure of the
the child-an invaluable one, since 1t gave
room for infinite ''make-belieVe e'-Van-
ished also. Yet the child should have it's
own play spot sacred from interference,
preferably as remote from the other
rooms as possible that his noise on rainy
days may not interfere with others; a
place for collections of all orders, for
toys and books and the tools the child
loves to use, and which are part OF the
training in use of hand and brain to-
gether that presently we are all to know
is the first essential of education
All this is to be planned for. and it is
often possible to modify or alter the for
NAL plan of the architect and secure this
space. But the least skilled draughtsman
can take pencil and paper, think out the
themselves. and see first how to make a
rough plan; then how to make the avail
able space tell to the utmost for family
comfort No matter how small the sum,
it will be better to do without a formal
parlOr, we will say have a living room
ample and generous, and put the money
saved into deadened floors and the best
finish. This matter of deadening floors is
seldom thought about, yet for the most
nervous people in Christendom it is es-
sential. We all know the houses where
escape for tired mother, for ailing baby,
for the invalid, If there be one. or the
come to strength speedily. In our sound
ing-board houses this form of cure is i'm
possible, but it need not be. Plan, then,
to these ends. and see if there is not in
slant gain in the conception of the mean
ing of a house and what it is to stand for
| in the family life.
General Sanitary Aspects.
This heading means volume To un-
derstand it fully there should be some
very earnest study, and the books best
adapted to this end are named in the lft-
tie photography accompanying this paper
The shortest, most compact and most
practical is a manual prepared under the
direction OF one of the ablest Of American
women, MIS- Ellen II. 1NlCHdTuSt profess
sor of chemistry in the Boston Institute
Of Technology Home Sanitation" is it's
city and country as to the situation Of the
house, its drainage and plumbing. its ven,
tilation, heating and lighting, set of
questions at the end Of each delightfully."-
queer little chapter clinching all doubtful
points. There are many elaborate manu-
ais but this and one or two others cover
all the ground and must be thoroughly
learned. A dry and well-drained SOIL a
hOnSH MANNED sunshine q
possible in every room, and perfect drain
age are the requisites for even the SIM
plest dwelling. In the city the size of the
lot determines much In the country it
can always be remembered that it is by
no means necessary to face the street,
and that turning the house door to the
side may give the sun impossible from the
front. Storerooms are better on the north
side for coolness, and the spare room,
used less probably than any other, can
much better dispense with sun than those
in constant use. A little thought over the
general plan will settle many questions Of
this nature.
rY,t--