The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-10-18
THE PROBLEM OF COOKS.

may be solved in various ways. One
may "have meals sent i'm from neigh
boris house. The comfort of roomy
house of ones own is thus obtained
without the trouble of relations with
fugacious cooks and without the labor
Of making the range fire and being
ones own cook in the intervals of the
cook service. But there are drawback
The meals "sent in" will sometimes ar
rive cold; the purveyec's taste may
not coincide with ones own, and the
cost is likely to be excessive. Another
way is to "go out for meals OCCUPY
ones own house, but go into some
boarding house block or two distant
for each meal. This does very well
for change. For families in which
there are no small children or sick
persons it may do very well-espe-
cially if there are not many the family.
If the family is large The expense Of
"meals taken OUT may become pro-
hibitory.
In both of these schemes the object
is to gain independence. But both
the draw back that one is paying for
kitchen, dining room, pantry, ETC.,
which are not in use. Money is being
thrown away, it appears, in renting
whole house when one needs only part
of one. The next step is to rent a
floor only and have meals sent or go
out for them. This saves money, per-
haps, but the accommodations are re-
stricted. The other floors, unless the
landlords supervision is excellent, may
lodge lot of noisy children or other
terrible people. One is at the mercy
of persons on the floor above or down
below, who may be musical" or given
to conviviality, or prone to keep late
hours, to say nothing Of dogs and cats.
In case diphtheria, scarlet fever OF
smallpox is brought into the house
ones position becomes decidedly un-
comfortable. So also if consumptive
has the rooms above or below his
coughing at night will not favor sleep.
Add that if one is sick, he lacks the
quiet, seclusion and comfort he asso-
ciates with the idea of home.
There remains the boarding house
and the hotel. For very small fam
lily experience shows that either is
better than the bitter struggle with
range and cook. But life in board
ing house has its drawbacks in re-
stricted space, in frequent close con-
tact with the same people and in hours
for meals that are seldom satisfactory,
even if the meals themselves be all
that one can desire. The hotel gives
choice, both as to acquaintance and
meals. One is more independent and
can be as exclusive as he likes at ho-
tel But hotel life is life one very
soon tires of. 1t is rather expensive
and is commonly very unsuited to
children. For the proper training of
children and for wholesome exercise
and associations a home is wanted
where the mother can exercise control.
This implies space and more or less Sc
clusiveness. For an active business
man, with no one dependan: upon him
but his wife, a hotel or boarding house
will do-for few years at any rate
but for family embracing girls and
boys the conditions will need to be en-
tirely different.
There remains the fat. But there
are flats and flats. A well-equipped
flat, with janitor, elevator and many
rooms in desirable neighborhood, is
more expensive than dwelling house
that has as many rooms and equal
equipment. A fat which is merely a
few small rooms, with no janitor and
few conveniences, is cheaper, but will
not differ much from "the entire floor"
already discussed. 1t will suit a
young couple Or small family tenn
porarily, perhaps, but the bother of
having to "go out, for meals or have
"sent in" will ultimately tell. Expe-
rience shows that it is as hard to keep
a cook" in fiat as in separate house,
the only advantage being that all is
on one floor and there is less trouble
about heat and less ringing of the
doorbell by street merchants. The
only way to live in comfort without a
cook of ones own, it itappears, is to live
in house where one has all the room
and seclusion he wants and at the
same time has access to dining room.
A fat in which meals are to be had at
a reasonable price therefore is the ideal
proposition. Thus the duty of look
ing for, humoring and keeping a cook
will have been delegated to the land
lord, while in most other respects one
will still be keeping house. He will
have meals at home without fighting
for them-a blessed consummation.
All these several schemes, it will be
observed, proceed upon the idea that
it is no longer practicable for the
housekeeper to keep cook. Yet it
is assumed that relief is to be obtained
by depending on someone else who