Omaha daily bee., 1902-06-29
THE ILLUSTRATED BEE.
East Side Wife
CONTINUED from Third Page.)

arm, to watch the rise or fall of the market
Her luncheon has been a simple matter.
For the man at work a sandwich and SOM
cheese; for the children and herself per
la Us only bread and butter, with fruit II
there were pennies for the little ones.
The one meal of the day is dinner, which
she prepares with infinite care and serves
at about $50. For this there will be soup,
meat, potatoes, radishes or ~cucumbers, and
If times are good with the family there
may be a pie made of prunes or rhubarb.
II business at the shop is dull there will
be only one or two dishes, in which cas-
extra care must be taken to provide nourish
ing qualities.
A never-failing staple for the East Slider
Is herring, which can be purchased at the
rate of two for 3 cents. From these she
concocts a peculiarly satisfying salad
The fish is soaked, chopped and then mixed
with finely minced onions, boiled egg,
pepper and just enough vinegar to give
flavor, but not to make the mixture mushy.
The East Side cook prepares fish after
fashions that other housewives have tried
In vain to copy. A recipe that sounds
simple enough, and yet which ba fles the
uninitiated, calls for seven pounds of the
best white fish, such as pike. This Is
cleaned, rubbed well with salt and laid on
the ice to cool. The bones and heads are
used tn form a false bottom in the agate
pot used for cooking. This prevents burn
ing. The fish is then taken from the ice,
washed free OF salt, cut into portions sufi-
cient for one person and laid in cold water
to the depth of two inches, to which has
been added sliced onions, pepper and salt.
1t is permitted to simmer quietly for at
least two and a half hours. Just before
serving a tablespoon OF butter is added.
This is a popular dish for Friday night, be
ing served cold for the Sabbath day lunch
when it will be found that the broth in
which the fish was cooled has formed round
1t like a gelatine. Another characterize C
East Side dish is made from fish skinned
and cut fine while raw and then mixed with
Zine ground cracker crumbs, minced onions,
|salt, pepper and one or two raw eggs, the
whole being made into balls, which are
stewed, not fried. These, too, are eaten
cold for the Sabbath lunch.
Her Busy Fridays.
Friday is the busiest day of the week 70"
the East Side housewife. for she cannot so
much as strike a match in her house on
the next day. No matter what the weather
on Friday, the coal fire is started, great
loaves of bread, twist and coffee cake
glistening with a varnish Of beaten egg, and
made dishes such as those described here
are prepared. When this supply Of bread
gives out she buys at the Hester street
market, paying 4 or 5 cents a loaf for
white bread and 2 cents a pound or three
pounds for 5 cents for the black bread
similar to that used by the Russian peas.
ants in their native land.
The wife Of the man who earns 50 a day
and has a family of five calculates to spend
about Sc cents a day on her table. The rent
will b $40 a month and cut of the remainder
she will manage to save not only the coveted
deposit against a slack season, but sufficient
to send her family d~ecently clothed to the
synagogue. The children each may have
only a single garment to don during the
week, but on the Sabbath day they will sally
forth arrayed like the flowers Of the fields,
every garment fashioned by the u~ntiring
fingers of the moderated East Side mother.
Aside from her cooking, which, by reason
Of the Mosaic law, is a complicated process,
the East Side housewife conducts her house
on simple lines. Bath rooms are unknown
in the cheap tenements, but the children
can linger round the nearest hose house
until the good-natured fremen turn on q
freshening stream. The few garments worr
by the East Side child can be quickly dried
on the roof or the ever-convenient fire es-
| NdDts bh' h'NNA "a " bNNhhs'
there are no corners" to be weeded out
The cleaning goes on eternally and her only
store room is a single trunk, which holds
the few family treasures and is hidden from
view by a friendly II gaily-lowered curtain
About her person she is untidy, Th'
heaviest contribution to her wash comes II
the form OF the inevitable Nottingham win,
dow curtains and the china closet curtains
which are a source of pride.
When the weather becomes unbearablC
even the "shake-downs" do not have to be
prepared. The suffering family betakes it,
self to fire escapes, areaway or roof. Wher
a four-story tenement. is divided into six.
teen apartments and each apartment OIL
fiat shelters at least six persons the picture
presented on a hot night can readily be
imagined.
As the exhausted housewife drops off int
uneasy slumber the chances are that sh,
dreams OF successive rises through $40, SIS
500 apartments until her husband, nov
- ~ T.