The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-22
Housekeeping In England.

New York Tribune.
An interesting comparison of the cost and
comfort of living between England and the
United States is given in the Fortnightly
Review, in an article called American
Wives and English Housekeeping" by An
ME Z. Lane (Mrs. John Lance, an Ameri-
can woman now living in London. She
says that her experience proves that nearly
everything is much cheaper and of better
quality in the American cities, and that
comforts that the simplest fats have here
are unknown there. except in the homes of
the richest and most progressive. OF her
search for a moderate-priced house in Lon
con she writes:
mo model fat turning up here, we were
reduced to take a house, for which we were
willing to give from ESQ to goo. The ag-
ony of that search and the horror of the
various mansions offered For the first
time / recognized the wisdom that puts no
clothes closets in London houses. when L
think of the repositories of dirt they would
inevitably become. At that time l was not
on such intimate terms with the climate
as | have since become, and L do not under
stand that 1t is humanity impossible to rise
triumphant over fogs, smuts and beetles.
For my benefit, grim and dingy care
takers rose out of the bowels of the earth
as out of a temporary tomb always in
~ dllu liOMGh ho OA6l 4 IA
in which every blessed thing had been car
ried away, even TO the doorknobs and the
keyholeSI mean, of course, the metal
around the holes. Awful, closetless houses,
guiltless of comfort, with dreary CRATES,
promising a six months shiver, and great,
gaunt windows rafting forebodingly. AS
for plumbing-but ii is well to drop a cur
tain over the indescribable. L do protest,
however, against the people who live in
these ~houses-houses whose discomfort an
American artisan would not tolerate-look-
ing with ineffable self-cOmplacency on their
methods, and shifting at our American in
genuity and our determination to make
life comfortable. OF course, we got a house,
thanks to no estate agent, but as we could
not rent ii we had to buy it-or rather the
thirty-eight years remnant of a lease-a
mysterious arrangement TO an American.
The most obvious defect We discovered in
our house was that ii was very cOld-a uni
versal English drawback-and the made
quate open fires seem to accentuate the
chill. j admit that furnaces are not a cry
ing need in England all through the win
ter. but from December to March it is a
pretense to say you are comfortable, for
you are not. There is no doubt but New
England has bad throat and lung troubles
yet so has old England, and the hardening
process does not save, if statistics are
light. If L must take cold and die, at least
l prefer TO do so comfortably"
OF the servant question the writer says:
Registry offices, through which the ma
jOrity of sufferers get their help, riot in
ungodly prosperity. They have managers
and clerks like a bank, and, like other cor
porations, they have no souls. If you are a
meek lady they snub you, and if you are
undecided they give you bad advice. At any
rate. they take your fee. whether you get
a servant or not. 1t seems to me as if "a
certain amount of honesty should obtain
even in this business, and | protest when L
pay 5 shillings for the mere joy of talking
TO a stately female who pockets my fee,
and is the presiding goddess in the gener-
ally ill-ventilated temple. and who, as soon
as my fee is safe, takes no further earthly
interest in me. In Boston / paid 2 shillings,
but not until | was really suited with a
servant. The methods of English registry
offices seems to me the brazenest kind of
piracy. Why don't English women rebel?