The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-07-19

tempting scheme for eliminating in
tractable servant girls, as well as jang
ling stewpans or dishpans, from the
home. is that Of cooperative housekeep-
ing. 1t is perhaps the only scheme thaS
can solve the servant girl problem that
confronts and torments the American
people.
The manifold advantages Of cooperative
housekeeping are being practically dem
onstrated by twelve of the most prominent
families of Ontario, California a charming
little city that nestles in one of the most
picturesque sections in Southern Califor-
mia. These twelve families, whose heads
are ministers, doctors, lawyers, bankers
and prominent business men, became tired
of wrestling with the hired girl question.
They decided that something must be
quickly and forcibly done to overcome
the evil that turned their homes into
workboXes, instead Of the proverbial
Ravens of rest. Servant girls of all
species and dispositions. good, bad and in
different, principally the latter, demanded
from $50 to $50 month wages for doing
their work in a fashion that was notori-
ously slipshod. The patience of these peo-
pie was exhausted. They simply couldn' t
endure such conditions any longer. AS
an experiment they organized a Coop
erative Family club which is proving
eminently successful as a labor finance
and worry economizer,
Three prominent citizens, with their
respective wives, were the originators of
the scheme in Ontario and when they had
perfected their plans they called a meet
ing which was attended by the heads of
nine other congenial families In the
neighborhood. Upon hearing the details
of the proposed undertaking they gleefully
entered the scheme. The community
kitchen, dining room, cook, housekeeper,
waiter and dishwasher were enthusiastic
cally voted for as being just the thing to
tighten the burdens of the housewives.
1t promised to effectually dispense all
| offensive and peace demoralizing struggle
with unruly hired girls who insisted on
burning the victuals and sweeping the
dirt under the bed. Instead of twelve
families having to employ twelve cooks,
they would only need to employ one I'M
der the community arrangement, and the
expense of each household would thus be
| materially lessened.
A committee was appointed to make
business arrangements. First of all 1t Sc
| lected a house that could be used as COM
munity dining room and kitchen It was
conveniently near the homes of all mem
bers of the organization, which are clus-
| tered within a radius of eight blocks The
| building determined upon by the COM
| mittee as being specially adapted to the
| requirements Of the club was new two
! story structure just completed for a pri-
| vate residence. It is situated on one of
| the most attractive streets of Ontario,
! and is much more homelike tnan any of
| the larger public buildings in the bust
| ness section. The club pays the owner of
| this building $40 a month rent. The
| up stairs rooms in this community build
| ing are used as bed rooms by the help,
while the down stairs are utilized as
| community dining rooms and kitchen
Only four employees are necessary to
run this unique housekeeping innovation
| They are classed as follows: Mrs. Clara
| Cook is the stewardess, who superin-
| tends the workings of the establishment
and buys all necessities for the cuisine
| thus saving the housewives Of the or
| ganization from all cares and RESPONSE
| bilities in that line. o. D. Gruver does
| the cooking. F., II. ingalls, waits on ia
| bles, and Rita Dumas does the dish
| washing. These four people, whose to-
| tai wages amount to but $50, do all the
| work of the establishment and supply