New-York tribune., 1908-07-14
OLDTIME HOUSEKEEPING.
Il Woman Married Fifty Years Ago
Recalls Customs Then.

Within tie span OF her own married life Mrs.
Emanuel Mihlhauser, Of No los East 123d street.
who celebrated her golden wedding the other day,
has brfdged the chasm between the old and the new
regimes for womankind She had kept house ten
years before she had sewing machine More
dies than gas were used in the New York Of her
girlhood Families IN comfortable circumstances
often brought ali their drinking water from
well block two away
Let see," said She musingiy: 1T was when
we lived down on Second avenue had my first
clothes wrnger. That forty years ago. 1t
about that time the fiuting machines came in.
The first sold by Mrs. Knox near
Cooper Union"
Mrs MhIhauser was born in sth street. and mar
ried when she only fifteen. The wedding
pictures of the couple daguerreotypes which
now seem antique Photographs could be had
in New York at that time, but they
tangled
selves and put 1t in a frame and kept It, said she
They didn't give away pictures of themselves by
the dozen they do now"
There were ready made garments for sale
when Mrs Mthlhauser a girl, nor a garment
made by machine She and her sisters made all
their underclothng by hand. and she made all her
children's clothes in the same way during the
early years of her married life. AS she had ten
OF them, she kept busy.
It's only common to suppose" said Mrs
Mihlhauser. that it took women a very great
deal longer to do their work those days. with
hardly one of the convenisnces Of to-day. No egg
Dedter, no carpet sweeper, no Faucets, constant
lifting and carrying of water, quantities Of hand
sewing the kitchen full of tinware that had TO be
constantly scoured-we wouldn't think could
keep house that way now And yet il seems to me
had just a much time then now. We didn't
know of anything different. and so we didn't think
o anything different"
One feature of old New York the modern house
wife may well envy.
Five dollars month paid our servants.
said Mrs. Mhlhauser, land they did as much as
the help pay s25 to-day. and stayed with US for
years. 1t trouble at all TO keep them,
while now if they stay with you a month it's
wonder. Good girls born and brought up in New
York, you could get TO stay for years Tor y 4
month and 81 would get very fine. superior slrL
Mrs MihIhauser is not of those who thinks
the world has grown worse. On the contrary she
thinks everything very much improved especiahy
the schools.
MY children had very great advantages In
school that never had,' said she Il don't agree
with those who laugh at cooking and dressIaAins
In the public schools. Many mothers don't know
how to teach their girls those things German IS
another fine thing in the schools. went to school
in Houston street. between Norfolk and SUFFOLK
streets The three RS and little geography and
patchwork were about all we had.
Life has certainly gIown good deal easier for
women 1 remember once was out househuntins-
That was forty-seven years ago. l was quite
Young and had only two children didn't ike the
rooms shown me, and the agent sald' Oh' So"
want house all ready, so all yOuH nave to
do will he TO move in your trunk He didn't think
he was prophesying. but he was NO one ever
dreamed Of furnished flats in those days.
1--WE used to go Coney Island In one morse
bobtaied car from Brooklyn. There was just one
house on the island. But Staten Island was the
great place for picnics and excursions Ii was
mostly all woods My husband was volunteer
fireman for years He with the machine from
the old station house at Delaney and Attorney
streets I'D to 1868. There were only the horsecars
and stages in those days; stages on Broadway and
on Third avenue from 65th street to the Battery.
the great changes and improvements. all the fast
growth and fast transportation seemed to start
after the war II was then that people began 10
have more money and live in different way.
One great superiority Mrs. Mihlhauser believes
belonged the old regime.
There wasn't any of this class feeling that New
York is full of now" said she. The woman who
kept a servant and had horse and carriage
didn't look down on the woman that did her own
work and both alike would trundle their babies
out in the baby carriage. Social life didn't in
clubs and organizations II does now. II all
among friends and neighbors. and old New York
was a very friendly, social place. At fittieth
anniversary we had letters and kilograms from
people We hadn't for thirty. forty and forty
five years. and they living right In New York.
They the notice In the papers,
81 OVERS For chill nREN