Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-03-09

Washington, d. c., March 2.-There
is woman in New Jersey town who
takes care Of twenty-room house, in
addition to husband and several
children, without any assistance-and
she doesn't work very hard either. She
is born executive. She takes advan.
tage of all the latest scientific house
hold devices, and she keeps a card
index of the house and it's contents.
She does her laundry by sitting in a
chintz-covered chair and operating
sundry push buttons and levers; and
If Willie wants his winter cap, he is
referred to &c" in the card index.
This woman and her house are OF
course exceptional, but they are symp-
tomato of a widespread change.
Domestic science has been taught in
the schools for long time, and now
the results are appearing in homes to
a most gratifying extent. The over.
worked housekeeper is disappearing
from the land. There is very little
excuse for her Capable women every.
where are demonstrating that by the
use of system and electricity house
keeper can do all of her own work
and have hours left over.
Housekeeping has become a stand
ard profession, taught in the public
schools and colleges and by the fed
eral government through the offices r.
the department of agriculture. 1t Is
no longer simply the aimless repeti-
ton Of tradition. The present genera
ton does not bake things certain
way because grandmother used to do
it; instead it comes home from cook
ing school and eyes critically the fam
ily cooking. Gee, Ma, don't you know
you oughtn't to boil the baby's milk!'
is what Mrs. Jones hears from her
twelve-year old jamie on the east side;
and on the west side the more pros
porous Mrs. Brown is reproved by her
daughter in high school for serving
two "heavy" vegetables at the same
meal. ...
Cooking is only one phase Of the bust
ness Of housekeeping which is under
going a reform through the efforts OF
the acknowledgement young. In
their courses in home economics, the
schools are teaching not only dietetics
and dressmaking but the value OF
artistic decoration and the import
ance of getting a dollars worth out Of
a dollar. In New York City the Spey.
er school in come ction with the teach
ers' college Of Columbia university has
rented an apartment to be used in the
practical demonstration of house
keeping for it's students, and five hun
dred dollars has been appropriated to
finance the project.
The home economics class was told
to consider the problems of an imag-
mary family by the name of Yorke,
consisting of Mr.. and Mrs. Yorke. the
father of Mrs. Yorke and the three
Yorke children-a girl Of fourteen, a
boy of eight and another girl aged two.
The income of the family was $1,000.
The class was to rent an apartment
for them, furnish it, and calculate run
ming expenses.
The teachers took the students to
see many apartments and finally
brought them to the one that had been
selected by the school, pointing out it's
advantages over the others in the mat
ter of location, light and air. The
apartment rented for twenty.seven
dollars month, which they decided
was the right amount for the Yorke
family to pay when you considered
that this price also included heat.
Then came the matter of furnishing it,,
which they figured would cost TWO
hundred dollars. This they counted
as the savings of the Yorke family
and not as a part OF the yearly income.
The girls visited the department
stores. and supervised by the instruc-
tors. selected furniture and materials,
the instructors pointing out the Vari-