The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-07-04
MAIN 494'

I houschcld use And this by famlW
 who have never before had real line People are no longer ashamed to wes i old clothes, provided they are goo
 clothes Women now prefer to spers l their money on first-class material, mals ing it up themselves. to paying exerbA tant prices for ready made clothing <
 inferior material into which all tfs
 money had gone for looks and cut. Pc haps the wearing of uniforms durifl
 the war service has had something [
 do with the willingness shown on evei
 side to wear the same dresses throuel several seasoIs In tie matter of food and house flu <
 nishirg tlie change is even more marked Statistics prove that the people of Eng
 land are eating p per cent more thai l they did before the war. This is largN | ly due to the practical disappearance q Ethe unemployed class. always hals
 starved, and to the demands made II ex-service men to adequate food suel as they grew accustomed to during tA war. These men will no longer subITs to a cold pork pie bought at a cook stl q and a hunk of sodden bread augmeutS by diluted ale which is all they ka{l
 now obtain. They had enough bully bk and canned pork in the army and tA7
 returned home full of admiration 1
 the French diet of vegetables and save <
 soup They have done their part, to{ toward the new dispensation, for mix of back yards in the slums which form erIv produced nothing but tin cans ar broker crockery have blossomed ints ficurishing vegetables plots where thef owners spend the hours they used t8 dedicate to the dram shop. Thrown upon her own resources to pro
 vide home cooked meat forTher man tn
 Er glish working woman has for the frs time mastered the intricacies of mes
 cuts with a surprising speed. It is. nov no uncommon thing to see butchel shop full of women each haggling ove the last ounce of her choice and stickiini for the bone and skin which in the ol.
 days it was her pride to disdain. Tn
 Sunday joint may now be almost any thing Git is seldom a joint, but tn
 housezmother now contrives to givl even the most unpromisng chunk ( fibre an appetizing flavor and old chor. ping knives and wooden mallots ar. resurrected to cttt and pummel it int a condition where it can be masticatec
 Trimmed with home grown vegetable and balanced by well cooked potatoes
 the British working mans table stands in fair way to rival that of the Amer
 can middle class or even the French.
 Before the war potatoes sold for 4 cents the eighteen pound measure. Noy they are cents pound. Obviously A, is no longer possible to serve the fam#
 dinner with potatoes stewed to sout for hours in tepd water. They mus
 be cooked so that every particle will r
 utilized, and even the water they art cooked in must be used. Foreign ways q
 no foreign ways, soup has come on tn everyday dinner table, and to make palatable onions, carrots, leeks,~ cabbag' and turnips, which used to be calleS
 fancy are now demanded by the bul
 oe marketers. The price of bread fal
 more than doubled and jam is soarins
 still, so the inevitable bread and jam q the children's run about tea has now t
 be strictly supervised, which means thal
 working class children sit down to ther tea and have it properly fed to them all tending toward better habits
 Tea is about the same price as fivi years ago, but with coal at SIP tot instead of s. the habit of keeping the tel pot simmering all day on the hob hal evaporated
 Nowadays there is no extra fire goini | in the kitchens of the poor-or the rich either It is no longer the rich onlI who have fireless cookers or hay boxes as they call them. Tn the East End seIi eral families club together in the posse sion of one of these economical consri ances and this may easily be the fir steI toward community housekeepA' That there IS a general tendency ti way is shown by the universal reeret N the closing down of service hote's 'e over the country Of all war institutic'A these hostels were the only ones wh's everybody wanted to stay on. The proved beyond a doubt that women of classes are capable of cooperating 1 fort and it has not been for nothing Una.
 women have learned the advantages q cooperative buying and communit service.
 In the matter of household necesSitieD 1 i- has come to point of paying an enofl nous price for an inferior article or pay ing a little more and getting somethlnl l good that will wear. Hence the tremen dous sale of aluminium wear to ag
 classes; in the poorest suburbs alumlnui | pots and saucepans are to be found Tn LII | barrow shops No woman born but WI
 cook with greater care and keep cleane
 when she has got even one of those arls l tocrats of the kitchen in everyday use l Aluminium pots mean quick cooking. n l chance to gossip over the back renee l wEich is all to the good. The enormou increase in the number of things tha 1 have to be done at home means more tim
 spent in her own business and less m tn | streets, in the saloons. A greater lov
 of home and determination to have
 decent home where her work will couri
 for something follows naturally. nj l Whoever may be blocking the way M
 British working mother, who now E her vote is solid for higher stanc IN
 of living, and it is she who is settFt | the pace in buying the best within
 reach and learning to take care of it one 1 she has got it.