The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1923-08-28
ICE is NOT
USED MUCH
IN LONDON
Only Butcher Shops Are Kept
Cool in Summer
Time.
BY JOHN w. RAPER

By JOHN w. RAPER
TN LONDON: Men who know
II London will say most of the
l cooking is done on gas stoves
Countless thousands of houses are
supplied with meters operated by
coins and when the housewife wishes
to cook she drops a penny or a shil-
ling in the slot and get a flow of gas
up to that value.
The new houses built by the London
County Council for folk of moderate
means are also equipped with
electricity for cooking.
For heating, the poor use coal, but
a great deal of gas is used by people
who can afford 1t.
The housewife who wants ice must
go to the nearest meat or fish mar
ket
Il have understood that in America
ice is delivered daily at your door.
just as milk is" said well-to-do bust
ness man to me. II wish we had
something like that here"
Not Profitable
l suggested that if he could show
it would be a profitable undertaking
it might not be a difficult thing to
find an American who would deliver
the ice.
I'VE have only a few extremely hot
days in the year and they are the
only one on which an Englishman
could be induced to use Ice
The London County council houses
at least half a million workingmen's
families. The houses are built in a
group that is called an estate" with
a court either of concrete or grass
covered.
They average about $50 families to
a block and the apartments are Of
two to five rooms as a rule The
rent runs from $3.50 to S5.75 a week
Storage Scarce
Those built in recent years have
bathtubs and storage room for 100
ponds of coal. Storage room is scarce
in the ordinary quarters of the poor
and they buy their coal in small
quantities. II cents worth at a time
All the County Council houses have
a section for laundry work. The older
ones have washhouses with boilers
and kettles under which the person
using them must makea fire. but the
new ones have central boilers and
each tenant contributes to the up.
keep
If there any window screens or
screen doors in Great Britain,
haven't seen them. There is no need
of them. I have Sem not more than
a dozen flies.
As to Smoking
For years" explained a Londoner.
many women in the two extremes
Of society, the very high and the very
low, were smokers, but one lid not
see 1t practiced in public a great deal
by the respectable women.
Gradually many girls of quite good
character began TO think 1t was the
'swank' thing to do and they Initiated
our entirely worthless idle rich. Then
came the war and everything went
to smash
Now that the war is over we are
strengthening up and realizing that
while 1t may not be immoral for a
girl to smoke, IL is not the proper
thing. Still better. its going out Of
style and when 1t becomes no longer
stylish 1t will be at an end
They Still Drink
but there isSno sign of decrease IN
drinking among women of the poor
circles. The saloons are filled with
women in the evening and a line of
perambulators outside is a common
sight. Mother Is inside with a baby
In one hand and a glass of beer or
wine in the other
I have seen as many as 100 women
inside a saloon, and several dozens
outside it. leaning against the wall
or street lamp, drinking beer and
wine.
The woman patron is of all ages.
from youth to old age many go with
husbands and two or three children.
some in parties and some alone, and
Of all degrees of responsibility or
lack of 1t.