HOUSEKEEPING IN AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 48, 20 November 1926, Page 18

HOUSEKEEPING IN AMERICA

They lived in small detached houses on the outskirts of the towns, tree--shaded, and unfenced, for the community and friendliness of American life, is instanced bv the way ea*:h dwelling looks into the welcoming porch of its neighbour Their homes were as charming as orderliness and detailed personal taste could make them, and as convenient as every modern mechanical device could assure In fact, they possessed everything but servants. There was always a radio set, an electric gramophone, and a mechanical piano, as well as an automatic telephone and a dozen ingenious devices to render the kitchen the most alluring place in the house. Owing to wages, twice or three times as high as in and to the mass production which cheapens the cost of most necessities, owing also to the slogan of “efficiency , economy, and value,” which eliminates waste in America, the housewife has money for her car, which she drives herself, her theatres, her lectures, and her clubs, but she cannot buy labour. In the States everyone wants to work for themselves, not for anyone else. Consequently, as in the factories niachines are taking the place of man-pdwer, so in the home electricity is the Robot whiqh is eliminating all need for our domestic banes 1

In England the first luxury' a woman wants is a servant. In America it is, perhaps, the last. Many a wife whose husband is earning his four-figure salary will dispense with a domestic rather than give up her car. Howevcfr rich she may be she will prefer electricity and freedom to a home-life, bounded b y the exigencies of “the help.” I have seen small kitchens where the centre table had an electric cooker under its flaps; where mechanical dryers and washers were controlled by a couple of buttons, where frosted-glass shelves, cooled bv pipes, made the most convenient of larders within a few feet of the steam-heating apparatus, which eliminated all necessity for fires and grates and coals, and somebody’s aching back as a link between them 1 I never saw a Robot that made beds, but laundrv boxes stand sentinel along the main streets, with Bin. letters announcing “Throw in your wash. YVe return it in 24 hours. Free mending. There are public utility services that minister to the needs of those electric sprites which cook and clean and press and heat; so the ordinary housewife has more freedom than the employer of half a dozen servants in England. Because she is an expert she does not skimp the personal supervision of every household detail, and it used to amuse me to hear the smartest young women in the latest frocks, probably made by themselves in the local “Fashion Club,” comparing the seasons and the prices of the most recondite culinary specialities 1

Grease stains can be removed by applying a thickly folded wad of brown paper or blotting paper to the stain, and pressing with a hot iron, afterwards cleaning with petrol—but out in the garden, for the spirit is highly inflammable.