06f\e55lVe OVMfPING LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ®^p §mi'w ^°- CNITEl) STATES OF AMEKICA. ^oofefii bp Catlfierme ©toen. TEN DOLLARS ENOUGH. Keeping House Well on Ten Dollars a Week. i6mo, $i.oo. GENTLE BREADWINNERS. The Story of One of Them. i6mo, $i.oo. MOLLY BISHOP'S FAMILY. i6mo, ^i.oo. PROGRESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. i6mo, ^i.oo. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. BOSTON AND NEW YORK. ( ^ PROGRESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING KEEPING HOUSE WITHOUT KNOWING HOW, AND KNOWING HOW TO KEEP HOUSE WELL CATHERINE OWEN t-^y. author of ten dollars enough, 'molly bishops family, "gentle breadwinners," etc. 1 ^»^^ 1 1 r ' ' ^-~- H ^gtggfo^ BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY next day brush it off and scrub. The same paste may be laid on floors when spotted with grease. TO SCRUB. Wet your soft cloth, leave plenty of water in it, then wet the table or surface you are scrubbing liber- ally with it, so that water enough remains to make a lather ; now with the brush scrub the way of the grain of the wood , paying extra attention to all gray spots. Now rinse the cloth, wring it very little, for you don't want to luipe off, but to rinse oS, the dirt you have just scrubbed out ; if wiped off, the dirty water is only smeared over the surface again. Sop up the soapy lather, then rinse a second time with the water; wring your cloth as dry as possible and go over it again, wringing it dry as often as it absorbs water. Last of PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. Ill 'all, rub as dry as you can with the dry rubber ; this removes the last of the soiled water and helps the wood to dry quickly, which is a great point in making boards white. In cleaning floors never wet too large a space at once. If beyond the comfortable range of the arm, there is almost certain to be a dark circle when dry, showing where you leave off each piece ; because, being out of easy reach you have no power to scrub well or wipe dry. Always in using the drying cloth, rub it well beyond the space you are now cleaning over, to the one last done. The use of a little washing soda or borax in the water is excellent for boards, and if they have been neglected a small lump of lime in the water greatly helps to make them white. After tables are scrubbed attend to the sink, put a lump of washing soda as large as an egg at least, over the sink hole, and pour a kettle of boiling water over every part of it, using your sink brush to send it into all greasy parts. When the sink is quite free from grease, wipe off the pump. (If you are fortunate enough to have faucets, they of course would have been polished with the bright things earlier.) Wash, the last thing before the floor, all finger marks from the paint ; also the chairs if painted; the backs of them if caned ; the top of the flour barrel and the windows. Be especially careful to clean kitchen window sills ; so many things are put on them, they are more apt to be soiled than any others. Need- less to say that floors must always be swept before they are washed. 112 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. To clean oil cloth, do not scrub it unless it has been badly cleaned many times, when, with the fine cor- rugated surface now usual, dirt, or rather the dirty water allowed to remain in it will have grimed it so that you will need to use a soft brush and scrub the way of the lines ; but usually, warm water, one wet and dry cloth are all that are needed. Oil cloth and paint need the wiping with a coarse dry cloth as much as boards, and well repay the extra trouble. Skim milk used in place of water to clean oil cloth gives it brightness and lustre. Painted floors must be treated just as oil cloth is. I have one thing more to say about the kitchen sink. If you put in a lump of soda weighing half pound or more every day or two, you will have no trouble with the drain pipe becoming clogged with grease. So large a piece will dissolve very slowly, but all the water that goes down will help to cleanse instead of soil the pipe. Whenever you have a kettle of boiling water that you do not need at once, pour it into the sink. We have now gone through the work of a plain househould for the six working days. Very much more goes to make up that woman's profession, ^'housekeeping," than the mere work; yet, the order of that, and the way it should be done are perhaps the first things the novice wants to know. In future chapters we will go into such other questions as seem to bear on the questions of housekeeping, the market- ing, management of food, and such economies and contrivances as may help the housekeeper of limited PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 113 means, and some suggestions that may be suitable to the ordering of larger households. PROORAMIdE^ OF -W^ORK. (Fob Gknkeal Daily Wokk See Pbogeamme No. 1.) SPECIAL WOEK FOE SATUEDAT. The first thing in the morning, thoroughly clean the range, remove all covers, and with a small brush kept for that purpose, sweep from the top of the oven all ashes, soot, etc. Sometimes there are parts where soot will lodge ; a long-handled iron spoon or short trowel as the case may require, will remove such col- lection better than anything else. Brush off cling- ing soot wherever you may see it ; a turkey or goose wing is better for this purpose than a brush. When all is clean, black the stove or range. If properly kept there will be very little grease about it. A greasy stove should be washed with strong suds in which washing soda is dissolved; do this over night if you have such a stove to clean. Small grease spots simply require a little dry stove blacking in powder sprinkled over them, and then quick brushing to remove them. If the iron is red and there is trouble in making the blacking adhere, use a teaspoonful of molasses or syrup when you mix the blacking. Mix blacking with water to a thin paste, using the syrup if necessary; rub the range all over with it, taking special care to go into corners, etc., then with a stiff brush begin at 114 PB00BE8SIVE HOUSEKEEPING. the dryest part to polish ; the thinner the blacking is put on the better ; brush yigorously till every part is polished ; slow feeble brushing will leave it a dull black, not a bright one. Clean out closets, remove everything from one shelf, lay in clean paper, dust and return each article to its place before beginning another. In this way closet cleaning may be carried on without confusion ; even if you are interrupted in the doing, the kitchen will not be encumbered. When closets are cleansed and re-arranged, ecour the tins and clean all copper and brass articles. TO SCOFE TIKS, COPPEKS, ETC. Wash in hot suds then dip a wet rag in fine sifted coal ashes, scour well and then polish with dry ashes. Coppers if much stained can be cleaned with vinegar and salt, or oxalic acid. Put ten cents' worth of acid in a quart of water and bottle. Label poison in large letters and keep for use. It is a dangerous article, yet very useful to have at hand. Keep it by itself in some place inaccessible to children. Oxalic acid will clean all stains from brass or copper, but they require polishing with a dry powder after- wards. Fine ashes are as good as anything, although there are several inexpensive manufactured articles sold for the purpose which are excellent for coarse kitchen utensils. I mention the use of acid in clean- ing because it is a quick method of removing tarnish, but I would remind you that if stains are once re- moved you will have better results by cleaning with- PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 115 out it, as after its use the brightness so quickly passes off. For articles regularly cleaned, therefore, I prefer the use of kerosene and wood ashes ; if the odor of kerosene is offensive, any cheap oil will answer. Wet a rag in oil, dip it in the ashes and go all over the sur- face of the copper, then dip a dry rag in the dry ashes and polish. Soap and sand may be used to scour tins if preferred to ashes, but must not be used on copper; the sand is too coarse. Clean all the entries, pantries, laundry, etc. Wash the shelves of the safe or larder with hot water and soda or borax ; clean the refrigerator in the same way, going all over the inside ; put fresh pieces of charcoal in the corners ; air if it be possible. Wash out the bread box, stand it in a hot place to dry thoroughly. Wash the finger marks from the kitchen paint, clean windows and sills, scrub the tables, clean up the cel- lar, and when all other work is done, wash or scrub the kitchen floor and stoop or piazza, or whatever may be the outside appurtenances. TO SCEUB. Use plenty of hot water and soap; a small piece of washing soda as large as a hickory nut, or a tea- spoonful of borax in it helps the work. Use the brush always the way of the grain of the wood ; take care to not scrub with the board only just moist- ened; use plenty of water. Rinse off the dirty water and dry by rinsing your cloth through, and wring it two or three times, finally wipe with a coarse dry cloth. 116 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. TO WASH BOAEDS. Follow just the same process with the exception of using the brush. Wet the surface thoroughly first, then rinse the cloth, soap it, and wash the surface ; rinse, not wipe, off this soapy water, rinsing and wringing out the cloth dry as you can and wipe — finally go over with the drying towel. See full direc- tions. Chapter XII. This latter process for those who lack strength, is far better than bad scrubbing; the boards will keep clear and of a good color. TO CLEAH OIL CLOTH OR PAINTED FLOOES. Oil cloth should not have much water used on it ; keep it clear by rinsing the cloth several times. Dry with a drying cloth. If skim milk is plentiful, use it for painted floors or oil cloth in preference to water. CHAPTEE XIII. HOUSEKEEPING ON A liAEGE SCALE— SERVANTS— MAEKET- ING, KITCHEN FAKE, ETC. HITHEETO these papers have been considering chiefly the needs of those housekeepers who either work unassisted, or with one servant. In this paper I propose to discuss management for larger households. The actual work to be done differs only as to its divisions among several hands. The work to be done is the same, and done in the same way, only there is probably much more of it. In a house where three servants are required, there is often as much work on the lower floor alone as in a small house. The division of work is often a difficult mat- ter; for servants who profess to do one kind of work, do not like to share that of any other servant, although their own work may not be sufficient to keep them employed, and the one they are expected to help may be kept very busy. Thus the chambermaid and wait- ress does not like to help the nurse ; the laundress, even if the family washing is all out of the way be- fore Friday, objects to sweep or nurse or wait, and the cook will decline to do anything out of her own province, and yet, unless your family is so large, or you live in such a way as to warrant the employment of a full staff of servants, some such doubling of 118 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. duties must be, therefore when you engage, have a very well defined understanding on the point. Many ladies are vague as to what each maid will be required to do beyond what she may consider her own work, and maids will often engage to do what they really mean to shirk as far as possible. A distinct understanding at first, and an intimation that each servant will be held responsible for the work she has undertaken, is the best way to avoid the an- noyance of disputes between servants later. It is well to have a list of the weekly duties of each servant, which you read to her when engaged ; have a copy of this list for each. If possible, write the list in the order in which you wish the work done. It will be an assistance to the servants, and dispute be impossible between themselves, or any excuse for mis- understanding of orders, only, let everything of this sort be done at the very beginning. Of course you can avoid doing this unpleasantly, and a servant who would take umbrage at what is for her own assistance, is not one who will be worth regretting the loss of, for it will show she lacks sense. DIVISION OF WORK. The division of the work is the question on which many housekeepers are in doubt, and it is very diflB- cult to give rules that will apply to all cases ; the presence of an invalid in the family, the fact that the children are all very young, perhaps an infant, with the one older only able to toddle, or many other things, may cause any given set of rules to be quite PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 119 useless. But every woman must judge for herself whether her house presents any exception to general rules and arrange accordingly. In a family where there is a plain cook, chamber- maid and nurse, the cook will do the family washing; if it is large, the chambermaid should assist while the cook gets the meals, which without being makeshift, should be as simple on that day as possible, but paren- thetically, I will say that many think by having steak or chops and vegetables they are saving the cook ; really a roast Joint is far less hindrance and trouble. Sometimes the chambermaid cooks breakfast and lunch ; this I do not think a good plan. The really better way, if economy is not rigidly necessary, is, if the washing is too much for the cook to do and attend to the meals for that day, to have a woman to assist. This leaves the chambermaid free to do her usual work, and on Monday, as I have elsewhere said, a gen- eral picking up and dusting is advisable ; she will also be as neat as usual to answer the door and wait at table. With the ironing she can assist the cook after her usual work on Tuesday. Of course if you are fortunate enough to find and can afford to pay, a thoroughly good cook, she cannot be expected to do more than her own and the kitchen washing, by which I mean the towels, cloths, dusters, etc. If your table requires the services of an expert cook, she would have no time. But although I fully recog- nize the right of a woman who has really fitted her- self to take a place as an excellent cook (by which I mean that she can make fine soups, entrees, sauces. 130 PB0GBES8IVE HOUSEKEEPING. and pastry without your superintendence) to receive high wages and be exempt from washing, I deprecate such conditions being given, as they often are, to a woman who is really only a better kind of general servant (sometimes not a detter kind). I remember visiting a friend, who said in course of conversation: ^' I believe I'm going to have peace now. I have engaged a first-class cook. I have to pay her $25 a month, but then she knows her work without my going down to oversee everything that is not of the simplest kind. I've been almost worn out. Of course she won^t do the washing, I must put that out, but ril economize in every other way to make up." I- congratulated my friend on her resolve ; she was not strong, and with the table she enjoyed having for her husband, it did not seem to me that the $25 or so a month which the extra wages and washing would cost, was ill spent. The new cook arrived, my friend ordered a simple dinner, — vermicelli soup, breaded cutlets, roast chicken and apple pie. The new cook said, reading the list, *'How do you make the vermicelli soup, ma'am ?" Alas ! for my friend's hopes. However, a recipe was handed to her and she was left to her own de- vices. The soup at dinner was fairly good family soup, not at all clear, with vermicelli broken in it ; evidentlj she did not know how it should have been. The cut- lets were a sorry spectacle ; they had been breaded, but the bread had refused to remain on. The chicken was fairly roasted, and the pie, a good one for a family PBOGEESSIVE HO USEKEEPING. VZ 1 of children ; the crust looked like paper, was about a quarter of an inch thick, hemmed all round the edge and pricked over with a fork. In fact the dinner was just such as a good general servant, or plain cook, at 114 a month would have served. The moral of this little story is that while I would not grudge high wages for good work, I would strongly object to pay them unless I was sure I was not re- warding the self-assertion of an ignorant person. Some time I hope to go into this subject more fully, for I believe very much more of the servant difficulty depends on this point than most people think. With regard to the servants' washing ; unless a laundress forms part of your establishment, when, of course, she will do that of the whole family, the chambermaid and nurse will do their own, each at such times as you may fix for them. The chamber- maid takes care of the children while the nurse washes, and she can iron in the evening. If your children are very young and the nurse takes entire charge, it is better to arrange, when you engage the cook, for her to wash for the nurse, and let the latter do the children's flannels, laces, etc. The chambermaid, of course, takes charge of the whole upper part of the house, waits at table, cleans silver, is responsible for the front steps, door and vestibule, and washes the glass, silver and fine china; the greasy dishes go down to the cook. If an indoor man servant is kept he relieves the chambermaid of many of these duties. He takes charge of the butler's pantry, washing all china and 122 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. glass, cleans silver, waits at table and, if you engage him as waiter, and pay him the wages for a good one, he should be a good carver, able to prepare salads, and understand the service of wines, etc. The chambermaid, relieved of table duties, may be expected to help the nurse, so that she may sew, or you may prefer to leave the nurse to her duties, letting her keep the children's clothes in order, while the baby sleeps, and the chambermaid you may require to keep the house linen in order or assist in some other way. One thing be sure to do. Have everything very clearly defined in your own mind, just what you want done and whom you want to do it, before attempting to arrange with your servants ; any doubt or vague- ness yo7i may have in giving directions, will surely be reflected in their actions. I have heard ladies say, " I can't make such condi- tions before I engage servants ; they would not come to me." This is, I am sure, a mistake. Many ser- vants will agree to more than they intend to carry out, and very few who are worth having would refuse a place because you make your conditions known to them, provided they are reasonable, but if they are engaged without the clear understanding, you very likely will have trouble after ; they will probably look on all they are asked to do outside of their special duties as an imposition. A successful housekeeper of my acquaintance always engaged her three servants with the proviso that they miglit be required to cook, to wash, to wait at table, to do, in short, anything that they were asked; in PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 133 fact she engaged them all as general servants, although she divided the work of her house as other people do. I don't recommend the experiment, I only mention it because she never had more difficulty in finding ser- vants to take her place than other people ; if some refused, others accepted, and more willing servants or a better ordered house I never saw. Of course really expert servants will not engage in this way, but there are very few of them, and they require very high wages, which, if they are what they profess to be, will generally be cheerfully paid. Where the servants are as many or nearly as many as the family, it is more economical to have a separate table ; especially is this the case where the heads of the family like small dishes, such as birds, entrees, etc., etc. But not only is it advisable from the point of economy, but it makes the evening work lighter. The servants have their tea at five or half past five, the cook and waitress then have nothing to do but to wash up after the family dinner, while if they wait until the family have dined before they get their meal, it makes very late work. With an intelligent and obliging cook every one is more comfortable with this arrangement. The most economical and satisfactory way of carry- ing out this plan is for the kitchen dinner to form the family luncheon. This saves cooking two mid-day meals and ensures contentment, for what is good enough for your own eating will not be objected to by your servants, as, with their over^sensitiveness as a class, might be the case. 124 PEOGBESSIVJE HOUSEKEEPING. For those who may not be experienced in this plan of housekeeping, I will give a few bills of fare in- tended to combine the family lunch and servants' din- ner. On days that such viands as corned beef or roast pork are recommended, if there are young child- ren dining, there may be a chop for each provided, a little finely chopped steak made into cakes and broiled, or there may have been some little thing left from your own evening dinner that can be nicely pre- pared. It is in these small things that your good management will be shown. I want to say here that I do not think it right or good economy to buy poor food for the kitchen, but if you have a family of hearty working people to pro- vide for, you will be wise to buy such parts of meat as will cut to the best advantage ; but although for this purpose, what may be called the prime cuts will not be purchased, the meat itself should be of the best quality. Indeed, an inferior joint of fine beef or mutton is better eating than the choicest cuts of inferior meat. Abundance of good, nourishing, palatable food is what those who work require, and no one will hesitate to say that a hearty meal, a well cooked chuck roast, although it may cost only fourteen cents a pound, is better food than the remains of say a pair of chickens or a quarter of young lamb, after serving five or six people up stairs. Yet when the kitchen family is ex- pected to dine after the dining-room, sometimes a very scanty repast remains, not because sufficient money is not expended, but because the viands are of PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 135 an unsuitable kind. I am so anxious not to be mis- understood on this point, not to be supposed to ad- yocate a stinted housekeeping, that I want to make it quite plain that I do not advocate your providing as if for an inferior class of beings, but just as the keeper of a boarding house or large school would provide. I have known ladies sensitive on this point who would say, " I like my servants to live just as well as I do. I give them the same as we eat ourselves," and buy seven or eight pounds of spring chicken for a family of ten, — five up stairs and five down ; the cost would be from $3 to $4, and, at best of times, the kitchen would get a slight meal of a dainty, at which they grumbled, but as this particular family were living in the city, unexpected visitors to lunch were frequent, and then imagine the debris that would go into the kitchen. Granted that there was a little fish or soup besides to eke it out, and vegetables, so that no one need go hungry, the grumbling and dis- content was the same, and the grumblers felt stinted, and yet abundant roast beef or mutton might have been bought for less money. MAEEETINQ. Then your marketing must be according to the sea- son. I would not advise an inexperienced woman to go down to Fulton or Washington market alone to provide for her family, if she lives in New York, but I would suggest that a few lessons in marketing be taken from one of the teachers of cooking who have 136 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. classes for this purpose ; the money expended would be saved over and over again in a very short time. Some gentlemen understand the markets admirably, and when they are willing to send up supplies their wives are very fortunate. To either the housekeeper who has taken lessons, or the fortunate one with a husband skilled in such matters, I would say, watch the market prices and buy accordingly. Sometimes turkeys are as cheap as any other good meat. In spring, lamb, of course, should not be bought for hungry people, but in fall, forequarter of lamb is only twelve cents the pound, and is substantial food without being so fat as mutton. Leg of mutton at fourteen cents is cheaper than forequarter at twelve, because it is all meat. And now, as I shall give in the bills of fare roast pork, let me say a few words about that meat. In this country, where it is the cheapest of all meat, roast pork is often a rarely used and despised dish, except by G-ermans and Irish. In English cities, where pork is the most expensive meat, a loin costing more per pound than sirloin of beef, where pork sausages are twenty-two cents to twenty-four cents a pound, while beef sausages (a favorite dish with Lon- don working people) are twelve cents to sixteen cents, pork is looked upon as a great treat. Is it only be- cause it is cheap here that it is despised? I know many believe it to be unwholesome ; is not this, too, partly prejudice ? There are some people certainly who cannot eat pork, but there are also some to whom PROGRESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 127 Yeal is almost poison. As to its wholesomeness, I think we ought to look at the people who almost live on it — the English agricultural population, the Ger- mans, who in their various sausages eat it in all forms. Where are there healthier people than those English or those Germans ? look at the children who, from the time they are weaned, eat daily such fat pork as would make one shudder to think of ; in English rural districts it is not an occasional, but a steady diet, day after day all the year round. At the road- side, sitting on the mossy banks that flank the fields they are tilling, may be seen laborers with a hunch of bread and a thick slice of pork or of bacon on the top of it, solid fat, and' a '' thumb piece " (a small piece of bread that the thumb rests on), while they cut down through fat and bread with their knives. This, with perhaps a raw onion and a drink of beer, is their daily dinner year in and year out, but do you suppose they know any thing of dyspepsia ? I don't think many of them ever heard the word, and one look at the ruddy skin, the strong frames even of their old people will tell you that. Of course the out- door life makes a difference, but the school children are the rosiest and chubbiest. Take at random any group of these pork fed children and there will not be a sickly one among them. When these girls and boys go to London, as in these days most do, they take places where there is abun- dant fresh meat; fare such as they never dreamed of, and the one thing they crave is their country pork, not that pork is not eaten in London, but it is expen- 128 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. sive, and is not the "pickled*' pork with several inches of fat, they love so well. In the baskets of country women visiting city friends, is always a piece of this pickled pork and sometimes a piece of bacon is packed and brought away in a trunk. To the London working classes, roast leg or loin of pork stuffed, is the next luxury to roast goose, and the working people, if they cannot afford a goose, take pork and sage and onions for a Christmas dinner as the next best thing, roast beef or mutton being the usual Sunday dinner and therefore not a " treat." I suppose there are no hardier, healthier races in the world than the English and Germans, especially the country people ; both are largely pork fed. I should perhaps state that I speak only from ob- servation. I have no scientific knowledge on the sub- ject. Pork takes its place in my family in change with other meats, and we know nothing of dyspepsia, which we might do if the American climate made the use of pork unadvisable. Another thing urged against pork is that the pig is an uncleanly feeder, but no one says this of that dainty bird the chicken. Is there any filth a pig would eat that a chicken would not ? Do not chickens revel in offal ? Can there be a more uncleanly feeder ? If it is the food of the animal that unfits it for use, then the chicken must come under that ban. I know people who tell me they have never eaten fresh roast pork. If there are any among my readers who do not yet know the excellence of roast leg of pork with the crackling neatly scored and crisped, PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 139 stuffed with bread, sage and boiled onions, and eaten with apple sauce, let her buy one, and roast it till it is brown as a chestnut, and perhaps she will thank me for persuading her. Perhaps in her house Mrs. Poy- ser's "stuffed chine" may come to hold a place of honor as a savory joint to have on hand. I have said thus much on the pork question, be- cause I would like to set people thinking on this cheap and good meat and ask themselves how far their dis- like of pork m any other form than ham or bacon comes from knowledge, and how much from prejudice against it as a vulgar dish. It is not, of course, ele- gant, any more than is roast goose, but it is very tooth- some. One word more about it, it must le thorouglily cooked. Half an hour to the pound is not too much to allow. BILLS OF PAEE FOE FAMILY LUNCHEON- AND KITCHEN DINNEE. 1. Eoast beef (second joint rib roast is excellent), mashed turnips, baked potatoes, cottage pudding, foaming sauce. 2. Soup, cold roast beef, canned corn or tomatoes, potatoes mashed and browned (salad for dining-room), pickles down stairs, apple pie. 3. Roast leg of mutton, stewed onions, potatoes browned under meat, rice pudding. 4. Corned beef, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, baked Indian pudding. A little dish of minced mutton with rice border, from the cold mutton makes a nice children's dish. 130 PBOGBESSIVE HOU,SEKEEPING. 5. Soup (made from bones of roast beef and mut- ton witb a ten cent soup bone), cold corned beef (salad for up stairs), pickles or cold slaw, bread pudding, lemon sauce. 6. Roast pork, sweet potatoes, rice, apple sauce, waffles or a boiled pudding. Of course I only give these bills of fare in the way of suggestion. Each housekeeper knows the pecu- liarities of her own family, and can avoid such viands as are objected to. I have given such food as suits the winter months, for which reason I have put salad for up stairs only, as it is in winter costly. However plain this fare may seem for luncheon, I think it will be found preferable to the chops and steaks which are too often depended upon, and which leave no mar- gin for unexpected visitors. With a substantial roast Joint on the table, no one can take you by surprise and you will not be wondering what will be left for down stairs, if you know you have only ordered just about enough chop or steak for the family. And even with a dish of cold meat, a soup and a salad, if all be prettily served (that, of course, you must insist on), the meat cut very thin and garnished, you will not need to blush for your table. . I have in my mind a family of eight, four up stairs and four down. In buying a roast of beef for such a family it is cheaper to buy one of twelve pounds and to cut off the flat end and have it corned, than one of eight and roast it whole. The end piece, corned and pressed, is very nice for kitchen tea or breakfast, while the solid nine pounds or so you have roasted is all PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 131 available meat. If there is only partly enough of any joint for the second day's dinner, it may be made up with fish or Hamburg steak; Hamburg steak is the juicy side of the round steak chopped very fine, all gristle removed, made into cakes an inch thick, highly seasoned and broiled. (If the chopping is done at the butcher's you will be likely to get the veiny side of the round instead of the tender one). Of course you will instruct your cook that she must carve the meat for dinner down stairs just as carefully as it is done up stairs. I have seen a fine sirloin roast leave the dining-room with only the tenderloin eaten, and after the kitchen dinner of four persons, there was nothing but the flap end, the bone and a strew of hacked bits of meat. Each had been allowed to hack a piece off — cutting across the joint and rejecting every morsel but the solid lean. The cook is mistress of the kitchen and should pre- side at the table. If possible a room off the kitchen should be appropriated for the meals, and every proper article provided for comfort. This room cannot always be allowed, but insist that the table be laid properly, and that the cook serve the meals hot and comfortable. Some cooks are very disagreeable on this point ; if they are, you will' surely have discontent among the other servants. KITCHEN BEEAKFAST. Give the cook to understand that cold roast joints are never to be touched the first day, either to make hash or be cut for kitchen breakfast : a nice com- 133 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. fortable woman will save her odds and ends and once or twice a week make a stew or hash, but you may have some such rule as this: Monday — Eggs (if cheap). Tuesday — Fish balls. Wednesday — Sausage. Thursday — Ham or bacon. Friday — Picked up cod. Saturday — Liver. Sunday — Stewed beef kidney. Baked potatoes, or hot cakes or corn bread each morning ; where there is a cow, oatmeal, etc. Of course often the remains of two joints will make hash. On your daily visit to the larder or safe, you will see what remains there are and suggest to your cook such use, if she is not quick at such things. If you interest yourself to see that your servants have the comfort you intend, it will generally ensure it, and if the cook will not take the trouble to make the best use of things for her fellow servants sake, discharge her. Allow for the kitchen a certain amount of tea for the week, assure yourself that it is ample, and then give the cook to understand that it is to last. Let it be of good quality, for a servant's tea is a great com- fort ; without some limit, however, it is one of the things often greatly wasted. As I said, be sure there is no stint in your household, but let it be known that you know exactly how far things should go and that you notice any excess. There seems to be a ten- dency among servants, when they get where there is PROGBESSJVE HOUSEKEEPING. 133 an abundance, to revel in waste, everything is used profusely, and this is especially the case with those who have never known what plenty was. You must therefore, impress them with the knowledge that although you allow plenty, you tolerate no waste. With regard to the kitchen tea. If there has been meat twice before in the day, bread and butter and cheese with baked apples or stewed dried fruit in win- ter, fresh fruit in summer are sufficient. When eggs are cheap, if you choose, they may be used, or the before named pressed boiled beef may be used, or in place of the fruit you may choose to keep a ham or a piece of cold meat (cold stuffed chine) to cut on, the cook of course, cutting it, and seeing that it is properly used. If you are dining out, hot cakes or waffles may be indulged in without interfering with the dinner. I should have stated before that the chambermaid usually prepares the table for tea. A supply of pickles, spiced fruits, etc., should be put up in summer and fall if possible for the kitchen; when it is not done it is well to buy them, giving a bottle out from time to time. Such things do not cost much, and add much to the comfort and content- ment of those who serve you. Of course the costlier imported articles, canned vegetables, etc., are kept for dining-room use ; you give them out as they are wanted. Whatever remains of your evening dinner will not be touched after it leaves the table unless there is some perishable dish you do not wish kept, such as certain jellies or ice-cream, etc. The cook is respon- 134 PB0GBES8IVE HOUSEKEEPING. sible for the meat, the waiter or waitress for fruits, olives, confectionery, etc. It is here that you will find the advantage of the middle day dinner. The children will probably have had tea with the nurse, and if not in bed will only come down to a light dessert. With soup, a little piece of fish, a partridge or chicken or sweetbreads, an entree (if your cook can compass it), salad, cheese, and des- sert, you have a dainty little dinner, and if you have either of the birds named, and there aro only two to dine, you have a salmi or fricassee as entree for next' night, or else a breakfast dish. Also if the fish is not all used, it will serve up with white sauce and chopped eggs, or else can be scalloped; this can be done if only two good tablespoonfuls remain. Having provided excellently for your kitchen, you will have no scruple in ordering everything of this sort to be saved, or in- quiring for it if it does not appear. CHAPTER XIV. HOUSEHOLD ECONOMT. I SPOKE in the last chapter about the advisability of providing substantial fare for the kitchen. Very many shrink from doing this with some sort of feeling that it is mean to do it. Especially is this the case where the housekeeper has for some years of her life perhaps, kept only one servant. Naturally, in such a case the maid lives as the family does — to make a distinction in the food of one person would be more trouble than profit, and therefore not necessary on the score of economy, and yet even here, much de- pends on the servant. A self-respecting young woman who would use our lusuries as we used them, may safely be left to her own discretion, and to help her- self to cake or preserves, or whatever dainties we affect, and ourselves be saved the business, so annoying to a sensitive housekeeper, of laying restrictions. I have known in my experience more servants who did not abuse such freedom than those who Lave abused it ; but when, either from ignorance or greediness, such liberty cannot be given, the line must be firmly drawn even for one. When a can of peaches or choice pre- serves, only one-third or less used in the dining- room, is emptied at one meal in the kitchen, or a pot of jelly, just opened and a spoonful or two used, is seen no more, the cake eaten in place of bread — in 136 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. short, when it is evident Delia makes the luxuries the staple part of her food, she must be, humiliating as it is to do it — "allowanced/' the saucer of preserve ap- portioned, the piece of cake, or the pickles laid aside, and. the remainder put away, or, in the case of rare dainties, the rich pound cake kept only for *^ high- days and holidays," or the candies, macaroons, choice fruit, which the right kind of a girl would understand are to be left unless specially given to her, you must, if you have the wrong girl, put away yourself. Ser- vants in large families know this ; indeed if she did but know it, the one maid in a small cottage, who shares everything with the master and mistress thereof, comes in for more of the good things of life than her compeer in the elegant mansion, where although there may be every comfort, there must be less of the free- dom of home than in a small family. The general servant who will not bear the least rebuke for neglect of duty, from the kind mis- tress of a small house, will work hard and cheer- fully, take fault-finding meekly, and often, if the lady is an over economical manager, fare badly if the house is in Fifth avenue or of similar distinc- tion. Then again with the servants in hotels, there is often, I am told, despite the abundance and the waste of the dinijig-room, a severe economy exercised in the victualing of the large staff of servants who never taste the best quality of anything. This I do not know from personal observation, but I do know that the chambermaids, scrubbing girls, etc., at one first-class hotel where I was staying a few years ago. PBOGBESSIFJE HOUSEKEEPING. 137 had their sleeping quarters in dark airless cubby holes, that in no private family would be considered possible to use as' rooms under any consideration. It made one ill to think of what those closets must have been in hot weather. The mistress of a private family, i| she had to ask her maid to unmake a bed or change the arrangements of a room after the day's work was done, would be full of regret, sometimes a little afraid to tell her necessity, and although Delia may be good natured enough about it for once, she certainly would not like her evenings disturbed a second or third time, although her light daily work will not have fatigued her; but the hotel servant, or indeed those in a large boarding-house, will cheerfully obey the order to make ready three or four rooms just vacated, change mattresses and bedsteads perhaps to other rooms, and this at the end of a day in which every minute has been full of work. How account for these things ? Is it that human nature is meek under the conditions of a hard toilful life, and rebellious under better fortune? It is very curious, and perhaps matter for thought, as explaining the reason why women will be bullied and ground down and defrauded by a firm, or bullied, ill-fed and miserably housed as servants in a hotel, and bear it meekly, who yet would rebel at the mild objurgation of a private employer. When I began this little talk about the peculiarities of servants, I meant to point out that though we may choose to provide the same food for kitchen and din- ing-room with one or two servants, in providing a 138 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING, separate table, if with a larger household it be found desirable, there is no meanness, if the table be one that will better supply the substantial food required for manual work than the lighter fare adapted to se- dentary life. Nor is there any meanness in insisting that due economy shall be exercised. No great busi- ness establishment, hotel, steamboat, or any other requiring the providing of food for a great number of employes, could be properly carried on without such regulations as prevent waste. Before dismissing the servant question, I would be understood as advocating, where means are ample, the employment of sufficient servants to do the work with- out worry to the mistress, and paying for efficiency if it is to be got. Often a woman with wide social duties, a large house and a family with two or three children, will be quite as worried and worn out physi- cally, as another poorer woman with one inadequate servant and several children, who wonders what her wealthier neighbor with three servants can find to do. I will tell her. She has three servants, but she ought perhaps to have four, because the nurse's time is of course required entirely for the children. Her husband, because he can give his wife this beautiful house and servants, naturally expects to have good dinners and very many other things that a poorer man equally well able to enjoy them, knows he must do without. If his wife does her best with his small in- come she can do no more. The seeming more easily placed woman has to supplement perhaps each of her maids, her cook is what has come to be understood as PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 139 *'a plain cook," which means too often that she can make one soup, can put meat in the oven and make a very poor pie or pudding. If more is wanted, if dressing for poultry that shall be something more than a wet pudding, flavored (sometimes not) with pepper, salt and onion, the lady must make it herself, or stand by (far more fatiguing to nerves, although the better plan) while it is being made. She must make any but plain cake, and often to help the cook through, she does even that, pastry too, and any little nicety that may be wanted for dinner she must make. If the chambermq,id is busy she helps her (and if the family consists of six or seven beside servants, the chambermaid will be busy very often), and then the mistress lays the table, dusts the fine things, often sweeps, makes beds — anything to help through, so that each week the work may be done and not allowed to lap over. The nurse does (perhaps) some sewing, the mistress does the rest ; she; too, often thinks that having several servants, she ought not to employ a seamstress except at times of great pressure ; if she is one of the women who like to have dainty surround- ings from children's clothes to the odds and ends about the house, she will find her needle always busy, but in addition to this, just because she is well off, she will have many calls on her time of which her less prosperous neighbor would know nothing. She is asked to do charitable or church work as well as give money, and with many such woman this work is one of the most onerous of duties. Then, because she has a large house, she probably has many visitors, and 140 PBOGRESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. is expected to receive calls and to make them. The lastj however, if systematically done, need not be a severe tax. The receiving, unless she has strength of character enough to have an open afternoon, and ad- here to it, refusing herself to all casual callers, (a very difficult thing to do without giving offence, yet it should not be so) is a great devourer of time. The endeavor to do all these things, and the many others I have not specified, which every woman will know for herself, is what wears this well-to-do fortunate housekeeper out, and sends her to bed at night quite as weary as a woman with one servant or none. Perhaps some will say, *' I can't see it ; I do all these things, I make calls, receive them, make my children's clothes and do church work, and have one servant." And to such a one I reply : Do you also live in a large house, not only are there more rooms, be it remembered, but a large house means — broad corridors, wide stairs, many windows, often large down stairs premises, corridors, laundry, pantries, etc., the surface space of which alone would cover the whole of that in a small house, and every foot has to be kept clean, and then although a woman of small means may do her full share of charitable work, she is is not called upon to help in all sorts of outside direc- tions, as a woman of large means is ; if called upon, it is not her duty as it is that of a wealthier woman to do it, nor can she in her smaller house receive fre- quent staying company, nor would she (at least she ought not) imitate the style of living of the other woman. PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 141 To return to the wearing cares of the mistress of a large household in this country, they surely ought not to be ; the cares incidental to small means, and much to do with them, cannot be avoided ; but the woman of large means surely need not have her time absorbed by supplementing her servants. Probably much of this arises from a mistaken sense of duty. One more ser- vant in her household might make the difference ; she knows it, yet feels because other women with as large houses manage with the three or four, that she ought to do so, but often the employment of a laundress so far relieves both cook and chambermaid, that they each get through the Vork without the mistress's helping hand, or if her time is most consumed at the sewing machine, then oze who will be seamstress and waitress may solve the difficulty in a measure, and think, if you are sufficiently well off to live as I am supposing, how very little the wages will be to you after all. Two hundred dollars a year to a woman who has not a thousand to live on, is a vast sum, but to one who would give it for a gown or sack or one piece of furniture, I say go without one gown or economize some other way to release yourself, your nerves, and your time for your children and husband, and for the sake of a bloomiiig old age. I am far from advocating self-indulgence or idle- ness, but the strenuous, anxious housekeeper, who puts her own hand to everythiiag without actual need to do it, is by no means the b^st one, often because she does so much herself she dannot superintend so Buccessfully as she should. I think it may be taken 143 PB0GBE8SIVE HOUSEKEEPING. as a rule that the housekeeper who goes through- every department of her house daily, who gives her orders for the work to he done, who reads her recipe to her cook, and after once superintending, lets her know that she will be expected to work alone in future, is better served, and the wheels of the domestic machin- ery go better, than when she executes it herself. It is said by many that servants are a necessary evil ; therefore, the more you have of them, the worse you are off. This is not quite so. If you can afford to divide your work so that each servant is responsible only for her own department, and you are willing to pay good wages, you have mor ) chance of obtaining ambitious, well-trained servaots than if you must engage those who are willing xo multiply themselves. We may object to the idea that the woman to whom we pay good wages and give a comfortable home should refuse to take a place where she has to be gen- erally useful, nevertheless object as we may, the fact remains, skilled labor anywhere and everywhere can afford to be independent, and I for one, would not grudge it the right. What I and every other house- keeper ought to object to, is that the half-skilled or quite unskilled servants who absorb our time and too often ruin our health, should either be paid the wages or demand the privileges of the skilled. In this chapter it may not be out of place to say a few words on any subject that touches women's leisure or means of economizing time, although at a first glance that of calls and visiting days may seem to be more appropriate to a book of etiquette. But in fact PBOGEESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 143 the branch of the subject I am about to touch upon, has a Tery important bearing on housekeeping. I allude to the waste of time consumed in receiving calls, and I want to urge every woman who has any but very intimate friends to have an afternoon in the week to receive calls. Many women of wealth and social position have adopted the fashion, perhaps at first because it was a fashion, but there is a great deal more than that to be said in its favor, and it is the busy woman, who has every moment occupied with household duties and yet keeps her hold on social life, who will find it a saving of time and a means of snatching some passing pleasure and repose from what otherwise is an occasional vexation, whom the custom would help most. The advantage of a re- ceiving day is often fully understood, but women who make no social pretension shrink from it for fear of being thought "airy" or aping fashion, but it is Just these women who might look on it as an absolute duty to themselves, and a real kindness to their friends. How many of us know what it is to have an ac- quaintance, who is both agreeable and, would be, welcome, call on us just as we are doing something that we are nervously anxious to finish, or that re- quires our undivided attention ; fortunate if we are not in the middle of some delicate cooking that will spoil by leaving it. There are then but two things to do — ask our visitor right into the kitchen or work room, or leave everything and go to her just as we are; anything is better than to keep her waiting. If we do the first, she will know that she has come just 144 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. at the wrong time, and feel that she is intruding in spite of your assurance that you wish her to stay, and in fact if you go on busily with your occupation you really cannot enjoy her visit, while if you leave every- thing, you will show the marks perhaps of being very busy, and your mind will wander to the oven that was just right, and is now cooling, or the work that you wanted to finish so specially to-day ; in any case, you do not enjoy the visit, and your visitor will feel that you have been very polite, but that she might have chosen a better time. By having a " day " you do away with all this, and you save time. You know the afternoon or evening when your friends will call, and you arrange accord- ingly. You need lose time only for that day ; you will have no exacting work in hand; you will be dressed and ready, and stocking darning or small mending, although not parlor work, may be left to pick up and can be put away without mental anxiety when visitors arrive. If you have made it known that you have given up this day, (and you can pleas- antly also give your reasons) you may have several calls at one time, while otherwise each would have come separately and separately taken your time. Your callers will probably enjoy meeting each other, and you, with your mind quite free, will be at your best. The objections to this reception day do not compare with its advantages. They are, first, that it is some- times impossible to foresee what we may have to do ; that the very day we have agreed to stay at home is PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 145 the one on which it will seem almost necessary to go out. Second, that although we have a day, no one comes that day, but on every one but that, so we sacrifice the day in vain. To the first, the only answer is that we can have no great advantage without some drawback, that you can to a certain extent avoid trouble by carefully consid- ering the matter before choosing your day, think over everything that is for and against it. In cities, one of the things to be avoided, as far as possible, is select- ing a day on which many of our friends themselves re- ceive. To the second objection I would say, if it is known that you devote one afternoon to receiving your friends, nothing but the most urgent necessity could justify any one in calling at any other time. To do this is a positive rudeness. I have known women not otherwise ill-bred to say : " I know it is not your day, but I so seldom come to this neighborhood I thought I might venture, etc." The lady has not intended to be rude, but it is rude, for if any one comes with real desire to see you, they will even to their own incon- venience, come when they know you are at home ; if they come at another time, it argues that they do not care to see you, but simply to discharge a social duty; this can be done equally well by any one, on merely formal footing, by leaving a card without disturbing you. If there is some urgent object or reason to ask you to receive a call, it should be written on the card, sent in, and if this is not done, no thinking woman should take ofEense by your excusing yourself. At present it is only in large cities, and there by well- 14:6 PEOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. bred people, that the importance of respecting the re- ception day, in other words, the most precious thing we have — our leisure, is recognized. In places where it is not the general custom, many women try to have "a day," and because for a few weeks, no one or few come on it, and they do come on other days, they be- come discouraged, disregard their day, go out upon it, or if callers come are obviously unready to re- ceive them. If you tell your acquaintance that you have a day, you are bound as a lady to be at home; it is one of the excuses of people who do not observe "days," that it's no use putting themselves out to do so, for " Mrs. So and So is always out on her day," they hav- ing called once perhaps and found her so, but even once should not have happened. If you do not ob- serve your own rule, no one else will. If some im- perative reason calls you out, ask some lady to receive for you ; she will explain. Those of your callers who have walked will rest and get cool, or warm, as the season may be. There is another aspect under which you may look at this question, even, if (as some will say) you have not a sufficiently large circle to justify a receiving day. If you have only three or four occa- sional visitors, it will be a kindness for you to let them know there is a certain hour and day when you will be found at home. How often we come in and find some one we would so gladly have seen has called in our absence, perhaps some elderly or weak person, who has taken a long walk and consequently needed rest. PEOGBESSIVE EOUSEKEEPING. 147 I hope I have said enough to make some of my readers think over this question seriously, not as an affectation or fashion, but as a means of avoiding one of the smaller worries. It is worry, not work that wears, and I really believe small worries are more in- jurious in the long run than real trouble ; such as we by firmness can remove from our lives, it is our duty to do. No one woman can do much perhaps to change an existing state of things, but if no one woman ever began any social movement, how little would be done! I have spoken thus far of the setting apart of two or three hours of each week or each two weeks to see callers instead of giving up odd hours all through the week, as one means of saving time and worry, and tried to show that instead of it being a fashionable affectation it is more advisable for the woman who is not fashionable, but a busy housewife, most advisable of all to the one ''who does her own work," if she has any social leaning. JSTow I will say a few words of the custom in its social aspect. It is somewhat a growing fashion in the city to make the weekly reception a sort of informal festivity; this, if very simply done, is a pleasant social custom ; if merely a cup of tea and thin bread and butter with perhaps one sort of cake is offered in winter, or water ice in summer with wafers, there is nothing to be said against such a mode of hospitality, but if there is to be a variety of cakes, confectioneries, etc., anything that involves much expense or time, the ''five o'clock tea " loses its original character and becomes a formal reception. 148 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. To have five o'clock tea weekly, if we have a num- ber of friends dropping in, is a kindly and gracious custom. The tea is always made by the lady on the table and handed by her to her guests if there are no gentlemen to carry it (a servant should not be employed in the matter), the tea equipage consist- ing of a tray covered with a pretty cloth, with small cups and saucers, cream, sugar, slop bowl, the tea- pot covered with a cosey, and very thin bread and butter on plates. The tray is set on a table and the tea made. This is the English fashion. You may however prefer to use a table on which is the cloth without a tray ; in this case the tea is not brought in but arranged ready for callers. Tea is made by the lady in the following way : The tea-pot has a little hot water in it when brought in ; this must be poured out into the slop bowl and tea put in it according to the number you may require it for ; three tea- spoonfuls make a pint of tea, the cups used run three to the half pint. A quart of tea therefore will serve eight or nine, and allow for a second cup, which is rarely asked for. Of course, you must gauge your tea-pot, know how much it holds, and pour the water accordingly. When you put the tea in the pot light the alcohol kettle which should have had boiling water in it, and when it boils pour on to the tea about a third of the water you intend to use, put the cosey over it and let it steep seven minutes, add the rest of the water, cover again and use as needed ; or, you may if you prefer, pour on all the water at once. It is easier and less formal to say to PBOGRESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 149 each guest after a few minutes' conversation, " Shall I give you some tea ? " or its equivalent, and to give it at once, than to wait to a certain time and hand it to every one at once. With the tea cosey the tea keeps hot a long time, but if people straggle in, pr for any late comer, fresh should be made. A friendly, nice way, is to have a bright kettle on an open fire and make tea from that when boiling, in the good old- fashioned way. • CHAPTER XV. ECONOMICAL BUYING, I HAD chiefly in mind in the last chapter a class of women who perhaps may form but a small minority of my readers, namely, those who have large households and easy means, but there are others who have large households simply because they have a large house, and must have the servants to keep it clean, but who nevertheless need to be very economi- cal. To these and those who have to provide for boarders or large numbers in any way, I would sug- gest the buying of many things in large quantities as a much better way of economizing than cutting down supplies or buying inferior ones. Butter may be bought by the pail in October, generally at 25 cents a pound, eggs in September are 20 cents or less, cases of assorted canned goods are much cheaper than by the single can, and there are many other things which it will be well worth while for those who need to be economical to inquire about. Of course, if you buy in bulk you will have to watch the consumption ; it is quite a common thing to hear the mistress of a house say, ''I like to buy in large quantities, but if I get a pail of butter it goes like magic, and a barrel of apples lasts no longer than half a bushel." Of course, a barrel of apples open to every passing hand will go PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPINQ, 151 if it is not in the store-room ; they will be eaten, not because they are needed, but just '" for fun ; " and as apples always seem, free plunder, two or three will go out of the house in every pocket perhaps, without any idea of pilfering. Such stores should be under your own charge, or that of some one deputed by you, and given as required for use ; the butter also. With re- gard to butter, to keep it sweet, it requires.-such care that you will do well, aside from being able to know how it is used, to allow no one to handle it but your- self or your deputy ; if left uncovered or taken out with a soiled or warm spoon or ladle, it will be in- jured. Eggs may be preserved for winter use, either in lime water or in common dry salt, and be as fresh as those for which you will pay 35 to. 40 cents the dozen at Christmas. If you have a cool cellar or outhouse, you will do well in winter to buy half a sheep at a time, or even a whole one ; there is a good deal of fat on it, but it is valuable. You will not pay for the whole sheep more than twelve cents a pound and the waste is very small. The head, well cleaned, makes excellent broth; the scrag, although few people know it, is the most ten- der and finely flavored part for boiling, although it does not make a sightly dish ; it should be gently boiled twenty minutes to each pound, with a turnip, carrot and onion in the water, and a scant teaspoonf ul of salt to each quart ; the water only just to cover the meat. Serve it smothered in parsley or caper sauce. The broth may have the yolks of two eggs and a teaspoonful of finely chopped parsley beaten 162 PBOGEESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. into it just before serving, or a little rice or pearl bar- ley may have been boiled in it with the meat. Mut- ton broth prepared thus is delicious. This part of mutton, too, makes that excellent Scotch dish, hotch-potch. The breast is the least manageable part of the animal, and yet two or three excellent dishes can be made from it ; if you will put it in water and let it boil slowly so as to extract the greater part of the fat, what will remain after three hours simmering will be marrowy and delicious; the bones may then be slipped out and a veal or other forcemeat laid in it, then rolled and roasted, or it may be made into excellent curry. All the fat should be saved and tried out ; keep one nice large jar of the finest for seething and pouring hot over preserves, potted meats, etc. The rest will make excellent hard soap. It is needless to say, I suppose, that the longer mut- ton is hung in cold weather, the finer it is. If you have any man about you who understands cutting up meat, it is well to leave it hanging whole in a current of pure air, but otherwise pay a butcher's man a trifle to cut it up for you and then hang the parts ; remem- ber, the head, neck, and forequarter, generally keep less well than the hindquarter. Wherever the meat has been cut, dredge flour until it forma a dry cover- ing ; remove the pith from the whole length of the back bone. If a thaw comes on suddenly, and a warm spell sets in while you have much on hand, it is un- fortunate, but the meat can be saved ; it is well, how- ever, to avoid purchasing largely after long-continued PBOGRESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 153 frost. Of course, the usual winter thaws which last for a day or so, will not affect your meat much, but it is well to examine it, without bringing it into a warm temperature. If it is oozing at any spot, yet smells sweet, simply dredge more flour. If you fear that it is in danger, make the fat you have tried out boiling hot in some large vessel, a deep milk pan will do, then seethe the joints in this fat for a minute or two, one at a time, take each out, do not lay it down, but hang it quickly, just as it is, in a cold place ; the fat will chill on it and form a sort of air proof cas- ing, which can be scraped ofE when required for use. Some parts, such as have many crevices, may be bet- ter half cooked, but for the legs, hind loin, or any solid compact meat, in fact, this is far the better method. Meat that has hung long must be carefully scraped and washed off with vinegar and water, as the outer skin will have acquired a stale taste. I have known - an epicure to keep legs of mutton two months by care and watching, and at the end of the time the outer skin would be covered with blue mould ; this was skinned off as thin as possible, then the leg dredged with flour and roasted, and certainly it was tender as meat could possibly be, and the flavor very fine. In buying mutton for economy, do not choose it too fat, and give the preference to that with the smallest shank bone. Beef bills will also be much cheaper if the beef is bought by the quarter. The hindquarter usually costs from 13 cents to 14 cents per pound ; the f orequarter 154 PBOGRESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. several cents less ; altliougli in the forequarter there are some good steaks and a few pounds of fair roast, it is more fit for families where a la mode beef, stewed beef, and much soup is required. For this reason it may be profitably bought for large boarding-houses which consume a great deal of meat for these pur- poses ; but private families will do better to pay a little more for the hindquarter ; all the best cuts are in this, and what are not required for roasts and steaks can be corned ; the leg will be used for soup, and the fat (not suet) tried out for dripping, which is the next best thing to butter for all cooking purposes. The suet may be freed from skin and veins, chopped very fine and put into paper bags with a little dry flour. It will keep months in a dry cool place. CHAPTER XVI. WITH the fast approaching spring days will come a change in our way of liying. If we are wise, on warm "Spring feverish" days we shall abandon a part of our strong meat diet and substitute vegetables — cereals, eggs, salads and fruits when they come. If city people who have bought meat for breakfast during winter, and feel they can- not afford cream, would drop the meat and take cream in its stead, using it with oatmeal, hominy or mush, they would be quite as well nourished, and better pre- pared to meet the warm languid days which spring often brings us . The foregoing paragraph, however, has been writ- ten rather as a reminder of the changes that nature requires than because I intend to enter into dietetic matters. Before us lies the necessary but uninterest- ing matter of housecleaning. There are very good housekeepers who say they have no housecleaning, that the house should be always clean. That is quite true, but, unless you are very severe to yourself and are quite certain you never store away what is useless, that you have the time, if you do your own work, the faithful service, if you do not to clean every nook and corner, I think the twice-yearly housecleaning is a good thing. There is one housekeeper I know of, who prides herself on 156 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. never having a housecleaning time, but I think even those who groan in spirit over the semi-annual upturn- ings, would not envy this family, for the houseclean- ing is going on more or less all the time. She says she takes up carpets when they require it ; I do not believe it is oftener than twice a year, but it always seems that one or another room is in a dismantled condition. I know of others who deprecate housecleaning because life is not long enough to worry over it. If things are really not dirty, what matter if the dust has ac- cumulated in remote corners, it is only dust, innocu- ous, odorless dust. Suppose the carpet swept weekly with tea leaves from year's end to year's end should have a thick layer of it underneath, and is going to wear out in less time, this philosophical housewife — no, housewife is not the term, philosopher is better, said, "reckon the two or three dollars a year it costs to shake it, the wear and tear of the process, and I don't believe I lose more than that by leaving it down three years." Now, this family were cultivated people of refined habits, industrious, and by no means dirty, as might be expected, nor did their house present any appearance of neglect ; on the contrary, I have known houses were dust was relentlessly pursued which were much less neat in appearance, but it did lack bright- ness and freshness, even abundant and beautiful flow- ers could not give that; nothing reflected a cheery light. Do not many housekeepers know that before housecleaning begins nothing seems soiled ? One weary with many tasks may even ask if it can be necessary, and yet after it is over, she will see the PB0GBES8IVE HOUSEKEEPING. 157 difference ; the light will play on gleaming surfaces, the whole house seems brighter, more airy, and cheer- ful. Therefore, I say, let us have the housecleaning when possible, but let us not worry or fret if sickness at the season, or the pressure of other work or care makes it impossible. But when we clean house, let it be done with as little general discomfort as possible. Closets may be emptied of contents one at a time on spring days before fires have quite ceased; all parcels, if parcels there be, opened, aired ; the con- tents, if we wish to keep them, may be repacked and labeled, the shelves washed down and sprinkled with powdered borax, and the packages replaced ; this will very much simplify the housecleaning when it comes. It often happens that garments. we have put away to make over in fall, we may decide not to use but give them away. Apropos of old garments to be made over, it saves space and time to get them ready to be- gin work apon before packing away, and besides if a garment is put away soiled, just as you leave it off, it will look much worse when you take it out ; every spot and stain will show doubly, and the ripping be twice as disagreeable ; old housekeepers do not need to be told this, but inexperienced ones may. To such, I recommend that they rip, brush, sponge, and press all goods before laying away. They thus get rid of the dirt and dust, and parts too worn to be of service. Perhaps a few directions for renovating certain articles may be of service to those about to put away winter things. Black silk may be sponged with a de- coction of soap bark and water if very dirty, and 158 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. hung out to dry, or if only creased and needing to be freshened, weak borax water or alcohol, and where possible, it is better pressed by laying pieces smoothly and pressing them through the clothes wringer screwed very tight. If you must iron, do it after the silk is dry, between two damp pieces of muslin ; the upper one may better be Swiss, that you may see what you are doing through it. This is a little more trouble than ironing the wrong side of silk, but you will be repaid ; the hot iron gives the silk a paper-like feel- ing ; above all, never iron silk wet, or even very damp. Satin may be cleaned by sponging lengthivise — never across the width — with benzine, if greasy, or alcohol, or borax water ; this will not be injured by direct con- tact with iron ; press on the wrong side. Black cloth may be sponged with ammonia and water, an ounce of rock ammonia to a wine bottle of water, or liquid household ammonia, diluted very much, may be used. Black cashmere may be washed in borax water, and so indeed, may navy blue. It should be rubbed only between the hands, not on a board, and the water only pressed, not twisted out; each width folded in four as smoothly as possible, and wrung through the wringer, then opened and hung up to dry is the best way. Cashmere so treated, if it is good quality, will look like new. Pongee silk is supposed by many never to look so well after washing ; but if properly treated, it may be made up again with new added, and the difference cannot be seen. But as usually washed, it is several shades darker, and sometimes has a stiffness to it, PROGRESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 159 althougli it may not have been starched; this change of color and stiffness is due to its being ironed wet. Again a pongee dress will come from the laundress covered with dark spots ; this is where it has been allowed to dry and then been " sprinkled down ; " the sprinkling shows. The remedy is simply to put it again in water, dry it and iron it when quite dry. Pongee requires no more care in washing than a white garment ; it will bear hard rubbing if necessary, but it must not be boiled or scalded. Treat it about as you would flannel; let it get quite dry, and if you use a quite hot iron, not hot enough to singe of course, all the creases will come out, and the silk will look like new. The reason it darkens it to iron it wet, is this : If it were put into boiling water the silk would darken as flannel would. If you put a hot iron on the damp silk you convert what water remains in it into boiling water; it is thus scalded. A silk which has changed color in the wash may be partly restored by washing again. Parenthetically, I may remark that this iron- ing them wet is the reason gentlemen's white silk handkerchiefs become yellow with washing. While looking over the linen closet preparatory to housecleaning, notice what sheets are wearing thin in the middle and require turning. When cotton sheets become so it is hardly worth while in these days of precious time and cheap muslin to turn them. It is better to lay aside those that will not stand much more washing and keep them for sickness or times when frequent changes are required. This is a better way than to reserve strong new sheets for occasional use. 160 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. and wear the old ones to rags. After closets, bureau drawers may hare the same leisurely going over in- stead of leaving them until housecleaning is in full career. If this is done, and only one room thoroughly cleaned at a time, housecleaning need not be the ter- ror it is. It may take two weeks instead of one if you have ten or twelve rooms, and only try to get one done in a short day, which is usually easy enough to do if there are two working. Although we know there are many women who do work entirely alone, it is very hard, indeed, for one woman to take down bed- steads and shake carpets, and move heavy furniture, not to speak of taking down and moving stoves ; yet, I have known women do all this and more, but to some it would be physically impossible, and many who do it ought not to do it ; they may suffer all the latter part of their lives from abuse of the inexhaustible energy which leads them to overtax themselves. To women so situated and so constituted, I would give the advice which I fear they will not, perhaps cannot, follow. Cultivate a wholesome habit of negligence, it is better the stove remain up all summer if heavy than you should move it ; better a dusty carpet for a few months than that you should lay up for yourself an early old age. Not that housework, scrubbing, clean- ing, even beyond what is looked upon as a woman^s limit is hurtful, if not carried beyond your strength; if you can trust yourself to cease when you are really and heartily tired, when rest is refreshment; but too many women work just to finish this or that, long after fatigue has set in. Their bodies may not feel PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 161 much more tired than they were an hour or two ear- lier, but instead of cheerful physical fatigue, when it is real comfort to sit down and rest, and laugh and talk perhaps, or read something pleasant ; instead of this good feeling, has come nervous fatigue, a very different matter, the least word irritates us, and when we finally cease, it is not to rest with cheerful talk or reading and a delicious sense of work done and repose earned, but we sink down too tired to rest, feeling worn out, ill, and ready to cry rather than laugh. We may get over once, such abuse as this, or two or three times, but by degrees this nervous irritability will be- come, not a rare experience consequent on rare fatigue, but will follow even very little exertion, and the re- sult will be, the shattered, pallid woman faded and worn out long before life's prime, and probably the time will then have come for her, when she not only is not able to do very much, but she is unable to re- frain from trying to do. Therefore, I say, if the work that seems so necessary causes more than a healthy fatigue, let it go. Keep the house " broom clean ; " do just what must be done and reserve your nerves for your husband and children ; it is your duty. If you do your own washing, since cleanliness is next to godliness, and it must be done, use every labor-saving article within your reach ; iron only the necessary. Use the wringer as a mangle ; when sheets and towels and undergarments are dry and smoothly folded, run them through the wringer instead of ironing them ; they will be just as wholesome and your back will be saved. 162 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. I repeat, this advice is only to the over-burdened ; to the strong, energetic woman whose washing, ironing and churning leave her, only muscle weary, but full of vitality and ready to welcome fresh work next day, I can only say " good speed." Your work benefits you, as a course of athletics would. The youngest woman of her age that I know, pretty and bright, and full of the enjoyment of life in spite of several grand- children, tells me she had six children, no servant till they were all out of hand, and she did her own white- washing, painting and wall papering, but she was never unwise enough to work in a hurry ; she had much to do, but she did not worry to do it all in a given time ; and then again, although she is a small woman, she must have enjoyed perfect health and an equable temperament. Now that I have said enough I hope, to show my readers that I do not look upon it as every woman's duty to do all the work I shall indicate for house- cleaning ; I shall proceed to tell what — when there are hands to do it — is advisable to have done once or twice a year. That plan of housecleaning is best, I think, which begins with the bedrooms, getting, un- less there is an unusual reason for not doing it, one room furnished and comfortable, before another is upset, then coming down to the lower rooms, and then the garret, kitchen and cellar last of all. My reason for putting the garret or lumber room after lower rooms, is because in the process of turning out and cleaning below, many things may be relegated to the garret, and if it has already been gone over, there PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 163 ■will needs be some time again spent there to arrange the fresh consignments. I will say here what I have to suggest about the garret, because in spite of my own view, many will cling to the old practice and pre- fer to go literally from ''garret to cellar." The most difficult part, I think, in the tidying of the garret, is not the cleaning ; that I will not enter into as the directions given for bedrooms can be modi- fied to suit the garrets. Some are simply unfinished lumber rooms, and all you can do is to sweep the dust and cobwebs off the walls and floor and then mop the latter. Other garrets are to all intents and purposes excellent rooms, and will be cleaned as such. No, the true difficulty is in arranging the articles stored in the garret so that they can be immediately found. The first thing I would counsel, is to get rid of articles you do not need ; all pieces of worn out garments, anything that we may not have been sure about last cleaning, but now we know we shall never use ; put these things from the piece bag to the rag bag, which can be emptied the first time the junkman comes round ; in going over trunks every parcel should be opened, contents noted, marked in pencil (or still bet- ter, with a " stylo," for ink will not rub) on a slip of paper and fastened to it. How much time this label- ing saves, every woman can tell who has hunted through a dozen parcels to find a piece of silk or velvet, she well knows is with some package of pieces. Many classify articles stowed away, as all colored woolens in one parcel tied with a piece of the goods to indicate contents ; all black woolens another package, one of 164: PBOGEESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. silks, etc. ; but so many things defy ns to class them, they seem to belong nowhere, and we would gladly get rid of them, but are sure we should some day, for ourselves or others, be glad to run to the garret and get them. A great assistance is a large wall bag which to a housekeeper, is what a desk full of pigeon-holes is to the business man. I will describe this ''housekeep- er's friend " for those who may not have seen one. It is a large piece of strong gray drilling with a dozen (or more or less) pockets sewed on, three rows of four pockets, or four rows of three according as you have a long or broad wall space on which to hang it. These pockets are from six inches deep and five broad to twelve by ten, according to the stowing room you re- quire. They are stitched on and on each is written in large plain letters with ink the contents ; for instance buttons, tapes, ribbons, braids, curtain rings, etc. ; in short, all the articles that may be too useful to throw away, yet because they are not new or seldom used, may not find a place in the work basket. Ribbons a little soiled, just the thing to line or bind or strengthen some article, tapes still strong, or buttons from a gar- ment old-fashioned but sure to come in again, odd buttons too, that only encumber the regular button box. All the odds and ends we may think it a sort of a duty to keep, if we have a thrifty soul, yet which are a nuisance if we constantly come across them, may find appropriate homes in these bags. When all boxes, packages, etc., have been gone over, the clean- ing may be done according to the kind of room the PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 165 garret is, the one thing necessary always being, that it shall be made free from dust, and so far as possible the danger of insect breeding lessened. In what I am about to say of spring cleaning, it will be remembered that I mean turning out one room at a time, and getting everything back in its place before another is displaced ; when the closets and bureaus are already clean this is very quickly done, (unless your bedstead requires special attention, which I hope may not be the case.) It is not the actual cleaning that takes long, but the small preparations for it. The first step is to get rid of the stove, take away the ashes, beat the soot out of the pipes and stow away in a dry place till fall ; then, if you have a piazza roof or other convenience, put the mattress out of the window to air and to be beaten ; if not, put it wher- ever you may have space. Take off the spring, ex- amine it thoroughly, dust every part, (an old tooth brush or duck wing will go into crevices), put this out of the room ; then take the bedstead down. If you are free from parasites, dust every crevice and put the different parts outside the room door. If you are not free from bed-bugs, and there may be circumstances which will make it difficult to keep free, you need to pay special attention to your bedstead. Sometimes during a summer, bed-bugs are brought into the house by visitors, travelers, etc., and when one re- members that one female is enough to populate a room, and that some houses so swarm with them that they are on the clothes of all who leave it, it is far more remarkable that we escape the infliction than 166 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. that we have it, considering how many people of all kinds we jostle in our out-door life. If then you have been unfortunate enough to have had bed-bugs brought to you, of which you hope you are rid, nevertheless, it will be well to act as if some- thing might certainly be lurking in some crevice in- visible to your eye. Provide yourself with a cent's worth of white lead and some sublimate of mercury (or in default of that, some strong yellow soap and kerosene), a feather, and a machine oil can or glass syringe ; dip the feather in the sublimate, insert it in every crevice, brush over all larger surfaces, such as ends of the slats, places where they rest, etc.; put into the oil can, or syringe, a little of the sublimate, and inject it into all worm-holes or cavities where eggs may have been deposited, then with the white lead and an old knife, fill up every accidental crack or crevice, remembering the loathsome insect loves to deposit eggs in cracks of the slat, in the crevices around knots, and where splinters have broken ofE, If your white lead is hard, moisten with oil, then plug up holes, cracks, abrasions, worm-holes, and make smooth surfaces with it, wherever the wood is rough. It will spread like putty. (Use soap just in the same way, and the kerosene as you do the sublimate.) In fact, it is better not to wait for the appearance of vermin to do this, but to go over a new bedstead in the same way, especially if it is an expensive one. If you do not like the appearance of such white filling, any paint store where you buy the white lead will color it to match the wood. Persian insect powder is harm- PBOGBESSIVE BOUSEEEEPING. 167 less and excellent, but not so powerful as the subli- mate. Even if you should find traces in your bedstead of the presence of the enemy, but to no great extent, these precautions, applied, of course, just as thoroughly to the spring mattress, will suflBce to rid you of them, but for months it will be well to take off the spring every week, remove the slats and carefully examine the bedstead. If, however, you are unfortunate enough to have your rooms infested or even your bed- stead, and you wish to be permanently rid of them, you must take much stronger measures ; and as such a task would necessitate two or three days' work, I will not just here interrupt the housecleaning proceed- ings to describe it, but will return to the subject later. When the bedstead has been put outside, draw tacks, take up the carpet and put it in the yard or wherever it is to be beaten. Throw wet paper, tea leaves or sawdust on the floor and then sweep it ; brush off the skirting board, tops of doors and win- dows, and then brush down the walls. If the paper is handsome and of fine quality and there are grease spots, it may be cleaned by laying over them a paste made of magnesia and benzine. A shabby paper may also be improved by rubbing with stale bread, although I think I should prefer, as an easier task, to paper the room afresh with some low-priced, artistic paper. It is a good plan once a year to go round each room and hall, and, wherever paper has been jagged or dis- figured, lay little pieces on it matching the pattern ex- actly. For small surfaces the mucilage bottle is all that is required to make the repairs. When the dam- 168 PBOGEESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. age is more serious, paste may be made for the pnr- pose in the following way : Mix one tablespoonf ul of flour with a little cold water, pour to it half a pint of boiling water, stirring as you pour, — in fact just make it us you would starch, then boil two or three minutes. The task of repairing paper, however, had better be done before the cleaning day. On that day you want to have as little hindrance as possible from small things. When the dust is all removed clean the paint. In doing this, if it is white or very light, use only a wet flannel smeared with whitening — no soap ; otherwise use good soap, and change the water very often ; clean up and down as the painter's brush has gone, wash off the soapy lather with the flannel wrung through the water, then ivipe with a dry cloth. Wiping dry and using clean water will prevent the smeary look that is sometimes seen on pamt. In washing the floor use strong borax water, and if you have buffalo moths sprinkle the floor freely with powdered borax or powdered alum. As all bedrooms require about the same process, and dining and draw- ing rooms differ only in having cabinets or sideboard to be thoroughly cleaned instead of the bedstead, I will not repeat processes, but speak of matters which, although not necessarily belonging to housecleaning yet as the cleaning is often the season for changing the appearance of rooms, will come in appropriately. After the winter's wear, hard- wood floors look much better for a coat of shellac varnish, *'or hard oil fin- ish" applied with a soft varnish brush. This can PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING, 169 easily be done by any lady herself at the expense of a back ache, but the economy of doing this one's self is considerable, and the work is Avell repaid by the result. A large carpet worn shabby in parts will often make an excellent rug ; if the floor is well stained, the room will have a better appearance than when fully carpeted. I have spoken of preparing a floor staining, in a former chapter, and if for a par- lor, — unless the pine floor is much better laid than usual, — the carpenter's services to smooth off and fill in the spaces will be necessary; but bed-rooms may be easily stained by any amateur, and, unless cracks are very wide, the filling may be dispensed with. I pre- fer for stain to buy a box of burnt umber (30 cents) and a quart or two quarts of turpentine, to purchas- ing the prepared stains. It is a little cheaper, for one reason, but my chief one is that the prepared stain is often very black. I think the stain is prettier if the grain of the pine shows through it, and for it to do this the stain must be very thin, not darker than black walnut. You require a broad brush, an old tin can of small size, or gallipot not very deep, and a piece of board — the lid of a starch box will do, it is only to try the color. Now open the umber, take out a small quan- tity with your brush — it is a thick, blackish paste — put in this vessel you have provided and pour turpen- tine on it, a little at a time, stirring and trying the color till you have it right. (It is better too light than too dark. The last shows dust and does not imitate any wood in use for hard floors.) You had 170 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. better not mix more than a pint or less at a time, as the turpentine evaporates so fast ; and each time you mix be sure you get about the color of the first. If by chance or imperfect mixing one spot is darker than the other, go over it before it dries with clear turpen- tine. The stain dries quickly, but you had better paint yourself out of the room and not tread on it for a few hours. It is sometimes recommended simply to oil the sur- face after staining and to wash with oil and water, but this is a great mistake ; it will look well for a time, but the pine is so absorbent that the oil sinks in and soon becomes gummy. At this stage no amount of washing will make it look clean ; the dirt sticks to the old oil, and there is nothing to do but cover the floor up or have it planed. If after stain- ing you go over it with a coat of shellac varnish, this will fill up the pores of the wood so that none of the cleaning oil or water will be absorbed. Oil will not be needed in the water for a long time if the water it is washed with is always clear, and the floor is well swept before the washing is done. The foregoing is the simplest kind of staining, but a much better effect may be produced by having a border. This may be one or two bands of light oak. To do this draw lines with a carpenter's pencil, on the floor, round the room. An easy way is to lay a bed-slat on the floor about four inches from the skirt- ing board and draw a line each side of it. The width is just about right for the band. Of course you go round the room with it. If you want a second band, PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 171 leave a space an inch or so wider than the slat and mark as before. If measuring and marking by a car- penter's rule seems easier than the slat, do it that way. At the corners of the room you may lay your rule or slat diagonally from band to band, or, have any parquet design you please. You will use the dark stain for the strip between the skirting board and the first penciled line. Be very careful not to go over it ; if you should do so, wipe off the stain with a rag and turpentine, then stain dark the space between the two penciled bands, then the center of the room. When the dark stain is dry, stain the bands and corner designs with light oak stain, which can be bought by that name. Be very careful to keep within the lines, for the sharper these bands are defined, the better your work. If you have an accident and encroach on the dark stain, you can wash it ofi with turpentine, but this will leave a blur- red appearance. The shellac varnish must be applied over all when dry. In using shellac, work quickly, as it hardens rapidly, and if slowly done the coat may be uneven. The servant's room will require your personal at- tention before the bedroom cleaning is done, and if you suspect it to contain vermin, I advise it to be the first room cleaned, for obvious reasons. It seems rather hard that one should have to give personal at- tention to the servant's bedstead, but in self-defense it is imperative. She may be excellent and cleanly in all ways, yet in the homes of her friends, the lodg- ings she uses when out of place, bed-bugs swarm. 172 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. You will tell her to examine her bedstead, and slie will do so to the best of her ability ; but unless they have been more neglected than is probable with any reader of these papers, that is, unless bed-bugs are visible in corners of the mattress and on the ends of slats, she will certainly not see them. The fact is she does not know hotv to look; she does not dream of probing and searching, so when she has removed a few slats and found nothing, she thinks further search useless ; or she may tell you : " There was hardly anything, but I gave the bedstead a good washing," etc., etc. If you are fortunate enough to have old, tried and experienced servants, you may be able to spare your- self the disgusting task which so many ladies have to perform, not once but many times, — a task all the more disagreeable if the servant is of the better, self- respecting kind, and whose privacy we are able and anxious to respect; I take it that no well-bred woman likes to intrude in her servant's bedroom, unless she finds she cannot be trusted to keep it clean. As I wish here to give some directions for thoroughly cleansing an infested room, I will assume that the ser- vant's bedstead requires strong measures, and, if that is the case, the walls require attention too. Let me say here that this task no housekeeper can avoid doing personally except at the expense of the whole house being troubled, unless she employs a man who makes such business a specialty. Most painters will know of one. Of course you will not have paper on the walls of the room ; hard finish is best. This should be ex- PROGRESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 173 amined, and every crack and crevice or nail hole filled up with plaster of Paris mixed to paste with water. It hardens almost at once, so do not mix until about to use. All round the skirting board should be in- jected with kerosene ; wherever there are crevices near the bed, these filled with plaster of Paris. This filling up all openings, however small, I advise even in a room that is quite free from the pest. Prevention is better than cure. In a room where they are estab- lished in the walls, it is well to fumigate. As the first step after the bedstead has been taken down, thoroughly searched in all unlikely, as well as likely, places, the casters being laid in kerosene, and the holes where they belong being injected with sublimate, inject the same far into every hole and socket, then go over all corners, ends of laths, etc., with a hard brush, dipped in sublimate. Corners of the mattress, tufting, etc., all must be treated with the sublimate; and then stuff up windows and keyholes, hang up a heavy blanket outside the door, securely fasten with two kitchen forks or nails, and then, removing from the room looking-glass and any metal articles there may be, leave bedding, etc., to be fumigated. The easiest way is to use a charcoal furnace, but if you put two bricks on the floor, a coal-hod or old tin pan can be set on with live coals. Have in your hand a packet of powdered sulphur; stand ready to close the door of the room instantly; then from the doorway throw the paper packet on to the coals, close the door drop the blanket and set a chair to keep the blanket close so as to confine the fumes. Next day hold your 174 PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. breath, when you enter the room, till you have thrown open the window. The contents of the room should now go into the open air. This fumigation is necessary for any room where the trouble is deep-seated. In giving these directions I am supposing an extreme case, but in what I am now going to say about the bedstead, I give my own plan, whether the trouble is present or not. In many years' housekeeping I have had real trouble but once, and I think the reason is the precaution I take. Every fall, after examining the servant's, bedstead, I paint the ends of the slats, the places where they rest, the bed spring, every bit of the woodwork, on which the mattress rests, with thin white paint in which there is a good deal of turpentine. In changing servants, I never let a new one come into the room as left by the last, but make a thorough examination of bed and bedstead, and use the paint brush, unless recently done. I believe hard, white varnish, used instead of paint, is even better, but the latter is cheap and easy, and I have found effectual. The chief thing is, it fills up the pores of the wood and makes rough places smoother, and no longer suitable depositing places for eggs. The ends of slats in cheap bedsteads are often very coarsely sawn off, and these pores are often full of eggs, which are nearly invisible. Paint cures all this. But you may do all this and more, and yet if you leave such a bedstead in such a room unvisited till next cleaning time, you will probably again find the pest; some one of them, somewhere, will have PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 175 escaped and undone your work, therefore for weeks look every day or two to see that no chance be given to their unfortunate fecundity. A handsome bedstead you would not like to treat with paint, and if you have one that has been troubled, after thorough cleansing with the sublimate, sprinkle plentifully with genuine insect powder, and after that, every morning for months, devote half an hour to a thorough examination of the bed. Once a week take it down. With this treatment, once thorough clean- ing, then daily inspection, you will effectually rid yourself of the pests, even if they were very bad. Too often the thorough cleansing is done, then the matter given up for several weeks or months, but then surely it must all be gone over again, and so on for years, and one is never free. I confess, in the bright spring and summer mornings, it is hard to give up half an hour to such a task, especially when day after day we find nothing to justify the search, but it is only for a time, and it is only by such ceaseless fol- lowing up that you can be sure of getting free from what is a perpetual dread and horror, so long as it All else that concerns housekeeping has, I think, been gone into in the methods of work given for each day. It only remains for me to say, with regard to the household work, that the work of summer differs very little from winter, except that the fires are done away with, and, instead of having ashes to remove, and ventilation to manage without letting too much frosty air into the house, we can throw open windows 176 PEOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. and let in floods of sunshine and fresh air, while the outside porches or stoops are brushed or washed. I have been asked two or three questions, which I take this opportunity of answering. One is in relation to dish-towels; the other, to dish-cZo^7i6", often called dish-ra^s. This should never be an appropriate term, for while one might, for want of better, take a rag to dust with, a rag should not serve for dishes, but a decent cloth. Old crash dish-towels have usually strong ends which can be cut off and hemmed, and a loop put into it, for a dish-cloth. But a yard of coarse, strong, twilled dish-toweling can be cut in three, and hemmed and looped. This is the better way, for you can find excellent use for the old crash towels for drying cloths for floor or paint. I prefer to keep two dish-cloths in use, — one to be washed and dried each day. They will last twice as long as when allowed to be constantly wet. The most delightful dish-cloths are made of a ball of candle wick knitted on coarse, wooden needles, and, if dried each day, they wear very well. Do not allow dilapi- dated dish-cloths to be used; the lint is constantly passing into your waste-pipe, with the danger of stop- ping it up; and they are not easy to wash and dry. With regard to dish-towels, I think there is only one thing indispensable, — they must be of linen, — cotton loses color, and stains are difficult to wash out. The soft Russian crash is, I think, best, but some kinds are so hard it takes months to *^ break " them. Softer and finer linen toweling comes for glass and silver. It should be a rule to have them washed immediately PBOGBESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 177 after they have been used, and once a week they should be boiled and ironed, to keep them soft. If you happen to have the hard crash, have each towel ironed every time it is washed for a few weeks; this will rapidly soften it. A lady has told me her method of taking up ashes, which seems so good that I give my readers the benefit of it. It is to lay a sheet of newspaper in the coal- hod, one page of it hanging over the sides. As each shovelful of ashes is put into the hod turn the loose leaf of paper over it while you take up the next shovel- ful. This prevents very much dust from rising. I have said nothing at all on one subject, which belongs very intimately to housekeeping, yet I ven- ture to think is not of it, any more than our court- ship and marriage or other matters sacred to the inner life. I allude to children, but so serious, so many-sided is the subject of children's training, that it could not be effectively discussed in the scope of one of these chapters ; and we may be sure the wife who keeps house well for her husband will do the same for the dear little ones. The judicious rules that make comfort in the house for one, make it for the whole family. I wish to state here that there are several manu- factured articles for cleaning purposes, of whose mer- its as labor-saving mediums I am well aware, and very heartily recommend all housekeepers to take advant- age of them. The really valuable articles of this class have stood the test of time, and are so well 1^'^ known as to need no mention, but improvements on 178 PBOGBESSir:E HOUSEKEEPING. old methods are always taking place, and while it is unwise, if yon have an article in use that completely answers its purpose, to displace it in favor of a newer kind, perhaps less good in reality, it is good to wel- come any article which fills a long-felt want. 81JBI9IKR PROGRAmniH OP ^WORK. General order of work for every day of summer: Before leaving your room, throw open windows, top and bottom; lay pillows in the sun, bedclothes to air, and turn back mattress. As soon as you come down stairs, open blinds and windows. Light kitchen fire ; take up ashes; sift them. Brush off the stove; rinse and fill the kettle. Sweep the kitchen, the stoop or piazzas, beating all mats thoroughly. Eemove stale flowers from parlor and dining-room, and dust. Prepare for breakfast, putting biscuit or muffins to bake, while you lay the table. Close blinds on the sunny side. After breakfast, clear the table as soon as possible, putting milk and butter away at once, instead of allow- ing them to remain in the hot kitchen. Do not leave the white table-cloth on a moment longer than necessary, as it attracts flies. For the same reason remove the crumbs from the floor. This applies to every meal. Wash and put away breakfast dishes. PROGRESSIVE HOUSEKEEPING. 179 Darken the dining-room, pantry and all unused rooms. Make beds, empty slops, wasli soap-dishes, fill water pitchers, fold dry towels, take away soiled ones, — but if damp, dry them before putting into the soiled clothes-hamper, as everything quickly mildews in hot weather. Darken rooms after haying put them in perfect order. Either now or before going up stairs, attend to the refrigerator— empty the drip-pan; remove everything that will not keep; wipe out sides and shelves with a large, coarse sponge kept for the purpose. If milk or other article has been spilt in it, wash it out with hot water and soda or borax. Keep pieces of char- coal in it, which change ofteu, and occasionally, if it cannot be aired without danger of food spoiling, put a plate of unslached lime in each compartment and leave it till it crumbles; this dries the air. Then proceed to the special work for the day. (See programmes of special work in former chapters. ) If you are troubled with flies, the last thing before retiring, when all windows and doors are closed, pufE Persian insect powder in the air of each room, closing the door after. Next morning, if the powder has been genuine (there is no article more adulterated, drug- gists tell me), you will find the place strewn with the slain, and a dusty deposit everywhere. 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