II

PLATE VITHE "BROWNIE" IS THE IDEAL COOKER.For use where space is limited, or where the requirements of the family are small. The oven is fitted with one grid and one browning shelf.

PLATE VI

THE "BROWNIE" IS THE IDEAL COOKER.For use where space is limited, or where the requirements of the family are small. The oven is fitted with one grid and one browning shelf.

THE "BROWNIE" IS THE IDEAL COOKER.

For use where space is limited, or where the requirements of the family are small. The oven is fitted with one grid and one browning shelf.

PLATE VIaTHE "WALDICK" COOKERCombines a cooker, gas fire, and water boiler. All parts of the stove are under separate control. Where hot water is available by other means the "Waldick" can be supplied without the side boiler. The gas fire in the oven door is always supplied with this cooker, as shown above. This stove is specially designed for use in flats, and other places where there is limited space. (Wilson)

PLATE VIa

THE "WALDICK" COOKERCombines a cooker, gas fire, and water boiler. All parts of the stove are under separate control. Where hot water is available by other means the "Waldick" can be supplied without the side boiler. The gas fire in the oven door is always supplied with this cooker, as shown above. This stove is specially designed for use in flats, and other places where there is limited space. (Wilson)

THE "WALDICK" COOKER

Combines a cooker, gas fire, and water boiler. All parts of the stove are under separate control. Where hot water is available by other means the "Waldick" can be supplied without the side boiler. The gas fire in the oven door is always supplied with this cooker, as shown above. This stove is specially designed for use in flats, and other places where there is limited space. (Wilson)

For that reason every architect, if he be a man, should number a clever, resourceful, and experienced woman amongst his staff. Or why should not the architect be a woman?

Before discoursing of the labour-saving house as it might be, it is well to state that I am well aware that one man's meat is another man's poison, also that, owing to the fact that gas and electricity are not always available in the country, the labour-saving house must, more often than not, be in a town or a suburb. Still, much may be done with the country house, even the small country house, and after all we move quickly nowadays, and soon it may be possible to obtain gas and electric current everywhere.

PLATE VIIA DINING-ROOM WITH A GAS FIRE AND GAS "CANDLE" BRACKETS

PLATE VII

A DINING-ROOM WITH A GAS FIRE AND GAS "CANDLE" BRACKETS

Another point which strikes me when coming to consider my labour-saving house is this. Why do not the Water Companies supply us with a HotWater Service on much the same terms as they now supply us with a Cold Water Service?

Let us try and realise what this would mean to the householder. His home would be fitted with radiators and warmed by hot water. He would turn the radiators on and off as he needed them. He would turn a tap and hot water would be at his command at any hour, day and night, for baths, washing-up, and cooking. He would turn another tap and cold water would gush forth.

Imagine the economy of such an arrangement! Instead of millions of stoves heating water, there would be a few large furnaces doing the work. Imagine, too, the difference in the atmosphere when you eliminate coal from all dwelling-houses. The house is heated and provided with hot and cold water on every floor, in every room if you like, with no more trouble to yourself than turning a tap and paying the bill. When you do not have to cook water in addition to food you need far less fuel, and for this purpose electricity or gas are at your disposal. If you feel lonely when sitting in a room warmed by a radiator, you may have a small wood fire, and this, I admit, labour-saving faddist that I am, I should desire in one or two sitting-rooms.

When by turning a tap or a switch, water, gas, and electricity become our servants, we shall have done much to solve the Servant Problem.

PLATE VIIIA WELL-KNOWN LONDON DRAWING-ROOM SHOWING A GAS-HEATED "LOG FIRE"

PLATE VIII

A WELL-KNOWN LONDON DRAWING-ROOM SHOWING A GAS-HEATED "LOG FIRE"

But in the ideal labour-saving house (ideal, mark you, from a labour-saving point of view), there are no fires, no chimneys, no grates, no coal-devouring, dirt-making range, always requiring coal and yet more coal and returning you evil for good in the shape of soot and dirt.

Have you ever watched a sweep at work? Have you ever cleaned the flues of a coal range?

In our dream-house we have no such horrors. We save the cost of chimneys, sweeps, grates, fenders, fireirons, coal-boxes. We need not provide coal cellars, in which a cold, cross, sleepy girl must grovel in the early morn before the house can be warmed and the breakfast cooked.

Make a mental picture of all the heavy coal-boxes which are dragged up steep stairs in this country of ours.

Ann was right when she said, "It's 'ouses like this wears girls out."

PLATE IXA GAS FIRE IN THE ENTRANCE HALL OF A SMALL TOWN HOUSE

PLATE IX

A GAS FIRE IN THE ENTRANCE HALL OF A SMALL TOWN HOUSE

Eliminate coal and you save quite a third of the work in your home. Think this out and you will see that it is so. Coal must be delivered. In a town it is shot through a hole into the basement cellar or cellars. This causes a cloud of black dirt, and the front of your house suffers. Then coal must be shovelled up into scuttles; often it is necessary to break up the large lumps. The scuttles are then carried about the house, coals up, ashes down; grates are cleaned and the room is powdered with dust in the process. Grates, fenders, fireirons, and coal-boxes must be cleaned, and fashion ordains that they are generally made, wholly or partly, of polished metal. The weather is cold and a servant is rung for and more coal is demanded. One day the wind blows and the fire will not light. It takes some fifteen minutes of bellows-blowing and two bundles of wood to set it going, and then the wind blows harder and it smokes! Alas for the poor housemaid! The kitchen fire won't draw and the water is not hot. The sweep must be sent for, and all the while the air is being fouled from the smoke from our own chimneys, and when we open our windows the coal we burn returns to us in the shape of smuts and grime.

Oh, the washing bill, the cleaner's bill! The bill for labour which might be saved!

So in our ideal home we do away with all this pother, and wash and warm ourselves by means of hot water which comes from the main and the supply of which we regulate by turning taps. We light our house and cook our food by means of electricity or gas, which we also regulate by turning switches or taps. Thus we obtain heat and artificial light.

When Labour was cheap and plentiful, the Labour-Making House caused but little inconvenience except to those who had to do the work, and their point of view was seldom considered.Now that Labour is scarce and dear, the matter assumes a different complexion.

When Labour was cheap and plentiful, the Labour-Making House caused but little inconvenience except to those who had to do the work, and their point of view was seldom considered.

Now that Labour is scarce and dear, the matter assumes a different complexion.

But our house must be well supplied with natural light, for without light and air we cannot live.

Away, then, with basements. There must be ample space between the rows of houses so that every room may be light, that the sun may penetrate into it, and therefore the windows must be large.

These, too, must be light and airy. The kitchen should not be used as a sitting-room; it is the place in which food is prepared, and should be a place which can be kept exquisitely clean. It should have tiled walls and ceiling, a cemented floor on a slight slant with a gutter, so that it may be washed down with a hose. The larder and pantry should be arranged in a like fashion. The larder must be cool, well ventilated, and the food stored in it protected from dust and dirt. In our ideal home, both cook and mistress know something of the work of dust and flies as disease carriers.

In this kitchen the cooker is placed in a good light and is mounted at a convenient height. Only the cook knows the fatigue occasioned by stooping to lift heavy weights out of low-set ovens, the worry of cooking in a bad light.

The sink, too, shall be set at a reasonable height. There shall not be a scullery—why should there be a scullery? It is merely one more place to clean.

Then we will not condemn any girl or woman to stand for hours washing up. The electrically worked washing-up machine does such work well and quickly, and our pots and pans when electricity or even gas is used do not become black and sooty on the outside.

In the ideal kitchen we will have as few utensils as possible, and these shall have their proper keeping places.

In addition to kitchen and larder we will have a "service-room," fitted with cupboards for linen, blankets, pillows, etc., for boxes, for china and glass. Here flowers may be done, clothes brushed, and half a hundred domestic jobs performed. Here there may be a hot-airing cupboard, a place in which to wash and iron.

Tiled walls and ceiling, varnished wood, linoleum-covered floor, tables covered with American cloth nailed tight or faced with zinc are quickly and easily cleaned.

In addition there must be a maids' sitting-room, light, bright, sparsely but comfortably furnished, with linoleum-covered floor and small, light rugs which may be shaken easily.

And in a convenient place, so that it may be fed from kitchen and pantry, there must be the service lift.

Here we have such domestic premises as are suitable in a house where three or more servants will be employed.

The large household will need a housekeeper's room, a sitting-room for the housemaids, a dining-hall, but in this book such households cannot be considered. On the other hand, the one or two-servant house or flat may be differently planned. Here pantry, sitting-room, and service-room might be combined, and this suggestion is dealt with in another chapter; while in the no-servant home, or that in which some of the work is done by the visiting domestic worker, a sitting-room is not needed, and kitchen and pantry may be combined. A small service-room, however, I would not omitin a house where there are spare bedding, china, linen, boxes, and so forth to be stowed away; and a house in which there is no place to do odd jobs cannot be an ideal home.

PLATE XA CHARMING TWO-LIGHT GAS CANDLE BRACKET IN WROUGHT IRON (EVERED)

PLATE X

A CHARMING TWO-LIGHT GAS CANDLE BRACKET IN WROUGHT IRON (EVERED)

The furnishing and decoration of a house must be left to individual taste: one person revels in colouring which would make another ill, but when we consider the matter from a labour-saving point of view, we should forbid painted woodwork. Natural wood should be used and mouldings forbidden. Who does not know the lines of dirt which form on the mouldings in which the builder delights? The wainscots, the window-frames, the doors, all are trimmed with mouldings. Fitted carpets, or, indeed, any heavy carpets, should be taboo. Parquet floors are delightful, but in most places linoleum must be the floor covering because it keeps out draughts, is easily kept clean, and is comparatively cheap.

Furniture which cannot be moved without difficulty or swept under is objectionable: double beds are tiring for one person to make, and washhandstands can be omitted if there are a suitable number of washing-rooms. These are preferable,I think, to fitted washstands in the bedrooms. In the average house three washing-rooms would be required, one for husband and wife, one for the children, and one for the servants. When spare rooms are required each bedroom and dressing-room should have its washing-room.

You may say that so many bathrooms absorb much space and cost so much more.

PLATE XIA MODERN INDIRECT GAS LIGHTING "BOWL" PENDANT. (EVERED)

PLATE XI

A MODERN INDIRECT GAS LIGHTING "BOWL" PENDANT. (EVERED)

This idea has been carried out in a small country house known to me.

Here the spare bedroom and dressing-room are 16 feet wide. Where the dividing wall would come a fitted washstand has been arranged in either room, back to back. The washstands jut out 1 foot 8 inches into either room, and are 3 feet long, leaving, if you draw a straight line to either side wall, and allowing for a partition wall, a space 3 feet 8 inches wide and 10 feet long. This space is enclosed on either side by sliding doors, fitted with bolts, and inside it a porcelain enamel bath is fitted. There is a ventilating window at the outer wall, and that piece of wall is tiled as is the floor.

A large-sized bath measures some 30 inchesacross the widest end, and is 6 feet long. A small bath measures some 28 inches by 5 feet, so if the rooms were small and a small bath chosen a lesser space would be necessary for the bathroom, and part of the length might be used for wardrobe cupboards.

In this house the water and the radiators are heated by a coke furnace, the house is lighted by acetylene gas, and the cooking is done by coal, and the cooker is so arranged that it heats servants' hall as well as kitchen.

In a labour-saving house all rooms should be under rather than over furnished, and free of heavy, stuffy draperies. There should be a gas ring or electric heater in each room or on each floor, so that in the case of illness food can be prepared. Hot water there will always be, day and night.

What are the domestic tasks which women most dislike?Getting coals out of the coal cellar.Cleaning grates and flues.Carrying heavy trays, cans, and coal-boxes up and down stairs.Cleaning doorsteps.Doing washstand work.Then why continue to perform them?

What are the domestic tasks which women most dislike?

Getting coals out of the coal cellar.

Cleaning grates and flues.

Carrying heavy trays, cans, and coal-boxes up and down stairs.

Cleaning doorsteps.

Doing washstand work.

Then why continue to perform them?

PLATE XIIA THREE-LIGHT GAS FITTING, WITH INVERTED BURNERS AND SHADES SUCH AS ENSURE A PLEASING LIGHTThe switch systems, now readily adaptable to gas lighting, enable the burners to be lighted and extinguished by the mere pressing of a button. (Evered)

PLATE XII

A THREE-LIGHT GAS FITTING, WITH INVERTED BURNERS AND SHADES SUCH AS ENSURE A PLEASING LIGHTThe switch systems, now readily adaptable to gas lighting, enable the burners to be lighted and extinguished by the mere pressing of a button. (Evered)

A THREE-LIGHT GAS FITTING, WITH INVERTED BURNERS AND SHADES SUCH AS ENSURE A PLEASING LIGHT

The switch systems, now readily adaptable to gas lighting, enable the burners to be lighted and extinguished by the mere pressing of a button. (Evered)

Of polished metal there should be a minimum, and glass rather than silver should be chosen for table use. Stainless steel knives take the place of those which need cleaning. The meals should be simplified as much as possible. Earthenware casseroles in which the food is cooked and served save washing up. Rotary brushes by which boot and other cleaning may be carried out are worked by electricity. Linoleum with rubber treads is substituted for stair carpets whenever possible, in order to save carpet beating and the cost of stair-rods. The use of a suction cleaner, Bissel carpet sweeper, long-handled scrubbing brushes and mops, telephone bells, an electric "not at home" indicator on the front door, a polished dining-table, glass tops to sideboard, side, and dressing-tables will all reduce the labour bill. It is also important that each person in the house should refrain from making unnecessary work for the others, for to tidy up after an untidy person absorbs far more time than is often realised.

But, alas! such a home as I have described is not within the reach of many people. Like the Kipps, we are looking for Dreamland or 1975, and it has not come. Still, there are people who build houses and there are more people who rebuild houses, and large numbers who do up houses, and if one cannot do all one would like, it is generally possible to achieve some of one's ambitions.

It is not the work but the spirit in which it is done that degrades.

PLATE XIIICOMPOSITE GAS COOKER (3 INDEPENDENT OVENS AND HOT PLATE). SUITABLE FOR A LARGE HOUSEHOLD WHERE THE AMOUNT OF COOKING VARIES VERY MUCH

PLATE XIII

COMPOSITE GAS COOKER (3 INDEPENDENT OVENS AND HOT PLATE). SUITABLE FOR A LARGE HOUSEHOLD WHERE THE AMOUNT OF COOKING VARIES VERY MUCH

CHAPTER IVWhat this Chapter is AboutThe Basement House—Good Neighbourhoods and Dying Neighbourhoods—A Typical Labour-Making House—A Labour-Making House Converted—Another Suggestion for a Labour-Saving House—Fitting and Furnishing.

What this Chapter is About

The Basement House—Good Neighbourhoods and Dying Neighbourhoods—A Typical Labour-Making House—A Labour-Making House Converted—Another Suggestion for a Labour-Saving House—Fitting and Furnishing.

CHAPTER IVThe Labour-Saving House as it can be

CHAPTER IV

The Labour-Saving House as it can be

It was an Irishman who advised, "If ye can't be aisy, be as aisy as ye can," and his advice was good.

Thus, if you cannot have an ideal house, have a home which is as nearly ideal as possible, so let us consider the house as we generally find it, and see what can be done to improve it.

Most houses built prior to the last ten years seem to have been planned with the express desire of providing an unnecessary amount of hard work for the unfortunate persons who inhabit them. Fifty years ago labour was cheap and plentiful, and ideas as to hygiene stranger even than many which still obtain. Now, however, we do know that fresh air and light are as necessary to our well-being as sound food. This fact is shown in an interesting fashion in Mrs. Pember Reeves' admirable book, "Round About a Pound a Week," in which shespeaks eloquently of the way in which "basement families" deteriorate in health, although the children may have more food than those who live in higher, airier quarters.

Ignorance of the value of light and air, cheap labour and dear land were no doubt the causes of basement houses, and to this day, although labour is dear and the cost of feeding and keeping each servant has increased, it is no uncommon thing for a housekeeper to remark, "I have to keep an extra servant because of the basement," and perhaps another maid is employed because of the coals and stairs.

Where the income is ample, the extra labour bill is of little importance (speaking from the employer's point of view), but householders of moderate and small means are rapidly discovering that labour-making houses are not for them; that it is an economy to pay, if needs be, a rather higher rent and to live in a healthy, light, airy house, so planned that all unnecessary toil is abolished, and with it the cost of much cleaning material, chimney-sweeping, whitewashing, etc.

In many cases, landlords have found it impossibleto let their gloomy, inconvenient dwellings to tenants of the desired kind, and what was a "good neighbourhood" has sunk by degrees until the houses are inhabited by members of that unfortunate class who are forced to take any rooms they can obtain, and only too often pay a high price for bad accommodation. I am not in a position to advise on the management of house property, but I cannot but think that in many cases it would pay the owners to modernise the houses they have to let rather than let them deteriorate.

As I write, I have in my mind's eye a certain neighbourhood in London, once fashionable, now inhabited by "nice" people, whose means make it impossible for them to pay high rents. But this neighbourhood is slowly but surely deteriorating, and rents are sinking, simply because the houses are of a kind that necessitate at least three servants being employed, in addition to a nurse if there are young children. With less than three servants these houses could not be kept clean or warm.

The accommodation in most of these streets and squares consists of:

Basement(deep and rather dark).—Kitchen,pantry, servants' hall at back (generally very dark), lavatory, coal and wine cellars; front area (dustbin stands here), backyard; steep and dark stairs to ground floor.

Ground Floor.—Dining-room, smoking-room, and third small dark room, lavatory, narrow hall, and steep stairs leading to small half-landing.

First Floor.—Double drawing-room. Above, seven bedrooms, one lavatory, and one bathroom.

All coal for the house must be carried up one, two, or three, and possibly four, flights of steep stairs.

There is a large kitchen range, with flues to clean twice a week, as in order to keep up the hot-water supply much coal is burned, and the flues become very dirty.

The chimney must also be swept every two months. Other chimneys must be swept twice a year; if much used, three times a year. All food and table utensils must be carried up and downstairs three times a day, and when lunch and dinner are in progress a servant must run up and down with clean and dirty dishes, etc.

Washstands are used in each bedroom, and hot water taken to these rooms three or four times a day. There is but one bathroom and upstairslavatory; therefore there is a good deal of stair work when doing the rooms. If there is a nursery, the nursery meals have to be carried up and down.

Each time the hall-door bell rings, a maid must run upstairs to answer it, and visitors and tea in the drawing-room necessitate more journeys up and down, and the carrying of a heavy tray.

Now, with a house of this description there are certainly two ways of converting it into a labour-saving dwelling.

If the basement is deep and incurably dark, by far the best plan is to dispense with it altogether so far as living-rooms are concerned, using it merely for cellars and box-room.

"But," says the householder, "there will now be no back door. The tradesmen will all have to come to the front door." They will. But tradesmen call chiefly in the morning, and the few who come in the afternoon might be instructed to go to the area door, to which the dustman would also go, while the coals (if any are used) would be delivered through the pavement coal-shoot as before.

Arranging thus, the house proper begins on the ground floor. The large front room is the dining-roomas before, and the double doors between it and the erstwhile smoking-room should be plastered up on the smoking-room side, for under the new arrangement the smoking-room becomes the kitchen, and the small third room the pantry. The kitchen will not be large, but neither a gas nor an electric cooker takes up much space.

Now comes the question whether the hot-water system shall be worked by a coke or a gas circulator. The latter gives even less trouble than the former, but it may prove too costly in use. A coke furnace needs to be stoked about three times a day, and is very easy to light. The furnace might be placed in the kitchen or in the basement, and in it can be burned practically all the rubbish, thus doing away with that otherwise nasty necessity the dustbin, which in many parts of London the authorities refuse to empty more than once a week.

Kitchen and pantry must be fitted with sinks, and there should be a little gas fire, work-table, and armchair in the pantry for the use of the house-parlourmaid.

Make your head save your hands.This has been said millions of times, but there is still need to go on saying it.

Make your head save your hands.

This has been said millions of times, but there is still need to go on saying it.

Two servants can easily do the work of a house such as this will become, and the kitchen premises are only suitable for two servants. Extra help, however, can always be employed in times of stress. In order that two women may keep the house in thorough order, gas fires should be used in all rooms other than perhaps the drawing-room and the nursery, though now that gas fires have been brought to such a state of perfection I can see no reason why there should not be gas in the nurseries. The double drawing-room must be made into drawing-room and smoking-room, thus leaving seven bedrooms as before, or it may suit the family to keep the double drawing-room, and make an upstairs smoking-room.

Personally I should use the first floor front room as drawing-room, and open the doors into the smoking-room when more space was needed, thus leaving best bed and dressing-room, two nurseries, one servants' room, and one spare room, and a small room to be used as linen and dress room.(Boxes could be stored in the empty basement.) Add to the house a second bathroom and lavatory, telephone bells; use the bathroom basins rather than the bedroom washstands (and when a bathroom can be set apart for Monsieur and Madame, and another for nursery and maids, this is scarcely a hardship), and you now have a house which, provided it is not crammed with furniture, stuffy carpets, and draperies, can be perfectly kept by two good servants, always supposing that the nurse does not demand too much waiting on.

PLATE XIVA SENSIBLY-ARRANGED BOILING AND GRILLING TABLEThe burners vary from a small simmering burner to a powerful concentric burner with two taps. This make of table can be furnished in over a dozen different sizes. (John Wright)

PLATE XIV

A SENSIBLY-ARRANGED BOILING AND GRILLING TABLEThe burners vary from a small simmering burner to a powerful concentric burner with two taps. This make of table can be furnished in over a dozen different sizes. (John Wright)

A SENSIBLY-ARRANGED BOILING AND GRILLING TABLE

The burners vary from a small simmering burner to a powerful concentric burner with two taps. This make of table can be furnished in over a dozen different sizes. (John Wright)

PLATE XIVaA large heating surface is provided, so that large or heavy utensils such as fish kettles etc., are in no danger of being upset on account of being top heavy, as is the case when they are balanced on an ordinary gas ring.In the centre of the Hot Plate is a circular plate which may be removed when it is desired to allow the flames of the gas ring to come into direct contact with the cooking vessel. A lifter is provided for this purpose. (C. H. Kempton)

PLATE XIVa

A large heating surface is provided, so that large or heavy utensils such as fish kettles etc., are in no danger of being upset on account of being top heavy, as is the case when they are balanced on an ordinary gas ring.In the centre of the Hot Plate is a circular plate which may be removed when it is desired to allow the flames of the gas ring to come into direct contact with the cooking vessel. A lifter is provided for this purpose. (C. H. Kempton)

In the centre of the Hot Plate is a circular plate which may be removed when it is desired to allow the flames of the gas ring to come into direct contact with the cooking vessel. A lifter is provided for this purpose. (C. H. Kempton)

If this important person has a bathroom conveniently situated, gas fires, a gas ring for heating kettles, irons, etc., and a cupboard containing her own stock of crockery, she should give very little trouble to the house-parlourmaid. If advisable, a charwoman one day a week could turn out the nurseries, tidy the front area and backyard, clean the stairs and bathrooms.

Arranging the house thus, the following work is saved: Cleaning of kitchen range and flues, carrying of coal all over house, running up and downstairs to answer front door, especially in morning, when the cook is busy, carrying of trays from basement,cleaning and filling coal scuttles, cleaning grates and fireirons, much carrying of hot water and bedroom work, entire cleaning of basement.

If a coke furnace is used, coke is light to carry and clean to handle, and should a buttery hatch be arranged between dining-room and kitchen, one maid (if well trained) can wait on six or eight persons quite satisfactorily. Then when a little dinner is given, a charwoman, at one shilling and her supper, to help wash up, is the only outside help which is necessary.

Now I cannot but think that a house such as I have described would let at £120 a year, where now many of them are let at £90, and as time goes on will fetch less and attract a less desirable style of tenant. Considering the saving in upkeep of a basement, labour, food and keep of one maid, and the shrinkage of general expense which occurs when two maids are kept rather than three, it would pay the tenant well to expend the extra £30 a year. Even were the saving of expense no object, the additional comfort of a labour-saving house is worth the extra rent.

With the cost of heating by gas rather than coal I will deal later, but it must always be borne in mind that with coal range and coal fires in, say,three or four rooms in such a house the labour is made far greater, and also the rooms become far dirtier.

In my own dining-room, where there is a gas fire, the dirt and dust is most noticeably less than in the drawing-room, where we burn coal.

I said at the beginning of this chapter that there were at least two methods of turning labour-making into labour-saving houses. Let us now suppose that we have to deal with another basement house, but that in this case the basement is neither deep nor dark.

PLATE XVA WELL FITTED BATHROOM WITH A GAS-HEATED TOWEL RAIL AND FIXEDWASHSTAND

PLATE XV

A WELL FITTED BATHROOM WITH A GAS-HEATED TOWEL RAIL AND FIXEDWASHSTAND

The front room is quite light and cheerful, with a good view of the street. The back room is rather dark, and has a narrow area facing into a strip of garden. The house contains but five bedrooms, so that the basement cannot well be spared. Here I would use the front room (made very light and gay with paper and paint) as a combination servants' sitting-room, pantry, and store-room. The kitchen should be tiled if feasible—if not, papered with a white-tiled paper—and floored with black-and-white linoleum in order to make it as light as possible. The back area must be enlarged so as to give more light and air, and some steps should lead into the garden, where the maids can sit in hot weather. At present the basement consists of a front room and kitchen, coal cellars under the pavement, a lavatory, and a little piece at the end of the passage leading to the back area, which can be arranged for a knife- and boot-cleaning place. But there is no larder. This must be built. A door is cut to lead out of the kitchen into a tiny lobby, out of this lobby one door opens into the white-tiled, well-ventilated larder, and the other into the area.

The basement is now as light and airy as any basement can be. There is no scullery, but that apartment is unnecessary in most houses and certainly unnecessary in a small house where two, or at most three, servants are employed, and which contains a pleasant room in which they can sit and have their meals. The kitchen should be fitted with a gas or electric cooker and a gas or coke hot-water furnace. The front room is warmed by a gas stove, and in order to make up for the extra work entailed by the basement, a service lift is installed, with double hatches opening from kitchen and pantry, and from dining-room and smoking-room, which are directly over the kitchen and pantry.

This house is completed by a ground floor cloakroom and two bathrooms, gas fires everywhere but in the drawing-room, telephone bells, and in each room a tiny gas ring, so that in case of illness or other emergency hot water or hot food can be obtained without troubling the maids. With all these labour-saving arrangements two servants are able to do the work with ease, and to do it in such a way as is required by English gentlepeople, who entertain more than do their compeers in continental countries.

When planning and furnishing a house, say to yourself over and over again, "Some one will have to keep this clean."

PLATE XVITHE ILLUSTRATION SHOWS A "POTTERTON" COOKER TAKEN TO PIECES FOR THE REGULAR CLEANING GIVEN BY ALL CAREFUL COOKS.The fitments of all modern gas cookers are readily removable, and easily cleaned.

PLATE XVI

THE ILLUSTRATION SHOWS A "POTTERTON" COOKER TAKEN TO PIECES FOR THE REGULAR CLEANING GIVEN BY ALL CAREFUL COOKS.The fitments of all modern gas cookers are readily removable, and easily cleaned.

THE ILLUSTRATION SHOWS A "POTTERTON" COOKER TAKEN TO PIECES FOR THE REGULAR CLEANING GIVEN BY ALL CAREFUL COOKS.

The fitments of all modern gas cookers are readily removable, and easily cleaned.

But in addition to structural labour-saving arrangements, these rearranged houses are furnished in a labour-saving manner.

Except in the drawing-room, there is as little furniture as possible, for crowded rooms are difficult to clean and take a long time to keep in order.

Wherever it is seemly, the floors are fitted with linoleum, for no other floor covering is so cleanly or so easy to keep in good condition. When there are rugs, they are sufficiently light to be easily shaken. Fitted carpets are taboo. Had money been no object the floors of the sitting-rooms would have been of polished wood, but in these two cases the surrounds were of linoleum and the carpets square, tightly strained and not of too thick a pile. These can be quickly swept with a Bissel sweeper and cleaned from time to time with a suction cleaner, while of course long-handled mops are used for the linoleum.

In kitchen and pantry the supply of pots andpans, china, etc., is limited to what is necessary, and but little silver is used. Most of the food is cooked and served in casseroles, and so the washing up is lessened. The knives are of stainless steel and merely need washing.

In the two cases quoted the people who inhabited the houses were of the class who are accustomed to luxury, and a considerable amount of door opening, telephone answering, and informal entertaining had to be allowed for.

Without labour-saving arrangements, four servants, or three with a charwoman twice a week, would have been needed to do the work really well in the larger house, while three would have been required in the smaller house.

But supposing that the family was small and a simpler style of living needed, and that little or no entertaining took place, the mistress of the house and one good servant could have done the work of either house without undue strain and allowing each an ample amount of free time.

Those people who talk as if doing the work of the house was a pleasant occupation for one's spare hours speak without understanding of their words. The keeping of her house must be the profession of the servantless woman, but by adopting labour-saving methods she may yet have time and energy for other interests.

PLATE XVIIJOHN WRIGHT'S B.T.U. CIRCULATOR IS INTENDED TO HEAT WATER WHICH CIRCULATES THROUGH PIPES INTO HOT WATER STORAGE TANKS, AND IS PARTICULARLY SUITABLE FOR CONNECTING UP TO HOT WATER APPARATUS ALREADY IN THE HOUSE.The No. 3020 is suitable where the Storage tank or cylinder does not contain more than 20 gallons, and the No. 2040 will suit a tank or cylinder of 40 gallons capacity.

PLATE XVII

JOHN WRIGHT'S B.T.U. CIRCULATOR IS INTENDED TO HEAT WATER WHICH CIRCULATES THROUGH PIPES INTO HOT WATER STORAGE TANKS, AND IS PARTICULARLY SUITABLE FOR CONNECTING UP TO HOT WATER APPARATUS ALREADY IN THE HOUSE.The No. 3020 is suitable where the Storage tank or cylinder does not contain more than 20 gallons, and the No. 2040 will suit a tank or cylinder of 40 gallons capacity.

The No. 3020 is suitable where the Storage tank or cylinder does not contain more than 20 gallons, and the No. 2040 will suit a tank or cylinder of 40 gallons capacity.

CHAPTER VWhat this Chapter is AboutA List of Daily Duties in a Labour-Making House—A House-Hunting Experience—Managing with one Servant in a Labour-Saving House.

What this Chapter is About

A List of Daily Duties in a Labour-Making House—A House-Hunting Experience—Managing with one Servant in a Labour-Saving House.

CHAPTER VThe Work of a Labour-Making House, and the Work of a Labour-Saving House

CHAPTER V

The Work of a Labour-Making House, and the Work of a Labour-Saving House

Those women who have never been obliged to undertake any domestic duties have little idea of the amount of work which has to be done in the average house.

The following is a list of duties, and we must add to it the answering of bells, tidying up after untidy people, any personal services required (in many cases this is considerable), door opening, telephone answering, letter posting, note and message taking, "running out" for things which have been forgotten, whistling for cabs, waiting in the hall to see visitors out, etc., window cleaning, washing, mending, listing house linen for the laundry, extra work at special cleaning times, sweeps' visits, etc.

Light kitchen fire; one or two days a week clean flues and thoroughly clean range.

Get in coal.

Clean doorstep and brasses.

Make tea, cut bread and butter, and take trays and hot water to bedrooms. Draw curtains, put washstands and possibly baths ready. Brush clothes, clean and take up boots.

Sweep stairs, do hall and sitting-rooms, grates and coals.

Get breakfast and set and serve it for servants and dining-room.

Clear and wash up. Knife cleaning. Area or backyards to brush out. Kitchen and back premises to clean.

Housework and turning out of rooms. Polishing bright metal, silver cleaning and pantry work of all kinds.

Cooking, washing up and cleaning after cooking. Keep a supply of coal ready.

Laying, serving, and washing up lunch and servants' dinner.

Tidying the washstands after lunch.

Tea. Shutting up rooms, bedroom work, hot water, etc. Wash up tea.

Dinner. Cooking, washing up and tidying. Pantry work. Servants' supper. Bedroom work, hot bottles. Bed.

These duties entail rising at any hour between six and seven, bed at any time between nine and eleven, at the best a fourteen and a half hours' day, during which hours in an easy situation the maid will have two and a half hours for meals (though parlourmaids and general servants cannot always enjoy uninterrupted meals), and about one and a half hours for reading, working, etc., leaving a ten-hour working day. From this deduct half a day a week and half of each alternate Sunday.

I contend that quite a third of this labour might be eliminated, and what remained greatly lightened by the adoption of labour-saving methods.

The following experiences are interesting as depicting the extraordinary difference in the amount of work which is exacted in a labour-making and a labour-saving home.

PLATE XVIIITHE "ACMEFONT" BUILDERS' SETA combination of circulating Boiler, 20-40 gallons storage Cylinder, the circulating pipes between Boiler and Cylinder, and stand for the whole. This is a very suitable apparatus for fitting into houses where there is little available space.

PLATE XVIII

THE "ACMEFONT" BUILDERS' SETA combination of circulating Boiler, 20-40 gallons storage Cylinder, the circulating pipes between Boiler and Cylinder, and stand for the whole. This is a very suitable apparatus for fitting into houses where there is little available space.

THE "ACMEFONT" BUILDERS' SET

A combination of circulating Boiler, 20-40 gallons storage Cylinder, the circulating pipes between Boiler and Cylinder, and stand for the whole. This is a very suitable apparatus for fitting into houses where there is little available space.

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