The making of the home : a reading-book of domestic economy for school and home use

Introduction

The importance of the home it is impossible to exaggerate. What is liberty without it ? What is education in schools ivithout it ? The greatness of no nation can be secure that is not based upon a pure home life. — Arnold Toynbee.

It is the woman's work to make the house into a home. It is a beautiful work, and a greater one than that of the fairy about whom we used to enjoy reading when we were younger. I daresay we all liked to imagine ourselves the fairies, and try to think of all the things we should do if we had, were it only for one half-hour, the magic wand ; but here, to our hands, is a still greater power. To nearly all of us comes, at some time of our life, this fairy-like chance of turning a house into a home. It may not always be our own house ; some of us may have the chance only in other people's houses, as servants, as daughters, as housekeepers ; while to others (if the great gift of love be given), the opportunity may offer itself as wives and mothers.

In one way or the other I hope this work will come to all of you; it is to be despised by none, and it is one which I trust each and all of you girls will strive to do well. A knowledge of the science

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THE MAKING OE THE HOME.

of Domestic Economy will do much to help you, and I doubt not but that every girl who wants to leave the world healthier, happier, wiser, and better than she has found it — and who does not? — will be glad to be able to learn something which will assist her in her won anly walk through life.

A woman’s mission is a high one. On her, to a large extent, depends the good and the happiness of the family and, through the family, of the nation. One great Italian writer has said, fc The angel of the family is woman ; whether as mother, wife, sister, or friend, woman is the soother of life. She is to each of us a reflection of that loving Providence which watches over humanity. She has in her a treasure-store of gentleness sufficient to soothe every sorrow. She opens to us the possible good and beauty which lie in the future ; ” and in another place he tells women that they have in their “ keeping the welfare of the future generations.”

When you read such words as these, do you not feel that no trouble would be too great, no lesson too difficult to learn, which would help you to worthily fill so high a destiny?

A great many people thirk that economy only has to do with saving, and that, therefore, the science of Domestic Economy deals only with household saving. They have the notion that it is “ a mean kind of thing,” and not to be considered by people who — as they describe themselves- — “ need not oe looking after every scrap; ” but the word economy did not originally mean anything about saving. It had to do with the management of a house (and spending in housekeeping is quite as important as saving), so in this book I am going to try and tell you about everything that has to do with the keeping of a house, and the comfort of the people who live in it. 1 hope

INTRODUCTION.

*3 to tea cl i you the fairy secret, so that, in the future, the house under your care shall become a home, and the people who live in it be welded together into a family.

Our bodies are, as the great Hebrew poet tells us, “ fearfully and wonderfully made ; ” and because of this, and also because we now live in what is called an advanced civilised state (which means that a great number of people live together, and have to consider each other in all sorts of little as well as in big things), we shall have to talk about manv and various matters. We shall have to speak about food, drink, and clothes; about washing and cleanliness : about health and sickness ; about money and its right getting, saving and spending ; and as people are not born grown-up, but become good or bad men and women very much in accordance with how we treat them when they are little, we shall have to think carefully about little babies — about wise punishments for children, and also about their schooling and pleasures ; and lastly, because people are something more and greater than their bodies, and are not content as soon as they are comfortable, like the oxen and pigs, we shall have to think of and plan for the other parts of their natures.

It will be one of the duties of the home-maker to consider recreation and education, and learn how best to get change for weary brains and tired hearts. She must know enough to be able to make a wise choice of work, and, what is still more important, choice of friends and ideals : by which I mean objects or standards of life to be aimed for and striven after. All this is included in Domestic Economy ; and it is this task which we have to-day begun : you to learn, I to teach. We must each have patience with the b 2

THE MAKING OF THE HOME.

other, ancl if I go too fast, or tell you the same thing too many times over, you must try and catch me up, or bear kindly with my mistake, remembering always that the end and object of all my lessons is to make you queens. “ Queens ! ” you will say. “ How can that be?” But read on, and you will see how greater people than I have declared you may be queens.

One great author tells us that “a true wife in her husband’s house is servant, in his heart she is queen;” and another wise man, in speaking to us, says, “ Your fancy is pleased with the thought of being noble ladies, and with a train of vassals. Be it so : you cannot be too noble, and your train cannot be too great ; but see to it that your train is of vassals whom yon serve and feed, not merely of slaves who serve and feed you .” This same author has a great idea of the power we possess by simply being women. He tells us that we are queens, enthroned by the right of our womanhood in many a heart, and that we cannot, if we would, put off that crown. So he bids us recognise the fact, and take all the duties which fall to our queenly lot. He says that we have not understood that we have this great power, and he reminds us of what we could do if we would. “ There is not,” he writes, u a war in the world, nor an injustice, but you women are answerable for it : not in that you have provoked, but in that you have not hindered. Men, by their nature, are prone to fight ; they will fight for any cause, or for none. It is for you to choose their cause for them, and to forbid them when there is no cause. There is no suffering, no injustice, no misery in the earth, but the guilt of it lies lastly with you.”

Is not this a queenly power ? — to be able to make or stop war, to cause or soothe suffering, to encourage or hinder injustice— but with the power comes the

INTRODUCTION.

responsibility. If tbe woman lias the power, she has also the task of .deciding- how to use it. And to do this she must educate herself : she must learn all she can, she must think long- and carefully, so as to be sure that she is not using- her power for her own happiness, but for the good of the larger world, and the other lives which are being lived outside her home. Womam’s duty, though it begins in the home, and though it may seem to keep her continually in it, does not end there. The motto which is at the head of this chapter speaks of the nation as being based on its home, while another author tells us that (through the home) it is “ the woman’s duty to assist in the ordering, in the comforting, and in the beautiful adornment of the State/'’

I have quoted you these words to show you what great men think of womair’s work and the- influence of the home ; and because I think that if you have these great aims in view, you will not weary of learning how to make a good home, nor tire of the details which tell how women’s household work is to be done. Every one can do work, however tiresome, easily and gladly if the object to be obtained by it is great and valuable • enough — and so, now that they have these noble ends in view, I trust my pupil girls will apjdy their minds to these sixty lessons, the object of which is to teach them how to turn a house into a home.

THE WAKING OF THE HOWE.

Chapter II

THE CHOICE OF A HOWE TO LIVE IN. THE LOCALITY,

THE POSITION, THE ASPECT, THE DRAINS.

You are not guilty because you are ignorant , but you are guilty when you are content to be ignorant. You are guilty when you refuse , or are too indolent to think , to use your pavers of thought. You are guilty whenever you despairingly give up the search for truth, knowing that God would not have given you a love of truth without the means of attaining it. — Joseph Mazzini.

Before we begin our work I want to tell you that I am going to imagine you are very poor. Some of you may not be so poor, but the most difficult thing is to be a good housekeeper or home-maker when in the midst of poverty. It is far easier when there is more money to be had, and when every farthing has not to be considered ; so for the purposes of our study it will be better for us to imagine that you are very poor, and then in real life, if more money falls to your lot, you will find the task of housekeeping easier than you had thought, instead of harder, as yon would do if I began with the idea that you were well-to-do.

But, in order to begin housekeeping, we must have a house to keep ; and there are a great many things to be thought of in choosing the house (or room) in which to live.. We must try and see, if possible, that there is nothing about the house itself which will prevent it being turned into a home; but let us, as “ order is Heaven's first law," think of the tli in Li’S to be avoided and obtained in order.

THE CHOICE OF A HOME.

I. The Locality or Neighbourhood. — The lionse should be in a respectable neighbourhood. We must always remember that sin is to be avoided more than suffering, and that we had better suffer a little more because we pay a higher rent, than live in the midst of what is bad and wrong. We soon get used to wrong things ; and children often get low standards and weak consciences because they see and hear what is wicked, on their way to and from school, if the house is in a street or court where the people have a bad character.

II. The Position. — If possible, the dwelling should not be far from the father's or the brothers' work, though this is not always easy, as in the case of bricklayers, who have to go to work in whatever place their employer accepts a contract. Still, it is a point to think about : for the pennies for the train or tram in bad weather, or when the men are very tired ; the wear of shoe-leather andclothes; the extra fatigue ; let alone the temptations of the street corners, all tend to run away with money that might be saved by the cheaper rent.

III. The aspect , or floor, of the room must be a matter of taste unless it affects health. If any member of the family easily catches cold, or feels pain at going upstairs, then it would be wise to choose a room looking to the south or west, and on the first or second lioor ; but as- a rule it is thought to be more healthy, if the family are strong and well, to live on the third, or even the fourth floor. There the air is purer, and the little ones removed from what are often the sad and harmful noises of the streets.

IV. The drains must be carefully inquired into ; and by drains I mean the large pipes which carry the dirty water used in the household into the sea, or

TIIE MAKING OF THE HOME.

away to manure the land. It is very difficult to tell if the drains are in good order or not, because they are generally hidden under the ground, but if there is the least smell you may be sure that all is not quite right, and you can then refuse to take the room - or, if the smell should occur after you are living in the house, you must either tell the landlord or go and complain to the Sanitary Officer, whose address any policeman will tell you.

Sometimes people grumble about bad smells, but I think we should be grateful for them, because they tell us so unmistakably that dirt is in some place where it should not be. They call aloud in their own disagreeable way to us to ask us to make all things clean. Without smells, we might go on being dirty in ignorance, until some dreadful fever or illness bred of dirt came to us, and perhaps took away our health and strength.

Drains are not a very pleasant subject, yet they are so important a part of the house that I must say some more things about them. Lately, also, the learned doctors have been discovering that many of our illnesses come because we have managed our drains badly ; and though you must not always be thinking of illnesses and fearing to have them, still it is only wise and right to see, if you are going to be a home-maker, that you do not keep just outside your window, or in the -cistern, or hidden in the wash-house, a cruel imp who will perhaps pounce down on you just when you are all most joyous, and carry off your darling or lay low the strong breadwinner.

THE CHOICE OF A HOME.

Chapter III. The Choice Oe A Home. “ What To Seek And What

TO AVOID >} THE DRAINS, THE DUST-BIN, AND THE

WATER-CISTERN.

Inhaling bad ah' is drinking in death.- — Dr. Davies.

It is of the utmost importance that the drains from the sink, or the water-closet, or the wash-house, should be properly trapped , which means that at some part of the pipe, which you cannot see, there should stand a little pool of water, which little pool must always be kept so full that it takes up all the room in the pipe and leaves no space for the bad smells.

Bad smells do not often get through water, so that if this little pool between you and the big drain is always kept full, the bad smells will be kept back by it in their proper place in the drain. But I fear that no explanation will convey to you exactly what I mean by a drain- trap, so I will make a little drawing of it, in which you will see where the pool ought to be.

traps by letting the water in the little pool become so

THE MAKING OF THE HOME.

dirty that it, in its turn, begins to smell ; but this is easily prevented by pouring some fresh water every day down the pipe of the sink or water-closet. Sometimes, too, careless people make the trap useless because they are in such a hurry for the water to run away that they pull up the strainer. Then dirty bits of vegetable and other nasty things get into the little pool, and by choking it up, make it impossible for it to do its own work. But the mischief does not end there. Vexed that the drain is choked, and that the water will not run away, the ignorant housekeeper will sometimes take a thick stick and endeavour to unstop the drain, but the ignorantly-directed pokes often succeed only in breaking or cracking the bottom of the basin, and then the purifying water flows out, and the bad smells rush up to poison the air. The best way of unstopping a drain, should it by accident get stopped up (but if the strainer is kept down it cannot easily get stopped), is to take a long and pliable cane or piece of wicker-work, and move it about gently in the drain, at the same time throwing large quantities of water down the pipe. When the obstruction is removed, feel with the cane gently all round the pool, to see that it is not broken, and that the little pool of water in it still remains at its right depth.

Secondly, the dust-bin should have a closelyfitting lid, and should, .if possible, not be near a dwelling or window. In very poor and crowded neighbourhoods, such as where I have lived, and where every foot of room is of value, this is not always possible to secure ; but then, every one can do something to prevent the dust-bin becoming disagreeable and unhealthy; For instance, it is not the ashes themselves which smell so much as the green vegetables, dead flowers, or food refuse. If these

THE CHOICE OF A HOME.

things were burnt in the grate when the fire was low, it would help to save fuel, and do away with much of what now makes our towns so close and smelly.

Thirdly, the water-cistern should have a tightfitting lid, and should be cleaned out every two or three months. The same cistern should not supply the water for drinking and cooking as well as the water for the water-closet, or sink, or wash-house. Water is often made dirty by bad-smelling air, and the same pipe which carries the water to the water-closet or sink sometimes carries the bad-smelling air back again into the cistern, poisoning the water for those who drink it or cook with it.

And lastly, all the drains should be outside the house, and as far from the dwelling or sleeping room as possible. It is not possible to give rules which would apply to all sorts of houses either in the town or country, but you will soon be able to see what is harmful if you remember these two or three useful lessons.

Smells mean that there is harmful dirt, and the smells which arise from dirt, either dirty substances (like pig-sty, ash-bin, or fowl-house) or dirty water, are often poisonous, and make impure not only the air we breathe, but the water we drink. Our duty, then, in taking a house is to see that the drains are so arranged that the smells do not get out either to poison the air or the water. And now we can leave the drains, and talk about the pure fresh air.

THE MAKING 01<’ Tllli HOME.

Chapter IV. How To Get Clean Fresh Air Into Our Home

When pure air is breathed freely, plentifully , and continually there are few diseases which it will not enable the body to resist. — Prof. Simpson, M.D.

Before we talk about Ventilation I must tell you the difference between good and bad air.

The air is composed of three gases, called oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid gas. If you could think of a box of air measuring a yard each way, we would, in fancy, measure it, and we should find that rather more than three-quarters of the yard would be made of nitrogen gas, not quite one-quarter of oxygen gas, and just a tiny little strip, about as broad as a pin is wide, would be left of carbonic acid gas. As we breathe we take in a mouthful, say a few cubic inches, of this air into our bodies. It enters in the state that I have told you, chiefly nitrogen, partly oxygen, and the very small bit of carbonic acid : but it does its duty within our bodies, it works inside and cleans our blood, and it comes out again entirely changed. When we have breathed the whole yard in and out — and we shall soon do that, for we generally breathe 1,200 times in one hour — and we come to measure it again, we shall find that, though there is still about the same quantity of the nitrogen gas, yet that the eie-ht inches of oxygen have sunk to six inches, and

c > %) O t

that the tiny strip of carbonic acid gas has broadened out until now it takes an inch and a half. This carbonic acid gas is poison to us. Here is a little table to show you the exact figures.

FRESH AIR TN THE HOME.

Pure air contains : —

Nitrogen . . . 79-02 per cent T

Carbonic Acid . . ‘04 ,, „ )

Air which has been breathed contains : —

Nitrogen Oxygen Carbonic Acid Loss per cent.

4-3 „ „

100 per cent.

If we could see the air when it comes from our mouths, we should call it dirty air : it would look to us as nasty as the water does in which we have rinsed a soiled cloth ; but we cannot see it, so often we forget all about it. But it is very important for our health and happiness to have clean air with which, as it were, to wash out the insides of our bodies. How to get rid of this soiled air, and put in its stead clean fresh air without making a draught, is what we mean when we talk about ventilation ; and it is a very difficult question. “ Why, open the window wide, and let it come in/-’ I fancy some of you might say, but in stormy or winter weather we cannot sit or sleep with the window wide open : and besides, how to get the good air in is not the only difficulty. How to get the bad air out is even a greater one.

A great deal has been written and said about this subject, but on the whole the best way of letting the dirty air get out of a room is by keeping the window open an inch or two at the top night and day, winter and summer. Many people buy sand-bags to stop up the cracks, because they say the draughts whistle in and give them cold, but they forget the headaches, the sense of fatigue, and often bad temper, from which those same draughts of fresh air save them, and very often the sand-bag buyer buys pains and illness the same day that she pays for her sand-bag.

1 do not mean to say that draughts are good and healthy, but fresh air can come in without making a draught if it is admitted continually and evenly. You will perhaps ask what is and what causes a draught. A draught is a rush of air, and is caused by one sort of air rushing to fill the place of another sort of air.

Cold and hot air are like two playing boys : one tries to catch the other. Master Cold Air is always running after Master Hot Air, and if he is kept too long outside he rushes rudely in through every crack and crevice, whistling and making himself disagreeable; but if he is admitted in all kindliness by the housekeeper, who makes room for him by opening her window and letting out the hreathed-up air, and then invites him in, he soon ceases to push and be rude. He mixes amiably with Master Hot Air and learns good manners, of which the secret in his case, as in all cases, is to be unobserved.

It is as true of ventilation as it was of drains, that it is impossible to give rules which will apply to all kinds of rooms and houses, but there are two things to be learnt about ventilation, and then each girl in her own home can apply them. One is that the air we have breathed becomes hot and dirty by the cleaning out of the human body, and as such is dangerous to the health, and must be changed ; and the other is, that the hot and dirty air ascends, and must, if possible, be let out at the top of the room. For this purpose, if the upper sash of the window does not open, and if the landlord objects to the additional expense of making it do so, some holes might be bored in the window-frame; or the top panels of the doors can have little openings cut in them, or venti-

HOW TO WAR M AND LIGHT OUR HOME.

lators admitted. Anyhow, by the window and door, or the window and chimney, or the door and chimney, there must always be left some chance for Master Hot Air, and his brother, Master Dirty Air, to escape when pursued by Master Cold and Fresh Air ; but the one opening must always be opposite to the other, so that these helpful playfellows may have no excuse for not going into all parts ot‘ the room.

CHAPTER Y.

HOW TO WARM AND LIGHT OUR HOME.

“ If men lived like men indeed, their houses would he temples— temples which we should hardly dare to injure, and in which it would make us holy to be permitted to live.'’' — Rtjskin.

The warmth of a room is closely connected with its ventilation. Indeed, a fire is one of the best ventilators; and if yon notice, you will find that a number of people sitting in a room in the summer-time will make the air more dirty and hot than the same number sitting in the same room in the winter-time, when the fire is burning. The reason is simple : the fire heats the air, which, being hot, rises and goes up the chimney, calling as it goes to the cool clean air to come in and take its place.

Some people like their rooms warmed with hotwater pipes or closed stoves, but we English people love our coal fires, and if we can have them without hurting our neighbours, there is no particular reason why we should not do so. The chief objection to them is the smoke they make ; and the smoke does a great deal of harm. It causes the ugly fogs from which those who live in towns suffer so much ; it prevents plants and trees growing, so that even if there is

THE MAKING OP THE HOME.

an open space in the midst of the town, it often cannot be made into a green and pretty garden, because the smoke kills the things. It spoils our carpets, dresses, and furniture, and, what is worse, it makes it more difficult for the little children to grow up healthy, and the sick people to recover thoroughly.

This is a great deal of mischief for our kindly, cheery fires to do, but their smoke does all this, besides a great deal more harm. If every one, in taking a house or a room, would try and get one where a smoke-eating grate was put in, the lire would not only cost less (for the fire, when it eats its own smoke, does not require so much coal), but every time the home-maker put on more fuel or made the bright blaze jump out, she would not feel as if she were helping to spoil her own or other folk's homes, or making life more difficult for those priceless gifts which we often do not half value : the green things, the little children, and the aged folk.

Besides the smoke-eating power of the grate, we should try and get one which is low down near the floor, because our feet and legs want warm air quite as much as the rest of our bodies ; and also one which is broad in front, narrow at the back, and sloping inwards at the sides, something in the shape of an A lying on its back, only the grate might end where the cross of the A comes ; it need not go as far back as the point. Then the material of which the back and sides of the grate is made should be carefully thought of. Fire-clay or fire-brick is better than iron or metal, because it throws back the heat better, so that when our fire is once made up it does not need so much fuel, and that is at once a saving of money.

An oven is a great gain in a fire-place ; but if we have to choose between an oven and a boiler, it

HOW TO WARM AND LIGHT OUR HOME. 17

is, on tlie whole, better to have the boiler, for reasons which you will see when we come to talk about cooking and washing.