| Show CO 00 OPERATIVE cooperative housekeeping every enlightened human being has doubtless mirrored in his soul the picture of an ideal home a home which to him is the embodiment of all that may be desired in earth life a haven of peace and happiness where all the higher faculties of the soul are brought into exercise exerciser and where love is the mainspring by which its activities are carried forward and the failure everywhere so apparent of being abe able to realize this heaven upon earth in our homes as now or gani zeff has led multitudes to the honest conviction that marriage is a 1 I failure and that the bright dream of love is destined ever to end in disappointment and sorrow and yet BO so tenacious are we 0 of present usages and customs that any attempt to point out their defects and propose a remedy is look 1 ed upon as the work of an iconoclast whose desire it is to break up our home life altogether we are well weil aware that oui our home is not the paradise it might become yet perhaps have the obstacles in the way of its meeting the demands of our nature and if we should do so it Is not an easy task to remove organic defects so we go on from year to year from generation to generation bearing the dis comforts with patience or impatience with resignation or grumbling rum according to the temper which we find within us if an oracle from heaven would present to us a plan for a social structure which should be able to meet all the demands of the perfected human soul in its earth lite it would not be found appropriate for humanity in its present state of imperfection we must therefore grope our way through the slow process of human evolution improving our social status jilt lilt 0 by little itt e trimming lug ing a lettla at this point poin t enlarging a little at alist removing the rubbish from tah place and smoothing 0 the irregular i ties there bettering our condition as we advance at each tardy yet ponderous revolution of the wheel of pro progress gres but te to meet the need 3 of humanity today to day we must deal with society just as we find it and well knowing that no radical change for the better may be effect efi eil act ed we must be content con tent with minor improvements and those which are attainable at the present hour there are diffie different rent classes in society whose needs although similar in many respects must be in met e t differently wealthy capitalists cau caa make no more charitable use of their money than in keeping up an expensive home establishment and employing a large number of hands to carry it on thus giving the means of support and comfort to many who need the tile value which service brings every such bame is aco operative association wherein the capital of the one of off isetts ketts the remunerative munera tive ulve labor of the many then there is iff a numerous class in society who are well to do in life own their own homes employ servants to do the their 1 r wor work ak a and rid were it not for foi the corroding care and alAx anxiety lety and the utter dependence upon our out imperfect system ef of domestic services would not feel the need of any change at least aa as far as the female portion of the household is concerned and yet there are many even amid this favored class who have need of rei trench ment and while they do not want their homes any the less jess attractive while they could not dispense with any luxury which that home borne has been accustomed to t afford them yet the prematurely furrowed brow and silvered hair whitened faster by the con constant stant strain of nerve power than by the lapse of years betoken the need of opportunity to husband the life forces 0 if we women could realize could comprehend fully the cruel wrong we are doing our loved ones whose lives are being extinguished day by day in their counting houses their of offices flees their work worl c shops that they may afford to support us in ease and luxury I 1 say if we could by any possible means be do brought to comprehend the cruel injustice ce of our acts we could not consent to throw away in in needless extravagance that which has been purchased at such a fearful sacrifice A world of work must yet bedone in this important field of reform as regards womans comans dress dregs before we shall shail be able from an enlightened understanding to exercise justice and mercy towards our husbands fathers but bilt this is aside from the special purpose of my present writ writing lug ing whenever operation cooperation co can be successfully success cess fully carried on it is always at less expense than the sum of individual expenses in our present system of housekeeping and if any plan can be devised which will work smoothly and satisfactorily it will thereby relieve the cae ca worn i mother and over worked father of a portion of the burden which now comes to themi have before me an able article frem from the pen of the gifted philanthropist mrs cynthia leonard who has presented a plan of cooperation operation co I 1 will take the liberty to quote a portion of the article if we could form cooperative operative co housekeepers a grand revolution could be speedily brought about and housekeeping be carried on with at least one third I 1 less expense and with comparatively no trouble to the housekeeper for every house to have its kitchen and its and cooking days is just as far behind the times ili in such matters as it was for every woman to spin and weave her own cloth and for each man to do his bis own blacksmithing shoemaking and tailoring suppose our cooking washing and ironing was all done outside of our houses this would enable us to do with one room less in the house and that always the dirtiest and with one fire the le les less s and the kitchen fire is always the most expensive PeL sIve we would be rid of that terrible bugbear f wash washing ing day the smoke and odor of cooking and the traces of grease and dirt that always follow in the wake of a so called servant girl when this thing can be accomplished a large airy dining room a par or cooking stove with a reservoir at the back bank for hot water in which gas or kerosene oil could be used in summer and a pantry with sink for washing dishes will be all that is necessary for an outfit trenwith then with a professional sweeper for carpet sweeping is is a profession that but few understand to go through our homes once or twice a week to sweep and dust which could be done for ten cents a room you have nothing left lert to be done that the most refined lady in the land refuse to do if it were necessary for her to work the table is spread for breakfast and at tile the appointed moment the breakfast arrives ii taken from the delivery oven and is placed smoking hot on ou the table the breakfast t has been ordered the night before when the supper things are called for in an hour or two after its delivery the breakfast thing things sato sate are called for and when taken the dinner is ordered and nothing is left to be done in fia the house but to wash the dishes minus greay greasy grea y pots and kettles and do the chamber work in houses where but otie servant is employed now none would be needed and aad where two or three are now required one holud be able to do it all and do it better 1 I would suggest that a company be organized making five hundred shares at one hundred dollars a share the off omm meers officers may be a pre president ident a secretary a treasurer and a board of managers I 1 would then advise that ir a build building ng be erected for a cookhouse cook house at the cost of about twenty five hundred dollars when all completed with an excellent vegetable cellar and a room built expressly for meat the first floor to consist of a large cook room in the centre with a stove built expressly for such use with oven for P each ach each kind of baking out of this room would lead all tile the others a pastry room a reception room and an office tile the clerk and bookkeeper book keeper to occupy this effice office if after the laundry was waa established we had money enough left to buy a weeks provi provisions rions in advance that would enable ug us to get gt our meals ready cooked for less money monny than we now pay for the raw mat mut material erial aside from the expense of cooking it 1 I would suggest the hiring of a M meat ea t cook a at t a thousand Q don dou dollars ars per pr year a pastry cook at eight or nine hundred a vegetable cook for six hundred we twe could form an organization e extending all over the country to protect employers from the thelm impost tion of inexperienced servants pledging ourselves not to employ a girl who could not bring a good recommendation from some responsible party unless she was a graduate from our cooking establishment here they could go through a re gular regular course of training and have every advantage rf cf a thorough intend to follow then I 1 would propose that we petition our state and county agricultural societies to ommer offer among their those for the best specimens of coo xing sing ving we would not be belong long iong in bringing cooking to a science and ladies who now affect to be entirely ignorant upon the subject would be fond of the knowledge they now scorn A delivery oven could be built in shape to a tobacco peddlers wagon about ten feet long four wide and three or four feet high lined with a zinc chamber four inches deep to be filled with boiling water at the top and drawn off at the bottom this would keep hot in winter weather from two to hours long enough to deliver meals over a large circuit tile flie inside of this oven aveh would contain numerous grates similar to the warming chamber of a stewart cooking stove and being able to hold on sheet iron trays dinners for twenty five or thirty families camill to be delivered at stated intervals just as a milk man de livers milk to his customers if a family consisting of eight ter per persons kons afons orders six pounds of roast beef at twelve and a half cents per pound and use only half or two thirds of what they order the balance can be returned to the cookhouse cook house at half price instead of being left tu to mould and be thrown into the scavengers baske bauketas ba tasis is too frequent the case where servants are kept all surplus food can be put upon a table at the cook house and offered to the poor at ten cents a meal if ir each family leaves an average of one pound of meat as is almost always the case there would be one hundred pounds of me t when returned the provisions that are daily dally carried out of chicago in scavenger wagons would keep every starving person in our city comfortably if they could be collected before they are spoiled consequently it must be evident that those organizations would do a vast deal of or good not only to the better classes but to the poor also the laundry would undoubtedly have to be a separate affair these could be adopted ia im the country where our cook cookhouses houses would be impracticable 1 I believe a laundry consisting of a large washroom wash room an ironing room and office upon the first floor a drying loomand room and fideor six bix sleep in ing rooms 0 upon the second could beso bero be erected t ed at a cost of about sixteen or ij eighteen hundred dollars and a worker with an engine to run it 1 for or six hundred more after it is all com completed feted I 1 think it could be run at t the g expense of about one hundred and fifty five dollars per week follows as man to run engine do lifting lilting etc fuel and oil for engine roq soap sal soda bluing and starch 1000 eight keight women at eight dollars A competent woman to oversee 2000 clerk and bookkeeper 2000 Te feimster imster 1500 cost of keeping a horse total in one hundred families I 1 believe the washing would average six sik dozen each if we pay thirty cents per dozen this brings bringa an income of one hundred and eighty dollars per week leaving a margin of t wenty twenty nive five dollars if it were vere found that the laundry could not be run at these figures we could An increase crease creaso these prices three or five aerts coats per dozen for at fifty nifty cents the expense would still be less than it costs to wash and iron in dael ling iino lino houses ahouse as the cost of wood a alone nione 0 de to wash and iron six dozen will not be less less than two dollars per week in our own houses and wh when ghen en the soap sal soda starch A and bluing is added together with the wages and board of a servant I 1 think the other dollar Is more than consumed it is my firm belief that when theo theao improvements are brought about and woman is made equal before the law with man we will all have come to the conclusion conc luson t that our present system of housekeeping la Is a failure and that the marriage system is not a failure mrs leonardis leonardo plan provides for those families who prefer their present isolated homes but there is a large class whose needs will be better sub served in a co opera tive or associated home life SARA SABA B CHASE cleveland Clev daud elaud herald |
