Ethel R. Peyser

“ Thanks to the inventive genius of our manufacturers, the home has ceased to be a place of exile for a woman. The long hours that used to obtain in housework, the wear and tear on nerves and muscles, are being cut down by labor-saving equipment. The shortage of servants is being met with the same devices.
It can never be expected that a big house will be totally servantless. Utopia is still far away. But it can be reasonably expected that every house will get along with fewer servants. ”

“ Wet days on the farm are great fire makers, for clothes are put near to the fire, and whoop la!—a very warm fire ensues! Candles, too, are handled carelessly and should be treated as inflammable material when they are lit. Most ashes will spontaneously burn if set away, as the fine bits of coal and grease adore fire. Lanterns plus hay if not carefully used are another cause of fire. So carelessness really is the root of 99% of fires, and yet we indulge ourselves in this ruthless pleasure.
Probably the kitchen is one of the best little hatcheries in the home for fires. ”

“ The carpenter does not use one kind of tool for everything—he does not use a chisel where a plane could be used not only to better the job but for his own comfort or pleasure. The same thing can be said of the painter, who would not use a whitewash brush for a varnish job. But the housekeeper seems to think it part of her duty, somehow, to use a one-for-all tool, and then wonder why her work is irksome and her job ill done. ”

“ It is interesting to realize that nearly every fine home in New York, especially on Fifth Avenue, has a filter, despite the city’s excellent water supply. Not so much to save life, as it so often does owing to frequent invasions of germs into even excellent water, but for the feeling of clean unflavored, unfishy, unwoody water and for the insurance of long life of the plumbing system—and to save deterioration in plumbing is a thing devoutly to be wished. ”

“ There is never any magic about household equipment. You must not expect to do the impossible. If you have a dishwasher you must not expect it to do any more processes of washing than you expect of your player piano of playing. The dishwasher is to wash, the piano to play.
Many women have said, “I think a dishwasher is a nuisance, you have to stack your dishes, hand-scrape pots and pans, carry water by the pailful and then have the job of cleaning the dishwasher itself. The only thing it does is to wash off some of the dishes.” ”

“ The good architect always gives the builder a set of plans that should make a satisfactory house, but, as an eminent architect recently said, “It seems to be the aim of most builders to change every detail of the architect’s plan.” So it is a wise idea to watch the construction of your home so that when the house is actually built you will find it not only attractive to look at but so well constructed in every detail that there are no complaints to make as to leaks or noise or cold. ”

“ You really get an impression of a home immediately upon entering the hallway. It is also true that on entering a house you are lured or repelled by the sounds in it, whether from the house itself or the people living there. If you are greeted by loud voices, slamming doors, creaking stairs, there is immediately the impression that this particular home is not well ordered and that the people in it are not at peace. ”

“ Beyond much doubt the chic porcelain-lined refrigerator of to-day is the corner-stone of the halls of domesticity; for what in the unconscious song of every husband is a wife without well-kept food! And is there any romance that will survive flabby lettuce and pulpy celery? ”

“ I felt like a carpenter working at my bench with all my tool ‘en plein air.’” And I went on to say, as I had a good opportunity, there is no reason why your kitchen can’t be made like a tool chest. No man would tolerate breaking his very strong back to get a pan, or his nerve to pull out a drawer, which so often sticks, for a can opener! ”

“ Electricity is not dangerous when properly employed. It is dangerous when you use it wrongly. If you put your hand under a boiling hot stream of water you will get burnt. If you put your hand on a red hot stove you will get burnt; if you burn a fire in a wooden box you will have more fire than you bargained for; if you inhale gas you will die. Such is the case with electricity, which is a most controllable force if you are not ignorant as to how to use it. However, if you will put a hot curling iron on your table without turning off your current you will have a cozy little fire start up ”

“ The plumbing in the house is akin to the alimentary canal in the human body, and is as complicated a system as the alimentary canal. The system of plumbing in the house is a series of pipes which carries water to the house, and eliminates it as it carries with it various forms of waste, connecting the house with the main sources of water, gas and with the sewage system. The best plumbing is that which effects these things with the least deterioration and with the least mixture of sewer gas and foreign matter.
Every community has its own plumbing laws and regulations. ”

“ To-day the weather strip is gentler and not only keeps the cold air at bay, but keeps out the dust and noise and permits the window to go up and down more easily because it runs on a metal track; really the weather strip allows it to glide like magic. To move a window with the weather stripping affixed is a pleasure which the weakest reed can enjoy. ”

“ It has been imagined that sun and wind alone dry clothes but the fact is that air is the drying medium and therefore the best dryers provide a good circulation of air plus heat. Dry air has a tremendous love for moisture and eats it up as a blotter eats up ink. The warmer the air the more moisture it will hug. This would seem enough, just to bake the clothes, but baking does not remove odors and does render them yellow; they are unventilated and smell like the laundry, so people are prone to say “Sun drying or nothing.” ”

“ If you would give a regal gift to the Monarch of Culinaria, the kitchen cabinet is the thing. It is compact little kitchen “with everything in it but the kitchen stove,” and fills the need of the worker in the badly planned and equipped city kitchen and the unplanned kitchen out of town.
Although not exclusively a kitchen gift, the vacuum cleaner cannot be excelled as a present. Once bestowed you are looked upon as a fairy god-parent. Why not give one for a wedding present sometime? ”

“ To be one hundred per cent American, each one of us must eat at least two and a quarter quarts of ice-cream annually. This is the national American dish, despite Boston’s claim for the baked bean and the South’s for beaten biscuits.
Rich and poor, the be-butlered and the maidless make their own ice-cream. The more remote from civilization, the more each individual housekeeper makes her own ice-cream. ”

“ Rapidity is its chief attribute. By this rapidity in cooking there is a saving of fuel, and as the utensils are taken directly from the stove, as are the casseroles, and used on the tables, there is the same saving of service time. These glass utensils bring out the flavors in all kinds of foods; they do not absorb odors or greases; they are very easy to keep clean; there is never any burn to remove and one can always see inside the utensil to find out how the food is faring! ”

“ The velvety quiet of these floors imparts a tranquillity to the kitchen, contagious to mistress and to maid.
It is needless to say much for the tile as you know its beauties. It may be cold to the feet, non-resistant and tiring to the back and slippery when wet, but this is overcome by mats of matting, cork or linoleum. Tile is made in every design and color to fit any desire or design. All corners and joints at the base of walls can be curved. It makes a unit of the whole room in design and intention as no other thing does. It can be cleaned out with a small hose. ”

“ But now when there are specialists descanting on the glories of saving steps, time and money there is little excuse. In this article one stumbling block will be removed and the kitchen can well transform itself into a room where the most methodical man can work and where any maid coming in for the first time will not have to use levers, telescopes, periscopes and what not to prepare the first meal. For the kitchen cabinet is the first plank in the platform of standardizing domestic work even as it is being standardized in the factory. ”

“ Remember that electricity, magic as it is, can burn as well as any flame, so don’t let your curtains blow against a red hot electric radiator and then blame it on the electricity which after all is your servant if you make it so by right treatment.
Always ask your salesman to what the device purchased should be attached. Some things are designed for the ordinary lamp socket, and others need different connections.
Many electric appliances have the pilot light to tell you whether your electric current is on or off. Yet it is wise to be your own pilot and remember what you are doing. ”

“ May it be said at the start that aluminum and enamel (best quality) can be used on any stove. Aluminum is more expensive but doesn’t blacken up on the stove and lives longer than enamels. We will not take up copper, as it is too heavy and costly for the ordinary kitchen and takes too much labor to keep in the brightened condition in which it should be kept.
We favor glass whenever it can be substituted for kitchen utensils as the most ideal oven utensil. If your purse can stand it and its initial expense, it will save fuel, time and energy in the end and therefore money. ”

“ There is just as much reason for looking into the character of her butcher before she buys from him as for looking into her cook’s reputation before she hires her. In this respect the housewife is a purchasing agent and she should apply the same exacting principles that a purchasing agent of a factory does.
The household equipment can generally be divided into departments, just as office work is divided into departments. There is the cooking department, the laundry department and the cleaning department. ”

“ A good refrigerator is a jewel, and it is the first requisite to be considered. It must be insulated well enough to keep out hot air and hold in cold. It must be seamless and smooth in its linings. The air circulation must be continuous. The temperature inside must never be higher than an average of 45° and rarely that. In such a refrigerator one should be able to keep matches dry and butter must never absorb any of the charm of the onion.
If you have such a refrigerator, keep it by all means, and install the ice-making machine. ”

“ Since the privilege of voting has been given women and since their weight is being felt in elections, the cry has died down. The simple reason is that neither the employment of women in war-work nor the radical challenges of the ultra-feminist has altered the fundamental fact that the home is a woman’s realm. Now you can banish her to the home and make it such a place of drudgery that she loathes it; or she can abide there as a queenly figure, director of its work. ”

“ There is an ideal mixer on the market which attacks and synthesizes a mayonnaise, cream or eggs, mixes cakes, makes bread of its ingredients, and all in all can almost be hitched to the stars and change the rotations of the solar system, extravagantly speaking. It is modeled on a giant mixer formerly used in hotels and soda fountains but now adapted to home use. Furthermore, it is prepared to annihilate meats, nuts and fruits. It is a complete power unit and worked by electricity. ”

“ As with the mayonnaise mixing, these utilitarian investments take the guess work out of cake, meringues, batters. Improper mixing is an immorality not easily cleansed from kitchens. Yet these instruments with perfection of mechanical agitation do the mixing with assurance and become real vice chasers. Imagine! (all things being right) —you can be sure that success will come to your cakes, sauces, breads, rolls, pies, cookies, doughnuts, cheese dishes, puddings, sauces—Remember that lumpy cream sauce? Well no more of that! Your sauces and your mashed vegetables will be lumpless! ”

“ There is to-day, besides the heavy tile, metal and composition roof, an asbestos roofing in the shape of shingles of any color and shape that will wear indefinitely, and is absolutely fireproof, moisture-proof and light enough to be put on any house. Furthermore if you don’t want to remove the old wooden roof, this shingle can be put over it and make a better roof than without the old one, as the insulation value of the wood will keep the attic warm in winter and cool in summer. There are many asbestos roofings, the best of which are made of asbestos fiber, cement ”

“ Stoves of themselves don’t get very dirty. It is the foods that are the transgressors. It is wisest to clean all stoves when cold. Use kerosene or stove black. In the case of the gas stove, when the gas vents become clogged by drippings of food it is well at least once a week to take them out and emerse in soda and water. Wipe off grease and grit before cleaning surface of stove and always remove dirt at once. If grease is removed after every using of the stove, it will be very easily maintained in cleanliness and it will never run away with you. ”

“ There is no aperture so shaped that it cannot be framed in screens by the ablest screen makers. In the case of the metal screen the bent work is really a work of art, in that they are not puckered or pinched, but are sans humps, sans bumps, sans everything but beauty, rigidity and conformity to conditions. ”

“ A brush that gouges and does a chisel’s work is a poor brush, no matter what quality the fiber or brush mark. The brush you buy for your wall or your hardwood floor must not scratch, and must have nothing in its construction that can scratch. Likewise, the brush you buy for your toilet bowl must not scratch or wear the enamel and the bristles must be bristles, for if of fiber you will have your brush acting like a blotter. Your brush must clean and brush, it must not become a bacteria nestling haven. ”

“ Gunpowder can be made out of the air, but that isn’t what we are looking for—after all it’s a constructive use we give it—breathing and health. Of late, people are longing for health—see the new religious sects. So the home longs for it, and devices are continually being made to give the home more air and better. An automatic device to make rooms breathe is now a practical thing. It looks like a little box of copper wire on one side, open on the other and fitted with little shutters so that the warm air escapes and the cool fresh air is imprisoned in the room. ”