Just around Cape Horn lies the strange, wild land of Tierra del Fuego, of which little is known. Darwin, however, wrote of it in his "Voyage of a Naturalist," and scientists find in it much of interest.

CHAPTER VI

THE BUSINESS OF BEING A HOUSEKEEPER

The following topics have been arranged in ten groups, but as many more may be added by dividing each main group into two, or even three or four. There may be readings at each meeting from the books given for reference, and discussion by club members.

I--INTRODUCTORY

The subject for the first meeting may be the Old Housekeeping and the New. One paper may take the comparison of housekeeping twenty years ago and more and that of to-day. Is there a real difference, or only a seeming one! Are rents, food, and clothing actually higher for the same things, or does life to-day demand that we add to what we then had?

a.s.suming that prices have really gone up, and are to stay there, what can women do to adjust themselves to the fact?

The second paper should speak of the necessity of a woman's knowing exactly what she can have to spend; of knowledge of her husband's business; of an allowance; of the need of training in keeping within a fixed sum.

The third paper is to be on the budget. That is, on preparing a list of expenses, setting them down in a book, apportioning the income among the items, and then putting down each day and month the actual outgo, and so, year by year, altering and arranging the expenses to meet the income. The discussion should take the form of personal experiences in keeping household accounts.

II--SYSTEMATIC HOUSEKEEPING

The introductory paper on this subject may speak of the complex way in which our houses are furnished, and the superfluity of things in them.

Also the fact that the day's work of caring for them is not always clearly defined and carried out.

The second paper may treat of the relief of a weekly schedule of work to be done.

The third paper may take the topic of the conservation of a woman's energy, and the carelessness with which she runs up and down stairs and does unnecessary and foolish things. Mention here the help to be found in vacuum cleaners, modern dusters, carpet sweepers, and other housekeeping helps.

Discuss the question: How shall we make our brains save our bodies?

III--ECONOMY IN FOOD

By way of opening the meeting a brief paper may be read on What Is True Economy? This will point out the fallacy of buying poor foods because they are cheap, wilted vegetables, stale cereals, inferior canned goods, and the like. This may be followed by one on the question of buying.

Where shall a housekeeper buy--at a large market or a small one? How can one learn how to buy good and still cheap meats? How can one do with less meat? And is buying in large quant.i.ties a good plan?

The third paper may take up markets, their cleanliness; the housewives'

leagues of certain cities and their work; what can country women do whose market is limited?

The last paper should speak of the necessity of personal supervision by the housekeeper; of the imprudence of ordering by telephone, and of the system of giving orders at the door to the grocer.

The discussion may turn on the question of paying cash for everything or charging.

IV--COOKING

A good beginning is a review of the cooking of our grandmothers, cooking in various parts of the country, and cooking in foreign lands.

Scientific cooking is, first, a knowledge of food values, but it also includes the art of cooking, and both may be presented. Show how an expert cook will use whatever materials she has at hand and will avoid the use of costly ingredients. A good topic here is, How shall we have variety without increasing the expense?

The kitchen as a workshop is the subject of the next paper. Make it plain that one needs a clean, sanitary room, with everything to work with; suggest new utensils, fireless cookers, and so on, and describe the ideal kitchen.

Close with a discussion on the point: How can a woman learn to be a good cook? Mention cooking schools, demonstrations and lectures, the study of magazine articles and the pamphlets sent out by the Department of Agriculture. Clubs might form cooking cla.s.ses as an outcome of this meeting.

V--THE LAUNDRY

This topic may be arranged in two parts: the work done at home and the work sent out. Under the first speak of the former methods and how washing and ironing days were dreaded, and the old difficult ways of working. The second paper will take the new ideas, and mention running water, stationary tubs, washing machines, mangles, gas stoves, modern flat-irons, and other appliances for the laundry. Speak of the economy of buying soap, starch, and bluing at wholesale.

At this meeting members may bring in ill.u.s.trations from catalogues of anything they have seen which promises to help in doing laundry work at home.

The other part of the program would naturally take up the larger aspects of the question. Have a paper on public laundries: Are they sanitary? Is it economical to have shirts done up there rather than at home? Describe the methods of some large laundry.

The last paper would deal with the washerwoman at one's own home, and at hers. Is it extravagant to hire a day's work when one could really do it one's self? Is it safe to send washing out to a home which may not be clean?

The discussion may be on the point: How shall we reduce the size of the family wash? Are there short cuts in laundry work?

VI--SERVICE

Service in the Home is the general theme for the sixth club meeting.

As in other meetings, it is well to begin with a paper on other days, perhaps from Colonial times down, and to speak of the difference in servants in their social position then and now, and the contrast in wages.

The second paper may mention the scarcity of servants to-day, and the reasons why there are so few; of the dissatisfaction with domestic service; the rise in wages for untrained service; of immigrants; the foreign servants in the West and the negro in the South.

The third paper may be on employment bureaus, references, and the relation of one employer to another; the relation of mistress and servant is most interesting. Speak of the question of the responsibility of a mistress for her maid's morals, for one, and the old and sick servant, for another.

The last paper may be on the servantless home and how to manage it. This will take up the division of work between parents and children, the possibility of entertaining, the advantages and disadvantages of doing one's own work, and a statement of the saving of money by the plan.

Contrast the loss of other things, of time certainly, and possibly of social life and physical strength. Discuss: Is it an extravagance or an economy to hire the hard work of the family?

VII--CLOTHING

The first paper on this subject is to discuss the real and apparent difference in the cost of dressing a family a generation ago and now.

Are materials more, or less, expensive? Is the cost in the making? Do we have too many clothes? Does not the trouble lie in the fact that we need so many different clothes, thus increasing the size of the wardrobe, rather than in the cost of each individual garment?

The following paper may be on shopping. It should be very practical and suggest that shopping out of season is economical; that too much shopping is extravagant in time and car fares; that a bargain counter is seldom a good place to buy anything; that good materials wear longer than poor ones.

The last paper may be on ready-made clothing. How is it made so cheaply?

What of the conditions under which garments are made? What of ordering by mail? Is the material of any ready-made garment really as good as it looks at first? How does it wear as compared to that made elsewhere?

There should be an excellent discussion on this subject, covering such things as: Home dressmaking; does it pay? Is it an economy to take lessons in dressmaking and millinery? Is making-over always cheap? Does it pay to dye one's gowns? How can we systematize the making of our wardrobes so that sewing shall occupy us only a small part of our time?