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    THE LABOUR-SAVING HOUSE




  _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_


  WAR RATION COOKERY (The Eat-less-meat Book)
  LEARNING TO COOK
  10/- A HEAD FOR HOUSE BOOKS


  NOVELS

  THE HAT SHOP
  MRS. BARNET-ROBES
  A MRS. JONES

[Illustration:

      _PLATE I_

A FINE OLD RAEBURN MANTEL-PIECE AND FIRE-PLACE FITTED WITH A MODERN
"DOG" GRATE AND GAS FIRE AND ALSO WITH GAS "CANDLE" STANDARDS]




    THE LABOUR-SAVING HOUSE

    BY MRS. C. S. PEEL

    [Illustration]

    LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD

    NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXVIII

  The greatest Labour-Saving apparatus which we possess is the Brain: it
  has not been worn out by too much use.


  _SECOND EDITION_

  PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE ANCHOR PRESS LTD. TIPTREE ESSEX




AUTHOR'S NOTE


Some portion of this book appeared in the form of articles in _The
Queen_ and _The Evening Standard_. My thanks are due to the Editors of
those papers for permission to republish them.

      DOROTHY C. PEEL.




  CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                               PAGE

  i.    Why do we need Labour-Saving Houses?               3

  ii.   Labour-Saving Houses and the Servant Problem       7

  iii.  The Labour-Saving House as it Might Be            29

  iv.   The Labour-Saving House as it Can Be              53

  v.    The Work of a Labour-Making House, and the
         Work of a Labour-Saving House                    73

  vi.   Other People's Experiences of Labour-Saving
         Homes                                            87

  vii.  Other People's Experiences of Labour-Saving
         Homes (_continued_)                             119

  viii. Coal, Coke, and Gas: How to Use Them to the
         Best Advantage                                  141

  ix.   The Electric House. Cooking, Heating, Cleaning
         and Lighting by Electricity                     171

        A Final Word                                     187

        Index                                            189




  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


  NO.
  1. Gas Heater                                        _Frontispiece_
  2. Gas Heater                                           PAGE      8
  3. Gas Heater                                            "        9
  4. Gas Heater                                            "       15
  5. Gas Heater                                            "       18
  6. Gas Cooker                                            "       31
  7. Gas Heating                                           "       31
  8. Gas Heating                                           "       33
  9. Gas Heating                                           "       35
  10. Gas Lighting                                         "       44
  11. Gas Lighting                                         "       45
  12. Gas Lighting                                         "       47
  13. Gas Cooker                                           "       51
  14. Gas Cooking                                          "       62
  15. Gas Heating (Water)                                  "       64
  16. Gas Cooker                                           "       67
  17. Gas Heating (Water)                                  "       71
  18. Gas Heating (Water)                                  "       75
  19. Gas Kitchen                                          "       79
  20. Gas Cooking                                          "       81
  21. Gas Kitchen                                          "       85
  22. Gas Kitchener                                        "       93
  23. Gas Kitchen                                          "       95
  24. Gas Destructor                                       "       97
  25. Gas Kitchen                                          "      101
  26. Gas-Reading (Meter)                                  "      105
  27. Gas Oven                                             "      108
  28. Gas Oven                                             "      111
  29. Gas Steamer                                          "      117
  30. Gas Utensils                                         "      124
  31. Gas Oven                                             "      126
  32. Electric Kitchen                                     "      131
  33. Electric Iron and Electric Heater                    "      134
  34. Electric Kitchen                                     "      142
  35. Dining-room Hot-Plate and Dreadnought Machine        "      143
  36. Electric Cooker                                      "      145
  37. Electric Fire                                        "      148
  38. Electric Cooker                                      "      157
  39. Electric Cooker                                      "      160
  40. Electric Transformer Co.                             "      163
  41. Electric Transformer Co., Delightful Inventions      "      164
  42. Electric Transformer Co., Breakfast Cooker           "      176
  42. Electric Transformer Co., Toaster and Hot-Plate      "      176
  43. Electric Cooker                                      "      177
  44. Gas Oven                                             "      180
  45. Electric Fireplace                                   "      181
  46. Electric Radiator                                    "      188




  In almost every English house at least a third of each day is wasted
  in doing work which in no way adds to the comfort of its inmates.




    CHAPTER I

    WHAT THIS CHAPTER IS ABOUT

    _Why Labour-Saving Houses are Needed_




    THE LABOUR-SAVING HOUSE




    CHAPTER I

    WHY LABOUR-SAVING HOUSES ARE NEEDED


Why do we need Labour-Saving Houses?

Because:

    1.--Life is too short and time too valuable to waste in doing work
        which is unnecessary and which adds little or nothing to our
        comfort.

    2.--There is a scarcity of labour. Girls of the class from which
        domestic servants were drawn formerly now dislike service. The
        would-be employer finds it difficult to obtain servants and to
        keep them when obtained.

    3.--Unless great changes are made in our houses and households it
        will become even more difficult to obtain servants, because so
        many professions are now open to young women that they are in a
        position to choose how they will earn a living.

    4.--When servants are not obtainable, the mistress is driven to
        turn to and do the work of her own house. That is why a demand for
        labour-saving mechanism is making itself felt.

    5.--Owing to modern inventions, it is now possible to achieve a house
        in which a family may be housed and fed in comfort at half the
        cost of labour which is absorbed in the labour-making house.

    6.--It is pleasanter to spend money on the things one likes than to
        squander it on unnecessary coals and kitchenmaids.


  House-keeping. Home-making.

  What do these words mean?

  They mean so much that is vital to the individual and to the nation
  that one could weep for the stupidity which permits any untrained and
  ill-educated girl to become a nurse, a cook, a housemaid, a mother,
  and the mistress of a home!




    CHAPTER II

    WHAT THIS CHAPTER IS ABOUT


    _The Ignorant Employer--The Incompetent Servant--Wanted! a New Race
    of Mistresses--Domestic Training for all Girls--Its Value to the
    Nation--"Menial" Work--The Surplus of Governesses, Secretaries, and
    Companions, and the Scarcity of Servants--Genteel Professions--What
    the Servant Dislikes--How to Popularise Domestic Service._




    CHAPTER II

    THE SERVANT PROBLEM AND SOME SOLUTIONS OF IT


    I

"Servants? We haven't a single-handed cook or a house-parlourmaid on
our books, madam."

This, in many cases, is the reply of the registry office to-day, and
as time goes on the shortage of domestic workers will become more and
more acute. Of highly-paid upper servants, with under-servants to
wait upon them, there is no lack, for the supply of persons wishing
to fill the few "plum" posts in any profession is always adequate;
but as there is a lack of under-servants, even the very rich find it
difficult to secure a satisfactory household; while the mistress who
needs a house-parlourmaid, a single-handed cook, a "general," or even
a single-handed house- or parlourmaid finds it almost impossible to
induce a suitable girl to accept her situation.

Why should this be?

"The war," says every one. "All the young women are busy conducting
tramcars, selling bacon, and punching railway tickets."

But why are all the young women anxious to be anything but domestic
servants?

As a matter of fact this dislike to service has not been brought about
by the war; it has been growing steadily for many years, and to a great
extent employers have only themselves to thank for a state of affairs
which they so bitterly deplore.

[Illustration:

      _PLATE II_

THE DAVIS "ADAM" GAS FIRE IN AN ADAM STYLE MANTEL]


The Ignorant Employer.

What sane person would undertake the management of a business knowing
nothing of the conduct of it? Yet this is what young women of the
moneyed classes have done ever since it became the fashion to despise
domesticity, to imagine that housekeeping was a pursuit fit only for
women too stupid to do anything else. The girl marries: to her, cookery
and household work are deep, dark mysteries. How do you clean silver?
How long does it take to turn out a bedroom? Do you allow 2 lbs. or
12 lbs. of margarine per week for a household of six persons? What is
dripping? The cook says soup cannot be made without soup meat. Can't
it? And what is soup meat? Imagine the annoyance of working under the
control of such an employer!

Honest, competent servants become disheartened, the incompetent remain
incompetent, while the ignorance of the mistress makes the temptation
to be dishonest well-nigh irresistible. It is the ignorance of the
mistress also that has enabled the perquisite and commission system
(polite names for theft) to flourish, and which make it possible for
tradesmen to employ men at low wages on the tacit understanding that a
high wage may be gained by fleecing the customer.

[Illustration:

      _PLATE III_

AN "ADAM" DESIGN GAS DOG GRATE PLACED IN A FINE OLD FIRE-PLACE IN A
LARGE HALL

Note also the attractive gas candle brackets. (Richmond)]


No Chance for the Incompetent Servant.

Again, had the servant-employers of this country a proper knowledge
of their duties, the incompetent servant would have little chance to
exist. She would have been taught her work, and if she would not do it,
have been dismissed.

But nine times out of ten the mistress does not know how to teach, and
is so dependent on her servants that she must keep anyone rather than
be left servantless.

The result of our genteel dislike of "menial" duties has not only
encouraged dishonesty and incompetence in our servants, it has actually
lessened the supply. The mistress who has never cleaned a room or
cooked a dinner cannot realise the difficulties of either task. Hence
it is that because domestic work generally has been done by paid
servants, we have made but little effort to plan and furnish our houses
in a labour-saving fashion. We have also failed to move with the times,
and to realise that no matter if we approve or disapprove, young girls
now demand more variety and more freedom in their lives than was
formerly the case.


Wanted! a New Race of Mistresses.

A race of competent, sympathetic mistresses might have made domestic
service one of the most sought-after of the professions open to the
average woman. They might have eliminated practically all the hard
and dirty work of the house, they might have organised regular hours
for exercise and recreation, and by their own example shown what war
is now teaching us--the incalculable value to the nation of the good
housekeeper. In their scorn of domestic duties Englishwomen have
forgotten that the sole duty of the housewife is not to know the price
of mutton: it is her duty, and that of those who work with her, to
bring up a race of decently behaved, clean, well-fed people, and to
make of her home a place of peace and goodwill, a centre from which
radiates a right influence.

Is this the work for the woman too stupid for aught else? or is it the
work of a true patriot?

It is often said that the English govern their Government, and there is
truth in the statement. The Press keeps its finger on the public pulse:
when that shows signs of excitement, the Press acts, and between them,
Public and Press set Parliament moving.


Domestic Training for all Girls.

Possibly, in time, the serious lack of domestic labour will excite the
Public and the Press to such a pitch that the Government will realise
that every girl, no matter of what class, should be taught how to cook
and to clean and to wash, tend and feed a young child, and not only be
taught how to do these things, but impressed with the idea that in so
doing she is as surely performing her duty to her country as are the
soldier, sailor, doctor, scientist, or merchant.

But the fact that you teach girls these things will not cause them to
become servants, you object.

I am by no means sure that you are right. When all girls have been
through a course of domestic training, and when they have been
impressed with the national importance of such work, they will regard
it from a point of view different from that which now obtains.

The girl who becomes the employer will know what she is asking of her
employée; she will realise that to labour indoors from 6.30 or 7 to 10
or 10.30 five days a week is not attractive to a young girl. The work
may not be continuous: there will be half-hours of rest and talk with
the other maids; but the fact remains that the servant is on duty and
liable to be called upon at any time during those hours.

The mistress, who has been a worker, will also realise how hard and
disagreeable are some of the tasks required of the servant in a
labour-making home.

On the other hand, the servant will know that she cannot take advantage
of the ignorance of