oom, obviously calls for a fine orgy with paint and whitewash;
a gilded Sheraton mirror or another oil painting involves general
commotion and often complete rearrangement of the living room. All
this is very painful for those who don't like change; but, for us, it
helps to answer the question so often propounded by innocent city
visitors, "What do you do with yourselves in such a quiet spot?"

THE FACTORY PART OF THE HOUSE

[Illustration]

_CHAPTER XII_

THE FACTORY PART OF THE HOUSE

The Early American kitchen was the most important room in the house.
Here the family spent most of its waking hours. Here the food was
cooked, served, and eaten; the spinning and weaving done; the candles
for lighting the house poured into molds. It was the warmest room in
winter and around its hearth the family gathered both for work and
recreation.

Cheerful and pleasant it undoubtedly was, but there was little idea of
making work easy or saving steps. Today we may furnish our living
rooms in the 18th century manner, put 17th century dressers in our
dining rooms, and hang Betty lamps and other quaint devices around the
fireplace; but when it comes to the kitchen, we step forward into the
20th century and are well content. We have heard of enthusiasts who
occasionally cook an entire meal in a fireplace and insist that it is
far superior to any done by modern methods; but even these devotees of
old ways pale at the thought of three meals a day, three hundred and
sixty-five days in the year, so prepared.

Today's kitchen, stripped of accessories and talking points, is
essentially a laboratory where semi-prepared food stuffs are processed
for consumption. The automobile industry has demonstrated to the
nation what remarkable things can be done by having labor conditions
and proper tools on a logical train of production. With no waste of
human effort, no running back and forth, work starts at one end of the
assembly chain, and off the other, in about two hours, comes a new
car. In the same way, a properly planned kitchen eliminates waste
steps and, with plenty of light and air, becomes a pleasant place to
work.

In this domestic laboratory, one expects, of course, to find a cook
stove of some sort, a sink, a refrigerator, a kitchen cabinet or
compounding bench, a table, and plenty of storage space. With the
assembly idea in mind, have these so planned that the work of cooking
three meals a day progresses logically fr