rejudices.
These house experts will, I think, be women of the broadest education,
scientific and social. They will have not only a certain amount of medical
knowledge, but also the tact and enthusiasm of the missionary which will
bring them as friends and benefactors to the despairing mother and the
discouraged householder.
That there is a beginning of this demand, I can testify; that it will
grow, I believe. As soon as a group of trained women are ready, they will
find occupation if the advance in housing conditions which I foresee is to
become a reality.
Within the last two or three years the author has received requests from
all over the country for suggestions as to kitchen design and
construction.
The two illustrations here given show one little step in the right
direction. The cuts represent a remodelled kitchen in Providence, R.I.
The floor is of lignolith laid down in one sheet and carried up as a
wainscoting so that no crevice exists for entrance of insects or dust.
Such floors are yet in their infancy and need suitable preparation for
laying, just as macadamized streets fail if the foundation is faulty. The
idea is all that we are here concerned with. One of the features to be
especially noted is the use of glass for shelves. Why should the hospital
monopolize the materials for antiseptic work? When it is understood how
much hospital work is caused because of dirt in the preparation and
keeping of food, the kitchen will receive its share of attention.
To-day the cost of shelter is about one third for the house and two thirds
for the expense of running it, largely due to dirt and its consequences.
Mr. Wells wisely says: "Most dusting and sweeping would be quite avoidable
if houses were wiselier done."
When the real twentieth-century house is put up our young engineer and
college instructor will be willing to pay $400 to $500 rent, because wages
and running expenses will be $100 less and the company owning the houses
will not expect more than 4%, largely because repairs will be less and
permanence of tenure more assured. The old type of wooden house used by
the old type of tenant could not be expected to last more than a few
years, which justified a higher rate of interest. For the tenement tenant
of the better class twenty years has been the estimate, so that the cost
of building could not be distributed over fifty years as it should be.
The house will be made of reinforced concrete or its succe
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