VI
HYGIENE AND PLUMBING
SOME of the apparently minor details of housekeeping really possess more importance than those which seem to bulk larger.
Consider drains, for instance. In this day it is taken for granted that no one buys or rents a house without being assured that the plumbing is in perfect order, as well as having been of the best quality in the beginning. I say that this is taken for granted, and yet I feel I should modify this statement, recollecting homes in which I have been a guest where the plumbing is obsolete and neglected to a degree which would be dangerous with even the most up-to-date fittings. When such carelessness exists relative to the old-fashioned closed plumbing with the cheapest and least scientific of traps and stop-cocks, one gains a rather alarming notion of the hazards to which householders recklessly subject their families.
Let me state here that the absence of evil odor is no proof that drains and traps are in excellent order. The deadly sewer-gas is practically without smell, and persons can be badly poisoned by it with no warning on the part of their olfactory nerves. There are tests which will demonstrate the presence of noxious vapors, but these must be made by sanitary engineers or specialists in this line. Unless the dweller in any home is positively assured that the drains, plumbing, etc., are in perfect condition there should be no delay in making such tests and in proving the good or evil state of the house-fittings.
This is not sufficient, however. The drains must be kept clear, not only for such a simple hygienic reason as the desire to guard against disease, but also because a greasy or dirty pipe soon means a choked pipe, and this in turn brings the inconvenience of a sink which cannot be used, of a backed-up overflow of waste water, with the possible accompaniment of injured floor-coverings, walls, and ceilings.
The expert may be required to decide as to the perfection of drains. The veriest beginner in housekeeping needs little education to know how to keep them free. In the first place she should see that nothing is thrown down a waste-pipe but the things it is meant to carry off. When wads of paper, broken pasteboard boxes, rolls of hair-combings, and similar refuse are flung into the mouth of even a wide and generous waste-pipe there is pretty sure to be trouble sooner or later. When grease and particles of food, tea-leaves, coffee-grounds, and collections of dust are dumped into a sink, or a corresponding amount of debris is permitted to try to make its way through the pipe running from the wash-basin, no one but the person guilty of such gross carelessness may be to blame, but the whole household is likely to suffer for the offense.
In view of the fact that most persons are heedless, the housekeeper should protect herself and others against risks. One of the simplest helps to this is the use of washing-soda—a chemical which is absolutely ruinous to clothing when used as a detergent in laundry-work, but is admirable for cutting grease or fat which has accumulated in waste-pipes and for eating away other foreign particles which have gathered there. I hasten to add that it will not disintegrate strands of hair or bone buttons—both of which are often found by plumbers in the joints of choked pipes they have been called in to open!
Another aid to keeping the pipes clean and free is household ammonia. This does not need to be poured clear into the pipes, but when it has been employed in rinsing greasy dishes or in cleansing the sink, or in brightening glass or silver, the hot water to which it has been added is of distinct benefit to the waste-pipes. It may be suggested, by the way, that one of the best methods for using the washing-soda is to lay a good-sized lump of it over the drain-pipe from the sink so that the water which goes down carries particles of the soda with it on their cleansing errand.
Either ammonia or a solution of washing-soda should be used in rinsing out the set-tubs after laundry-work has been done. When one thinks of the human waste from the skin which adheres to the clothing and is washed off from it in these tubs, there is a degree of foulness in the notion of letting the tubs pass with no more cleansing than the rinsing they get from the second or third water through which the clothes are passed.
Other cleansing preparations come which are perhaps less severe in their effect on the hands than the common washing-soda. Many of those on the market are known to be excellent by the proof they have given housekeepers. The names of several of these will at once suggest themselves to any one who keeps up with the times in the line of domestic helps. Whatever the chosen cleaning medium may be, a bottle or box of it should always stand in the bath-room, not only for rinsing out pipes and keeping them clear, but also for preserving the purity of basin and tub and toilet-bowl.
I have often been impressed by the carelessness of housekeepers in this detail, especially in homes where there are several children. Evidently these have never been taught the niceties of rinsing out the tub after bathing, or the basin after washing the hands. Around each vessel runs a high-tide mark of soap or dirt, the mere sight of which is enough to deter the observer from using bowl or bath. The touch of the hand to the inside of either will almost always discover a sediment or accretion of grease or dirt or both. This accumulation is readily removed by a soap-rubbed cloth or by one dipped in ammonia or other detersive. Such care may seem a trifling detail, but it is one which should never be neglected.
In connection with this a word does not come amiss as to the superior attractiveness of nickel bath-room fittings, or of those of the kitchen or butler’s pantry, when they are kept bright and clean, over those which are suffered to lapse into dinginess. When the nickel coating is hopelessly scoured off it is not a serious matter to have the fittings done over and made to look like new.
The whole care of the bath-room deserves more attention than it usually receives. Soiled towels and wet wash-cloths should not be flung down here and there, or stray medicine-bottles and medicine-boxes left in untidy rows on the shelves. The medicine-cabinet should be kept in order; the towels and wash-cloths folded neatly and hung up after using; clean towels in plenty in readiness for the chance guest; the soap-dish should be scoured scrupulously as often as once a day. Of course it takes time to do these little things, but their presence or absence marks the difference between the good and the careless housekeeper.
Washing-soda has another use beyond that of keeping drain-pipes clear. A solution of it is excellent for washing out the ice-box or refrigerator. This process should take place at least once a week. When this is said it is not meant that the ice-box should not be cleared out oftener than that. A new piece of ice should not go into it if there is a possibility of bits of food of any sort having been left in the corners or cracks of the ice-chamber. Daily inspection of the contents of the refrigerator will make sure that all food in it is keeping well and is sweet and fresh.
In most well-made refrigerators of the day the shelves are so built that they can be slipped in and out. By this plan they can be scrubbed clean and the sides of the refrigerator can also be scoured off, as would not be feasible with non-detachable shelves. After it has been made clean a few pieces of charcoal should be laid in the corners. This will keep the place sweet by absorbing the odors from food, and every few days the fragments of charcoal should be thrown out and new ones put in their place.
Even with this care the ice-box will sometimes get a close smell; at such times a small shovel should be made nearly red-hot, a little ground coffee sprinkled upon it, and this put into the refrigerator for a few minutes. It should be understood by every housekeeper that butter, milk, and cream should never be kept near strong-smelling articles of food. They absorb the odors and taste of the items they have been with.
Milk is usually kept in open dishes or pans for those who wish to get the full good of the cream which rises to the surface, and nothing else except other milk products or perhaps fresh eggs should be permitted near it.
When highly flavored foods of any sort must be kept in a refrigerator they should either be closely covered—which is not always possible or desirable—or put in a chamber by themselves. Butter should not be suffered to remain in the wooden boxes or plates on which it is often sent home; lettuce and greens should either be washed before they are put away or wrapped in clean paper. Lettuce is best rinsed and then done up in a clean cloth before it is laid near the ice.
When canned goods of any sort are opened they should at once be turned from the tin. They will keep indefinitely in the can while this is sealed, but as soon as the air gets at the contents a chemical change is wrought by the contact of the fluid and the tin and the food soon becomes affected and a positive menace to health. The housekeeper should always have in her stock a number of small bowls or dishes into which to turn the fruit, vegetables, etc., which have been sent home to her in a can.
A wire meat-safe is an important item to have in the pantry, when there is room for such a convenience. Lacking this space, the dweller in flats achieves a compromise by a box built outside of her kitchen window, covered on top with oilcloth or other water-proof material, that the contents may be kept dry. According to the exposure of the window to the sun, the sides of the box may either be of wire netting or solid wood. In length the box matches the width of the window and is usually high enough to allow of two shelves. In this improvised outdoor pantry can be kept in cool weather many articles which would otherwise crowd the refrigerator unduly and would perhaps wither or spoil in the warm kitchen or pantry.
Every convenience she can lay her hands on the housekeeper is within her rights in securing. When it is worth while it pays for itself in sparing her busy hands and feet, in easing the tire of her overworked back. On her floor she should have linoleum, as it is easier to keep clean than the bare boards, more sanitary and more convenient than rugs.
The study of how to arrange her kitchen so as to save herself steps is one of the first things the new housekeeper should undertake. The table should stand near the sink and not too far from the stove; the utensils most frequently in service should be hung on a row of hooks close at hand or be ranged on a couple of shelves above the table. Here, too, should be such articles of seasoning, etc., as are in constant demand—the salt-box, the pepper-cruet, the vinegar-bottle, the flour-dredger, and the like. The bread-box and bread-board should be near the table on which the loaf is to be sliced; the bread-knife should be close by.
One of the greatest conveniences for a kitchen is that piece of furniture called a kitchen cabinet, which unites the functions of a dresser, a receptacle for provisions, a table or shelf at which to make bread and roll pastry, and various other qualities that must be known to be appreciated fully. These cabinets come in different sizes, styles, and finish, and are easily made by the clever home carpenter.
The fireless cooker must not pass unnoticed, whether this be of the home-made hay-box kind or of the more elaborate variety containing plates to heat for cooking the contents of the vessels of the cooker. Whichever make is selected, the cooker itself is one of the most potent aids the housekeeper can have as a saver of time, of fuel, of labor, and of fatigue. By its assistance the meal virtually cooks itself, once it has been started in the right way. Food prepared in the fireless cooker preserves its flavor as it cannot do if cooked in the oven or on top of the stove, and there is far less waste of the material of each article than if it were suffered to go off in steam and aroma.
The most popular fuel of the day is undoubtedly gas, since the cost of electric equipment puts it beyond the reach of most housekeepers of moderate means. Yet there are many parts of the country where all cookery must be done by coal or even by wood, and where the only solace of the worker is that she has the comfort of the heat in winter and the benefits of slow cooking at all times.
For housekeepers who must buy their coal it is well to know that the most advantageous mixture for the average-sized range is a mixture of egg-coal and nut-coal, in the proportion of equal parts of the red ash and the white ash. The latter burns more slowly than the former, while this gives a stronger fire and makes fewer cinders.
A fresh fire need not be made more than once a week if the housekeeper is careful to rake out the ashes at bedtime, put on fresh coal, open the draughts for ten or fifteen minutes or until the new coal is fairly kindled, then close the draughts and leave the upper door of the stove open. In the morning the draughts have only to be opened after the upper door has been closed and a little fresh coal put on as soon as the fire has begun to be red. Not until this has begun to burn well should a further small supply of coal be added. This mode is much more economical of fuel and work than making a fresh fire every day.