July, 1905 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



59 



PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT 



The Prize Kitchen 



It is undeniable and regretworthy that the 

 kitchen has received less attention from maga- 

 zines and journals than any other room in a 

 house. This indifference is hardly to be ex- 

 plained in the face of the large numerical fact 

 that recent government statistics show about 

 eighty-three per cent, of the women of the 

 United States do their own work. Seventeen 

 per cent, keep servants, and of this smaller 

 body only two per cent, employ two or more. 

 If seven hours a day is a fair estimate of the 

 time spent in the kitchen, the housewife and 

 mother of the family is entitled to have such 

 an exacting period made even more comfort- 

 able, sanitary and practical than in France, 

 England and Germany, where, although not 

 quite perfect, it is far better arranged and at- 

 tended to than here. The sacrifices made in 

 the name of the kitchen are legion, in spite 

 of the claims that are beginning to rise, that it 

 should be one of the chief accessories to house- 

 hold good management. Having now arrived 

 at the mature state of unsuccessfulness with 

 our kitchen, it is evidently time to encourage 

 even - movement toward improvement. One 

 sign that the measuring stick is out to some 

 purpose is the announcement of splendid prizes 

 in money to be awarded for plans and ideas 

 for a model kitchen. The result that will 

 obtain from the competition may drive away 

 the selfish haze about the domestic apprecia- 

 tion of this corner of the ground floor, so often 

 constructed on limited lines and means, that it 

 is lightly dubbed the " off-room " in the house- 

 hold integer. The true regulatory force of a 

 system should work for the practicalities as 

 well as the luxuries of a home, and should 

 let no room stand out alone in its " monarchical 

 influence," as is often the case with the draw- 

 ing-room or the library, and we apprehend 

 that the neglect of the humble quarter for 

 such as these will be stopped when architects, 

 authorities on domestic sciences, housekeepers, 

 home builders, editors of architectural peri- 

 odicals and magazines, household papers, and 

 domestic trade papers, waken to the develop- 

 ments that are bound to come from the prize 

 scheme for " Ideally Complete Kitchens." 

 The originator of the prize offers is the firm 

 of G. P. McDougall & Sons, Indianapolis, 

 Ind. It manufactures only one piece of kit- 

 chen furniture, nor does it intend to make any 

 others, but does expect to publish in attractive 

 form various ideas sent in that will be helpful 

 to the further advancements of the American 

 kitchen, with the view of making it an ideal 

 room. This will come through better ventila- 

 tion, light, harmonizing, appropriate and 

 labor saving furniture, utensils, color treat- 

 ment of walls, ceilings and floors, increased 

 superficies, the betterment of rear doors with 

 or without enclosed porch and their relations 

 to the back yard. Our idea is that an equally 

 rare kind of expertness and taste is required in 

 their way to make one room as efficient and 

 acceptable as another ; that it is as necessary to 

 give the best thought in planning and placing 

 a sturdy array of apparatus and accessories for 

 the cuisina as to exercise the most delicate art 

 for the exposition and use of parlor refine- 

 ments, and the McDougall idea calls for such 

 an exertion of faculties that the bert will re- 

 ceive in their order of <nerit $1,800 in prizes, 

 subject to the requirements of competition and 

 points for consideration, distinctly and suc- 

 ciently stated, as follows: 



" Model plans wanted for an attractive and 

 practical kitchen. It must be a kitchen for an 

 ordinary residence or flat, not for a palatial 

 mansion. It must contain the best possible 

 model of a kitchen cabinet, embodying the full 

 working surface of a kitchen table and utiliz- 



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The William Connors Paint Mfg. Co. 



TROY. N. Y. 



The Seal and Guarantee that Identifies 



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