February, 1909 
A New Method 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
By Rosika Schwimmer 
G SHEN the “home,” as it now exists, is di- 
§ vested of the traditional glamour with which 
our fancy has clothed it, and regarded with 
a dispassionate and objectively seeing eye, 
its naked cheerlessness becomes appalling. 
Yet housekeeping has been undergoing 
reform and improvement ever since the be- 
ginning of specialized industry. At first the family hearth 
was the center of all the industries which have since become 
specialized, and have been removed to factories. The re- 
moval of each class of work—soapmaking, brewing, baking, 
weaving, etc-—marked an advance in housekeeping. Now 
only four classes are left—laundry work (and this is fast 
going), housekeeping, cooking and the care and training 
of children. 
The inefficiency and unhygienic character of the usual 
methods of housekeeping are obvious. Much of the dust 
dislodged by the broom settles down again, after poisoning 
the air for hours. Carpets, curtains and the upholstery 
and carved decorations of furniture are never free from 
dust. 
No diligence in housekeeping can keep the house clean 
so long as it is heated with coal and lighted with gas or 
kerosene. The progress of applied science has given us 
electric light, steam heat, ventilating apparatus and pneu- 
matic dust collectors, but these blessings are enjoyed only by 
the rich and can not be introduced into the ordinary small 
home. 
The defects of home cooking are apparent to every phy- 
sician. Almost every other art has become highly specialized, 
but in the preparation of food we cling tentatively to ama- 
teur methods. 
The same is true of the care of children, so that the 
mother is expected to be, as Charlotte Perkins Gilman says, 
an embryo combination of cook, nurse, laundress, chamber- 
maid, waitress, governess and housekeeper—Jack of all 
trades and master of none. 
An attempt to reform this state of things has been made 
by Otto Fick, who established an apartment house of a novel 
type in Copenhagen in 1904. The apartments—twenty-five 
in number and containing from three to five rooms each— 
are rented unfurnished, so that each family can furnish its 
home in accordance with its own tastes and requirements. 
Each apartment has a kitchenette with a gas stove and a 
bathroom, supplied with hot water day and night. Electric 
light and central steam heating are included in the equip- 
ment, and each apartment is connected by telephone with 
the general kitchen, and also with the public telephone sys- 
tem. Meals are prepared in the general kitchen and sent 
up to each apartment by means of an electric dumb-waiter. 
Privacy is as complete as in an apartment house of the 
usual type. The only commercial feature is the centraliza- 
_ tion and specialization of every task of housekeeping—clean- 
ing, ventilation, lighting, heating and preparation of food— 
so that the tenants are entirely relieved of the burdens of 
marketing, making fires, cooking, sewing, dishwashing, etc. 
Luncheon is served in the apartments from ten to twelve, 
and neatly packed luncheons are provided for school children 
and others who desire them. Dinner is served in the after- 
noon, according to Copenhagen custom, and tea until ten in 
the evening. 
The menu is so extensive and varied that monotony can 
be easily avoided, and the general kitchen has a list of the 
77 
of Housekeeping 
preferences, and particularly of the aversions, of every 
family, in which it is gravely set down that one family is 
never to be served with mushrooms, a second with cabbage, a 
third with rice pudding, etc. Individual, as well as family, 
preferences are respected. 
Dishes, plates, cups, etc., of the so-called “unbreakable” 
ware are furnished by the management, but each family 
may provide its own table ware and have it washed in the 
general kitchen, without, however, any guarantee against 
breakage. Laundry work, extra service and meals for occa- 
sional guests are furnished at low rates. 
Cheapness, indeed, is the guiding principle, and cheapness 
combined with excellence is attainable only with the aid of 
centralized housekeeping. The kitchens and other service 
rooms in the basement are equipped with the most approved 
apparatus, and the food and other supplies are abundant 
and of the best quality. 
The annual charges for rent, heat, light, baths, food and 
service, including pneumatic “sweeping,” window cleaning 
and even shoe polishing, are about 
For 2 adults occupying a 3 room apartment . 5420.00 
For 2 adults occupying a 4 room apartment 550.00 
For 3 adults occupying a 4 room apartment 735.00 
For 4 adults occupying a 4 room apartment 855.00 
For 2 adults occupying a 5 room apartment 655.00 
For 3 adults occupying a 5 room apartment 795.00 
For 4 adults occupying a 5 room apartment 930.00 
Small additional charges are made for children and 
servants. 
This first centralized apartment house has proved so suc- 
cessful that others are projected. Fick also purposes to 
erect a house with large general playrooms for school chil- 
dren and for small children. Nurses will also be provided so 
that mothers who have occupations away from home will be 
able to leave their little ones in safe keeping. 
Another event of the Fick system is that it settles the 
servant question to the advantage of both employer and em- 
ployed. Much of the work of the centralized household is 
performed by machines and the rest is skilled labor with 
definite hours of work. When housekeeping is thus raised 
to the rank of a specialized industry it will attract workers 
of a more intelligent class who now very justifiably refuse to 
work sixteen or eighteen hours a day. 
There are other advantages, both economic and social. 
Under the present system a house is unattainable by an 
unmarried man or woman, yet the cost and burden of house- 
keeping act as preventives of marriage. The system is very 
elastic and allows of apartments of two rooms, or even one 
room, and of general dining-rooms, reading-rooms, etc. 
Finally, the lifting of the burden of housework makes 
possible a reform in child culture. At present only the chil- 
dren of the wealthiest classes enjoy anything like proper 
care and training. All other children are sacrificed to the 
foolish tradition which regards the mother as the natural 
teacher and the home as the best school. Mother love is 
an instinct, and it implies no pedagogic ability, as daily ex- 
perience proves. Education is a function of society, and it 
should be performed by persons of fitting character and 
ability, who have been prepared for the task by study, not 
by procreation. The fully developed co-operative house will 
have ‘“‘créches,” playrooms and open-air playgrounds and 
gymnasiums on the roof, presided over by skilled nurses and 
teachers. 
