1874.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
25 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
ironed. The irons are heated upon a stove, fig. 5, lay down my pen to listen to the interruption of 
from which they are taken to the ironing-room j conscience—something or other about the “golden 
adjoining to he used. The machinery 
here described is suitable for a large 
laundry; in some smaller establishments 
lighter machinery is used. The ordinary 
Doty or similar washing machines of 
large size are used, which are put in 
operation by a steam-engine. The 
wringing or drying, starching, and iron¬ 
ing are performed very much in the 
r in all these laundries. A 
laundry sufficient to do 
the work for a hundred 
families may be furnished 
for §1,000, exclusive of 
the building and a stearn- 
eugine of ten-horse power. 
What shall be Done 
with the Washing ? — 
Many of us could get along quite 
comfortably without a hired girl if 
there were no washing and ironing to 
be done in the house. These two big- 
jobs give us at least two 
days of hard work—work 
which alone is quite 
enough for a strong- 
woman to perform in two 
days, without the added 
labor of cooking and dish¬ 
washing, and sweeping and bed-making, 
and cldld-nurture —all of which must be 
carried along through the washing and 
ironing days as upon other days. It is 
often the ease that the members of the 
family could so divide the work between 
them, as to do it ail except the washing, 
and do it better than any hired servant 
would. Shall we hire a washerwoman ? 
But we have to pay her a good deal—a 
large proportion of what a girl’s wages 
would cost. She does nothing but the 
washing and floor-cleaning, probably, for 
one day’s work, and we have her to wait 
upon. I have to pay a washerwoman at 
least a dollar a day, and I can get a hired 
girl to do all of my family work for two dollars a 
week. This is, perhaps, lower than the average of 
wages where I live, but the girls call 
this an easy place, as they get con¬ 
siderable time here for sitting down 
or going out. In the summer time I 
prefer to keep the girl, and then I 
find more upon my own hands in the 
way of general “putting to rights,” 
and sewing and care of children, than 
I can well accomplish and leave mar¬ 
gin for getting out of doors and for 
reading and writing. As cold weather 
comes, and the city prices of fuel 
begin to astonish and alarm people in 
moderate or low circumstances, the 
case takes a different shape. I see 
how I can rig up the kitchen warm 
and snug, and spend the forenoon 
there, with the children helping (?) 
me about the chores, doing their lit¬ 
tle tasks of sewing and knitting and 
reading, and then getting their frolic 
out of doors while I prepare our 
simple dinner—the master of the 
house taking his dinner down town. While we 
eat dinner the other part of the house is getting 
warm, and the eldest child (aged seven) washes the 
few dinner dishes, with the little sister’s help in 
wiping them, while I get the sitting-room and its 
bedroom tidy. Then we take up our afternoon 
quarters, allowing the kitchen fire to go out, and I 
notice that this daily change has a good effect upon 
the spirits—and so, of course, upon the health. 
What place is there in this arrangement for a hired 
girl? [I don’t like this way of talking. I have to 
rule,” and about “family selfishness”—all of 
which I cannot report. I can only acknowledge 
my personal inability to obey the golden rule in all 
relations, till sometime in the long “ever and 
Fig. 4.—BOSOM STARCHEB. 
ever” when it shall be the standard rule of all 
mankind.] 
I have employed a washerwoman for a few 
weeks, but it is a very unsatisfactory arrangement. 
I have to stay in the kitchen myself to do the gen¬ 
eral housework; so, of course, the children are 
there too. I do detest the slops and steam, to say 
Fig. 5.—STOVE FOR HEATING IRONS. 
nothing of the odor that comes from the woman 
at the tub—one of the tribe of the “great un¬ 
washed.” The children behave worse than com* 
MIS EMMJSEmJ). 
Fig. 2.—DRYING MACHINE. 
into the rotary drier, figure 2, in which they are 
freed from water. They are then carried to the 
drying-room, which is a large apartment heated by 
ranges of steam-pipes, and there, hung upon lines 
stretched across the room, they are quickly dried. 
Those that need starching are put through the 
machine, figure 3, the superfluous starch is 
squeezed out, and they are taken to the ironing- 
room. Shirts which need the bosoms starched 
and glossed are passed through a machine prepared 
expressly for this purpose (figure 4) before being 
(Foi' other Household Items , see "Basket" pages.) 
Jdlg. 1.—WASHING MACHINE. 
machines and laundries, and the feasibility of ban¬ 
ishing this labor from the household to an estab¬ 
lishment where it may be done by machinery for 
the families of a whole town or village. We have 
recently visited a laundry in which all the work 
except the ironing is done by machinery; and be¬ 
cause we believe there are many places in country 
villages and towns where it would be a great con¬ 
venience to have such a laundry to do the work of 
a large number of families, we have prepared the 
accompanying illustrations for the purpose of clear¬ 
ly describing the machines and the methods used. 
Figure 1 shows the washing machine. The 
clothes are put into it through the holes in the 
side. The holes are then closed up, the hot water 
and soap are poured in through a pipe, the machin¬ 
ery is started, and in a short time the clothes are 
sufficiently washed. After rinsing, they arc put 
About a Laundry. 
Washing day is the melancholy day in the house¬ 
hold. Everybody is cross and tired, for washing 
is a disagreeable and laborious work. That it is 
necessary is no mitigation. No wonder we have 
