THE ART AND PHILOSOPHY OF HOUSEKEEPING.* BEFORE the war there

was a tendency on the part of some people to regard housekeeping as synonymous with drudgery, and to consider that the details of household work were beneath the talents of. educated women. They appeared to find bedmaking more derogatory than bookkeeping and cooking than. clerking. A number of thing have combined to make housekeeping and housework- difficult and often. irksome and dull, but the evil is not inherent. The labour, as in other • (1) A Profession, for Gentlewomen. By Y. 8: Carey. London : Constable and CO. Vs. netj=-(2)-Ths Mistress of All Work. Bye. G. Gime. London : Methuen and ea. net.1—(3) Life without serval*. $e a Survivor. London : amt. Boon. Ils. note instances, suffers from lack of method and lack of imaghiathion--a powerful 'factor —onthe part of the labenrere Hew the -problem will be -regarded- after the war it is 'impassible to say—perhaps it will reassert itself in a more acute _form. But thaugh the war has pushed it into the -background as far as public discussion is concerned, in private it has in many caseaeuddenly iumped-feota being an-abstract to a real problem. The three books before us in their various ways not only give a quantity of sound practical advice as to house manage. ment, but deal with the whole matter in a spirit that lifts it on to a high and, in our opinion, its proper plane. Take, for instance, the first chapter in Mrs. Carey's A Profession for Gentlewomen 1 whom she replies to the evergreen complaint- of " the continual pressure of the uoual housekeeping- cares, the nver-recurring problem of the daily meals, the charge of the par...aimed, and the unending battle with dirt":- " The remedy for all this is twofold; we meet reform our houses, and we must reform our way of living. A little wholesome poverty will have worked wonders .for us all in the matter of social ideals, if it teaches us that we can drop conventionality like a five.year-old fashion, and treat cur domestic problems with plain common-sense. We do well. to remember that one reason why housekeeping lags so far behind every other department of life in the-adoption of mechanical aide is that it is the only profession that demands: no. apprenticeship."

Mrs. Carey, coming to details, discusses cupboards with much elo. "quenee, compares flats with houses, and asks why, "since only women know what they -require in a house and what they wish to avoid," they have not more readily devoted themselves to the study of architecture,- a profession which has been open to them for some years. Indeed, the male architect draws from her much cootie Comment:- " Man designs lofty rooms, which woman must strain herself te, clean, and largo windows too heavy for her to open, or shut, witir comfort ; he himself has no wish -for cupboards, and cannot be per- suaded that they are necessities; he-,laces little -steps where they will inevitably trip up the waitress.; he appears to expect coal to walk up from the-cellar like- a dog from its kennele and his path is strewn with dust-traps. His iniquities- in the kitchen department would on paper be amusing, but as facts of real life:they spell tragedy both to housewives and servants."

That architects commit frighthil atrocities may be noted any day, but Mrs. Carey's generalization, like all generalizations, is a little unfair. Indeed, we. hould have said: that the modern architect, though responsible for a certain number of the said atrocities, often shows a happy combination of common-sense, ingenuityr, and imagination. On the fascinating question of choosing a house Mrs. Carey is perhaps the- most practical of our three writers. Realizing that " we must be content with something less than the perfect hoese of our dreams," she does not yield to the temptation of depicting the ideal, but deals with the often most unsatisfactory real. We agree with her entirely in laying so much stress on the question of aspect. " So much of the happiness of 'life depends on plenty of sunlight received in the right way, that this is a matter whose importanco can scarcely be exaggerated." The substance of her advice on this important point of house-choosing is that " every detail of a house should be considered in the light of the labour it will require, and that labour should be analysed with care. Is it pleasant ? Is it unavoidable ? Will it take more time than it is worth ? Is it possible by spending some money now to obviate in the future a constant drain in payment of labour." Mrs. Carey has a useful chapter discussing the relation of " Landlord and Tenant," and in " The Decoration of the House " she compares the relative cost and virtues of floor-coverings. She is not one of those -who would do without the help of servants, and in " A Chapter on Maids-" she has some original things to say on this difficult subject. We are delighted by Mrs. Carey's vigorous attack on that domestio tyrant; Spring-cleaning "Unless perchance workmen have been in possession, or the house is closed at regular intervals, and special arrangements made for the maids to hold an uninterrupted- cleaning orgy, untrammelled by any obligations to the family; the springeileaning es a .hideous mistake foe moat well-conducted households which run on .normal lines. It. pre- supposes eleven months of dirt or inefficient attention, and one month at most of preternatural cleanliness. It is a. survival of the dark ages ; and with real method and the help of modern appliances it should bo quite unnereessary."

She goes on to deal with the actual daily work of a -house, taking the different rooms in turn, and not forgetting even the details of that most despised and disliked branch • of housework, .dish-washing. She concludes a very attractive, humorous, useful, and. well,written book on a point of finance in "The Woman and the Budget." And_here occurs what seems for so sensible a writer an astonishing mew -in estimate. A rough-and-ready calculation of yearly, expenditure on housekeeping, she •says, " can bo made on -the basis that the- average householder must expect to spend certainly not lees than ton times his rental."' Householders would only bo too delighted to find. lka. Carey right here. Surely, except is the -ease. of atioveluelly people, the proportion of rent to expenditure is more like- onosfourth.

In The Misiress of AR Work' Miss J. G..Sime writes chiefly for -the benefit of the "large and increasing class of :professional women who, living in a small, flat, or perhaps couple of rooms, of -their owns (ham necessarily only a. limited time to devote to the care of their 'domain, and through ignorance or inexperience are unable to control it matisfactonly." ' But though intended for strpoolal pablie, the principles she lays-down-in such-charming phrases- are appliesib/e to housekeeping in general. The first few' chapters of her book oonstitute *little- sym- posium on the art of housekceping,-and are instinct with-an imagination and idealism-which make them, as inspiring as they are useful The

following-gives her general outlook on the-mibject:--

" The chief reason, I think, -why so many women have come nowa- days to look upon-housekeeping more or less -with contempt is that they have almost entirely lost sight of its artistic! encl. If you hand over your work to other people and then look upon them as more or less _degraded in doing it for you, it is naturally next to impossible for any art to survive in it, or at least for such art to be visible to yourself as long as you are in that frame of mind. . . . Housekeeping -indeed is surely the definite combination of the artistic and the useful, the one shading :quite imperceptibly into the other, so that no dividing line can be drawn between them. In it art and common-sense shake hands at last."

Like Mrs. Carey, Vies Sime pleads for a change in our conception of housekeeping. " The whole idea of modern life," she says, " will have to be more or less modified" :— " The life of the earlier woman was her house ; the new woman's house is or will be a part of her life ; there is the difference. That is to say, woman now must try to reach' the old end by the other and easier means—with the 'head rather than with the- hands alone ; and the way is open for herao do it."

Lost our readers may think-that Miss Siena deals too mush with abstrac- tions, we may aay that she proceeds to warn the home: Wife that her teaching is by no - means easy to carry out. " To keep your house satisfactorily . . . you must have -or you must acquire the habit of work," and as " the modern woman in too-many cases ha& -never been taught to -work at anything," it follows that " you will inevitably

have some unpleasant moments, hours, even days and weeks, before you when you- enter on your household work " :— " Your body will rebel against you from head to 'foot, as it always does at any sudden-change. • I haveno remedy-to suggelit for this state of things ; it -simply. has to be got through. The best 'way, I imagine, is to treat Ihcabody as. a rebel and to pay no attention to its being on strike—in fact, to ignore -it as far as is possible."

Miss Simo goes on to discuss floors, walls, bathrooms, and kitchens, and writes as eloquently—and may we say imaginatively ?—of varnish and dustless mops, black-lead and American cloth, as she does of first principles. If she idealizes her subject " Till common household service seems The wageless work of Paradise," we have no word to say against it. The realist is apt to have too much sway in the region of. domestic! economics.

If in the foregoing. hooks domestic science is raised to the position;

respectively of' philosophy and art, in Life- without Servants-5 it may be said to reach. As apotheosis. A thirty per cent. Income Tax, .among- numerous other disagreeable foots, demanded retrenchment in the household of " A Survivor." Accordingly servants were diamiesed, and the family settled' down to en experiment in doing their own. work. In a few weeks—or was it only days 7—" Survivor " had realized for the first time inaa forty-five years' existence " the true taste of a potatoathe true taste of green food, the true taste of bread, and the full pleasure of domestic life." The success Of the experiment moves him to ecstasy. From henceforth-life was a thing of exuberance.

lie exults in -the hay-box,_ glories in saucepans, and. finds washing-up a stimulant. In fact,, his enthusiasm over the last exercise inspires. him to such eloquence that we must, give the reader the benefit: of it :- " Instead, Sir, of lighting -a cigarette after your next dinner and. remaining in your chair hire an alderman, too full for sound or speech,: try this experiment: Spring up, and exclaim'in a cheerfuhvoice, "Now, shildrena all hands to' the pump i Where's the betimes 'tray?'--and: begin -collecting the silver. The -children will protest. (They have the aldermanie feeling.) ' Oh, adayacazat you leave it, to us We'll do it in amoment. We'd much rather do-it ourselves, really we would.- It's 'May kind of you, dear old chap, but really and truly we'd . . Be firm, be -firm I In two- minutes the table- is cleared. The. veay briskness of your mind -has oommunieated itself to your children., They are -as merry as -minket. end, as happy, as leaks. Out goes- the' - loaded tray to the kitchen. The hot.water tap is • turned, the basin; over the sink is filled, and inIgiozes the silver. One person washeea . placing' the clean silver on the • ing board at the other end of 'the sink, and 'the other two dry. Ater the silver, the knives. Alter the knives, plates and dishes. And filially,- theaglaas. (II you. like you may -begin with the glass ; but I prefer the 'silver, for the sake of its -cheerful rattle, . which has -a psychological value.) Will you believe it, before you have been five minutes at-the-work you are all !.1' -

On one point only were the family renegade, and that was in regard to scrubbing. For this outside help was relied upon. Here "Survivor" shamelessly gives us to - understand _ that he was a shirker. But we should like to have known his view of the psychological value of 'scrubbing the kitchen floor.

"Survivor " was exceedingly lucky in that his' wife not only " con- tracted the most astonishing enthusiasm- for the art Of cooking," but could -give effect to it in a satisfactory - and appetizing manner in the thing cooked. To " Survivor's" digestion, satiated with midnight suppers "with Herbert Tree or Haley Irving " (the reader will' be deeply -curious as to the identity-of an anther who saps -in -such Mrs- trioue company), the simple dinners at this veritable castle- of delight

appear to. be exactly mine& We ourselves confess-to some nodosity-se' to-whether Sir Herbert Tree ever ate- stew and drank cabbage-water with him at 1 p.m., and whether Mr. H. B. Irving, as a- change from midnight revelry, suppedwith him on cocoa made -with milk and bread and butter. The book is full of laughter sad enthusiasm. both• equally infectious, but it also contains much practical advice, and the present writer, for one, intends at once to try the author's recipe for home- made bread, which, he tells -as, "makes bread fit for the gods, a delicious bread which takes away the appetite for rich cakes, and is a substitute for meat."