[322] Wright, Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1886, p. 231.
[323] Ibid., p. 172.
[324] This included the purchase of two new labor-saving appliances for the kitchen, costing $5.70. The maid was given the choice of having the new utensils or dividing a surplus; she chose the former.
[325] This included the presence in the family of two guests for two weeks.
[326] One housekeeper reports that she gives her cook five cents for every new soup, salad, made-over dish, or dessert that proves acceptable to the majority of the family. She thus secures variety and economy in the use of materials.
One reports that she has a German cook who understands thoroughly the purchase and use of all household materials. The cook is given a fixed sum each week with which to make purchases, and she keeps whatever sum remains after these have been made. The family report that they have never lived so well, or with so much comfort and so much economy as since the plan has been tried.
Another states that she adds at the end of the month twenty per cent to the wages of her waitress if no article of glass or china has been nicked, cracked, or broken during the time.
These are all variations of the same principle.
[327] An admirable work on Household Sanitation has been published by Miss Marion Talbot and Mrs. Ellen S. Richards.
[328] The work in this direction carried on by Professor W. O. Atwater of Wesleyan University has been of the greatest value, and indicates the lines along which future investigation must be made.