The Abolition of Home Slavery

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 4, Issue 8, 1 February 1926, Page 30

The Abolition of Home Slavery

HAT’S w on g little girl? Something, I know!” “Oh, nothing much! Only Annie again, Jack,” said little Mrs. Forbes wearily. “She’s —and thank goodness, too! . . . Smashed a whole trayful of crockery, this time On his return from office that evening, Jack Forbes had found a worried, wistful, half-tearful little wife, who was soon pouring into his ears a sad little tale of domestic worry and woe, of overtiring housework, and of eternal trouble with the maid. That day Annie, her fifth “help” within a year, had been horribly clumsy and impertinent, had had “words,” and then left her young mistress without compunction. Jack Forbes was angry, sympathetic, worried in turn. It hurt him to see his little woman beset by all these petty troubles of domestic management ... or was it mismanagement, he thought gravely. Not on Grace’s part, for a second, but just generally, inevitably. The Forbes’ had not realised that domestic happiness, to be entire, depends vitally on efficient home management. They did not realise that Society, civilisation itself, is really measured by woman’s happiness in the home. Jack Forbes was just one of millions of men who hadn’t stopped to think that husbands had other than bread-and-butter-earning du- , o ties : that one of them was to see that the household tasks of “the girls they leave behind

them” should, logically and justly, be made a pleasure, and not a hardship. “It’s an infernal nuisance, old girl,” he said unsatisfactorily. “Especially as I simply must get to-morrow’s boat for Sydney. “It’ll be over a fortnight before I can get back. I just hate the thought of you being alone here, with all the work. . . . Suffering Cupids! A brain wave! You must go and stay with the Maitlands! You know they’ve asked us for week-ends in their new home at Hamilton several times. I’ll wire them you’ll be there to-morrow. No excuses, now! And there you’ll stay until my return, when we’ll see about getting another girl. Peggy Maitland welcomed her old friend with genuine pleasure. It was a year since they had met, since business changes had put distance between the two families. So it was that Grace Forbes knew only in a vague way that the Maitland household was run on “weird, scientific, new-

fashioned lines,” as Grace mentally conceived them. Less than five minutes in Peggy’s delightful home Grace sensed it as a real home and not merely a furnished structure gave her her first clear idea of what the “weird, new-fashioned” elements were. “Pm sure you must be parched for tea, dear,” said Peggy- “It’ll be ready in a tick,” and with the words she put a plug in a wall socket, and pressed down a switch. A few minutes later Grace was sitting down to tea and toast beyond compare hot, crunchy, golden brown toast, made under her very eyes on a perfectly sweet Hotpoint Electric Toaster, which turned the bread itself ; delicious tea made by the simple use of a very handsome Hotpoint table percolator. It was then that she realised “something different” had occurred. “Tell me, Peggy, is that really all you do to make such lovely tea and toast? But how marvellously easy and quick! Why, my kettle takes a good ten minutes on the gas stove, and to make toast under the griller simply eats gas !” “Gas !” exclaimed her astonished hostess. “You don’t mean to tell me you are still in the gas-age, living in Auckland! My! I suppose you’ll be saying you use a wash-tub or a copper on wash-day, and clean your carpets with a hand-broom next “Well, as a fact, I——” stammered Mrs. Forbes with reddening cheeks. “Yon nlead cniilfv f>ti i o J y —*y you funny old stone-age relic! Well, I am surprised ! I reckon you cook in the same old mid-Victorian way, and use gas-heated irons, and send your heavy curtains to the laundry and your carpets to the cleaner’s ! You poor —you don’t look too fit, either, with so much household drudgery! Of course, with a

good servant to help but even then ” And then the whdle story came out, a story of a woman’s perpetual struggle against the hard facts of “running a house,” of housework naked and unadorned ; a story of an unsolved servant problem, of mechanical, uncongenial, unvarying day-by-day routine that always “gets it’s own back” on the woman. Mrs. Maitland listened with mingled amusement and sympathy. “Why, you poor little trou-ble-chaser ! Don’t you know that Noah’s Ark methods are a real ‘wash-out’? That the abolition of home-slavery is a fact, and not a theory? You needn’t have one bit of all that nerve-racking, ageing worry and trouble! I don’t! Housework’s a genuine pleasure when it’s brought to a fine art! Listen! I’m going to convert you right away, Grace. You musn’t ever go back to your old conditions and customs. Now, to start with, this is my “vac” day. I just run my Hotpoint electric vacuum cleaner truly a faithful friend— the carpets and rugs two or three times a week, and every scrap of dust and dirt vanishes.” Before the wondering eyes of her guest, Mrs. Maitland demonstrated the joyous use of her untiring faithful Hotpoint electric servant; just a plug fitted into a socket and the magic machine did work in a few minutes that Grace knew would have taken her ten times as long with her brooms and carpet sweeper to do less effectively. “And when I want to clean curtains, mattresses, upholstered furniture, stair carpets, the car curtains and seats, and so on, there’s a complete set of accessories which only take a mere second to fit on. My word, fancy going back to the old-type broom after this ! It has paid for itself over and over again.” “It is certainly a wonderful machine, Peggy, but does it

really get all the dirt out, and not just take up the surface dirt?” “That’s just what it’s made for —to get the dirt out from in! This was the first electric appliance Tom bought me, and it was then we realised that it is as easy and expedient as it is necessary to do as much as possible in the home by electricity. Why are people content to stop at electric lighting only, when in a hundred ways it can and does lighten labour,

save time, money, health and worry “Tom and I reasoned things out on these lines when we came here, and found it was sane and sensible to acquire a complete do-all-the-work-better electrical installation.” “But truly, dear, admitting all you say,” said Grace, “the outlay must be enormous, and the cost of operating very high, too.” “Not a bit of it! All the appliances we have are quite reasonable to buy, and frightfully economical to operate. (Cheaper than keeping a maid, I assure you!) Besides, think of the work-saving they effect, the cleanliness, the hours of extra freedom I get!” “And then?” urged Mrs. Forbes, with a note of curiosity. “And then, freedom from housework means freedom from mental strain and worryand no servants to cope with! Electricity is my servant, just as it’s going to be yours always-ready, alwaysdependable, always-efficient servant. I’m just proud of the ownership of these wonderful articles, and proud of being efficient through owning them! You’ll see them all at work in good time.” The speaker’s voice thrilled with the pride she honestly felt, and a sympathetic chord in her girl friend’s nature answered to an undeniable appeal. Grace Forbes felt, and had visible proof, too, that Peggy Maitland’s way was the right way, that to be efficient was much easier than not to be, that efficiency in the home was as essential to it as to the outside world of business. An enthusiastic Mrs. Forbes was next fascinated almost beyond words at her friend’s wonderful Hotpoint Automatic electric range, which now came in for attention, since dinner-time was within measurable distance. “This,” said Peggy with a seriocomic air, as she began preparations, “is an apparatus embodying all the latest principles and developments known to the science of cooking by electricity. It is, as you see. compact, beautiful in design, material and workmanship, and is simplicity itself to use. By means of this electric time clock I can start and stop cooking at will. If I wish to go out and yet have my dinner cooked and ready

by a certain time, I set this clock at, say, 4.30 to commence cooking, and at 6 to finish. My electric servant does the rest with absolute reliability! Tom is home by 6, and he loves dinner piping hot and fresh, straight from the oven.” “I control oven temperature just as simply, with this automatic temperature control, just by setting the control lever at the degree of heat I want. It is maintained at that with perfect uniformity. I call my range the wise woman’s last word in , cooking !” “It is really wonderful, indeed!” exclaimed Mrs. Forbes. “And as you see, the whole range, outside and in, is so easy to clean and keep clean. Just a wipe with a damp cloth—that’s all! No pans

or shelves anywhere to ‘house’ dust, no corners to collect it.” “It isn’t only that we get perfect results,” said genial Tom Maitland at dinner. “A big feature to my mind is the difference this, and all our other electric gadgets, make for Peggy, the ease and comfort they mean to her. Why, when I go out to office and know it’s her washing day, Igo easy in mind, knowing that there’s none of the old-time perspiring drudgery for her to face, for our electric washing machine does all the work by the turning of a switch.” “And the ironing, too,” added Mrs. Maitaland. “That’s another rather dreary and certainly tiring job for the non-electric housewife. Our automatic electric ironer does my work while I sit and merely guide the clothes and control operations with a simple twobutton dial. In fact, ray washing and ironing are just what they should be— fine art, and a pleasure to do. If the day is hot I just bring my electric fan in and work in the coolest of breezes!” Mrs. Forbes’ admiring attention was later focussed on her friend’s “Thor” Electric Ironer, which was soon to be put into operation for her special benefit. “Oh, if every woman only knew

what this machine really does exclaimed Peggy enthusiastically. “The labour and expense it saves, the beautiful work it can do in a fifth of the time hand-ironing takes. And there’s no ironing the biggest laundry can do that my ironer cannot do as well. This open-end increases its field of usefulness enormously; it allows for ruffles and neckbands and shirtcollars and ruffs, which need infinite trouble with a hand iron. Of course, it does all ‘flat’ work beautifully, too, with an even pressure not possible with the hand iron. This, too, has saved its cost already, and considering that it has twenty times the heating surface of the electric hand-iron, it’s marcellously economical to run!” A converted Grace Forbes was entranced by other Hotpoint electric wonders before she had been long in the cheery Maitland home. She fell in love with the beautiful artistic ceiling bowl-lighting in the living rooms — designed to give a soft radiance delightful to the eye and senses, and to convey an atmosphere of luxury and refinement. “I love the beautiful decorative effects of art-lighting,” said her hostess. “It is so restful, and even romantic, as contrasted I with the ordinary bare light bulb. And here’s i a pedestal electric lamp I that has a distinct charm as well as great utility.” , The living rooms, ! Grace found, were evenly warmed by handsome Hotpoint electric fires. “Better, cheaper, safer and healthier than any gas fire made,” was Mrs. Maitland’s eulogy. “We have one in our own bedroom, and electric radiators in the ’ spare rooms. . . Here’s

your _ own the Hedlite heater. There ! That gives a cheerful concentrated heat which takes the chill out of a room almost instantly. It’s just like a little portable sunshine maker, isn’t,it?” With a charmingly designed electric table lamp by her bedside, Grace Forbes read herself to sleep that night —with a happy determination at

the back of her mind to make her own home as beautiful and as up-to-date as Peggy’s without delay. Her morning tea she made herself by the aid of a handy Hotpoint elec-, tric kettle, and was delighted at the simplicity of the process. Then the joy of an easy-ready bath was hers—the speedy result of a touch of a magic switch. She found the gentle warmth and colourful glow of an electric radiator a delicious acquisition to a perfect toilet. “You have beautiful hair, Grace,” said Mrs. Maitland a little later. “It deserves all the care you can give it. Just use my electric curling iron. I’ll connect up with this light socket— There, now you can wave and dry your hair as well as any hair-dresser could—and perhaps better!” Over a perfect little breakfast, cooked with a speed and effortless simplicity that elicited glowing praise from Mrs. Forbesshe was fascinated by a beautiful electric Hotpoint percolator that was responsible for coffee of exquisite fragrance and taste—she put the one question uppermost in her mind. “Now do tell me, dear, zvhere you purchased all these perfect things? I simply must go into the matter with Jack the moment he returns.” “I am so glad, dear. I knew you would fall in line with my anti-slav-ery methods. Now all my silent, everready servants come from a firm famous the world over for their household electrical appliances— National Electrical and Engineering Co. Their local branch supplied me after I had satisfied myself that the electric way was the efficient way. Their representative demonstrated and explained everything in detail, and they hold their Service at my disposal, to meet any call I like to make. They have offices in Auckland, of course, so you’ll have no excuse in delaying the matter.” Grace Forbes had a brain wave of her own, while she watched her friend disposed of the soiled breakfast things by giving them over to the tender mercies of the electric dishwasher. “I just have to put a heap of dirty plates in it, switch the ‘juice’ on, and the machine does the rest! Look—the soiled water is drained outso, and clean rinsing water introduced. Break anything? My word, no! This saves breakages entirely, for the dishes or plates do not move in the machine, and there’s no handling them with soapy, slippery hands.” In the happy days that followed Mrs. Forbes saw every one of her friend’s electric appliances in practical use; saw how she had hot water “always on tap,” day and night (Tom was particular about having his shaving water ready to the minute, and it was never late), and saw how one could switch on a cool-breeeze-making fan at a touch when the days were sultry.

She ate the most delicious of justmade waffles turned out by Peggy’s shining Holpoint electric waffle iron, and she enjoyed to the full the results of the use of her hostess’s Hotpoint Radiant grill—a complete kitchen range in miniature. “Seems to me I haven’t been alive all this time, Peggy, with such wonderful happy-home-makers to pick and choose from; muddling through for so long as if I were still in the

Dark Ages ! But I know better now, and I’ll get busy before Jack returns !” On the eve of his departure from Sydney Jack Forbes received this wire, that made him wonder if the “home-made” strain of domestic worries, so long borne by his wife, had not sent her just a wee bit “off the rails” : “Have engaged a whole staff of wonderful servants for life. Love. Grace.”