to the ground; either endeavour by tying the bedclothes together
to make some sort of rope, fastening one end to a heavy piece
of furniture, and going down the rope hand-over-hand--a rather
difficult thing to do without practice--or, if within reach of
one, wait as long as possible for the arrival of a fire-escape
or ladder. Some people always keep a stout knotted rope in their
room, and have an iron hook fixed inside the window, to which it
may be attached. Merryweather and Sons, 63 Long Acre, London, make
domestic fire-escapes which admit of even women and children lowering
themselves from windows. As to means of escape available from the
outside for high houses, there are many obvious plans which might be
adopted, but among these there are two which appear to be specially
easy of attainment, and within the reach of all concerned, at a
moderate cost. The first is to fix on buildings external ladders of
wrought iron or some other material able to resist the effects of
fire at its commencement, and extending from the roof to within 40
ft. of the ground; the other, to provide on every story continuous
balconies of wrought iron or any other material proof against
immediate destruction by heat; and if the balconies on the several
stories were made to communicate with each other by means of external
stairs, great additional safety would be attained.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire has published
the following directions for saving life at fires. See also p. 1002.
_For Bystanders._--1. Immediately on the fire being discovered give
an alarm to the nearest fire-escape station, not delaying an instant;
do not wait to see if it is wanted. Life is more precious than
property, and events have too often proved how fatal even a moment’s
hesitation is in sending for the fire-escape. It is the fire-escape
man’s duty to proceed to the place of alarm immediately.
2. In the absence of a fire-escape, or pending its arrival, ladders
and ropes should be sought for. Two constables or other qualified
persons should ascend to the roof through the adjoining houses. The
most efficient assistance can sometimes be rendered by an entrance
to the upper part of the house on fire, either by the attic windows,
the loft-door, or by removing the tiles; or sometimes the aid of one
end of a rope (knotted) might be afforded from the adjoining window,
which, being passed by the person in danger round some article in the
room, he could lower himself or others into the street, and the other
end of the rope being controlled of course by those rendering the aid
from the adjoining house. A short ladder can often be made available
at the second or perhaps the third, floor of houses built with a
balcony or portico, by the constable or other person first ascending
to the balcony, and then placing the ladder thereon, reach the rooms
above.
3. In a narrow street or court assistance may be given from the
windows of the opposite house, particularly by a ladder placed across
the street from window to window.
4. When no other means present themselves the bystanders had better
collect bedding at hand, in case the inmates throw themselves from
the windows. A blanket or carpet held stretched out by several
persons will serve the purpose. The Metropolitan Fire Escape Brigade
carry jumping-sheets with them for use upon emergency.
5. Do not give vent to the fire by breaking into the house
unnecessarily from without, or, if an inmate, by opening doors or
windows. Make a point of shutting every door after you as you go
through the house.
_For Inmates._--1. Every householder should make each person in his
house acquainted with the best means of escape, whether the fire
breaks out at the top or the bottom. Provide fire-guards for use
in every room where there is a fire, and let it be a rule of the
household not to rake out a fire before retiring for the night,
but to leave the guard on. In securing the street-door and lower
windows for the night, avoid complicated fastenings or impediments
to immediate outlets in case of fire. Descriptions and drawings
of fire-escapes for keeping in dwelling-houses may be seen upon
application at the offices of the Royal Society for the Protection of
Life from Fire.
2. Inmates at the first alarm should endeavour calmly to reflect what
means of escape there are in the house. If in bed at the time, wrap
themselves in a blanket or bed-side carpet; open neither windows nor
doors more than necessary; shut every door after them (this is most
important to observe).
3. In the midst of smoke it is comparatively clear towards the
ground; consequently progress through smoke can be made on the hands
and knees. A silk handkerchief, worsted stockings, or other flannel
substance, wetted and drawn over the face, permits free breathing,
and excludes to a great extent the smoke from the lungs. A wet sponge
is alike efficacious.
4. In the event of being unable to escape either by the street-door
or roof, the persons in danger should immediately make their way
to a front-room window, taking care to close the door after them;
and those who have the charge of the household should ascertain that
every individual is there assembled.
5. Persons thus circumstanced are entreated not to precipitate
themselves from the window while there remains the least probability
of assistance; and even in the last extremity a plain rope is
invaluable, or recourse may be had to joining sheets or blankets
together, fastening one end round a bedpost or other furniture. This
will enable one person to lower all the others separately, and the
last may let himself down with comparatively little risk. Select a
window over the doorway rather than over the area.
6. Do not give vent to the fire by breaking into the house
unnecessarily from without, or, if an inmate, by opening doors or
windows. Make a point of shutting every door after you as you go
through the house. For this purpose, doors enclosing the staircase
are very useful.
_Accidents to Persons._--1. Upon discovering yourself on fire reflect
that your greatest danger arises from draught to the flames, and from
their rising upwards. Throw yourself on the ground, and roll over on
the flame, if possible, on the rug or loose drugget, which drag under
you; the table-cover, a man’s coat, anything of the kind at hand,
will serve your purpose. Scream for assistance, ring the bell, but do
not run out of the room or remain in an upright position.
2. Persons especially exposed to a risk of their dresses taking fire
should adopt the precaution of having all linen and cotton fabrics
washed in a weak solution of chloride of zinc, alum, or tungstate of
soda.
3. As a means for the prevention of accidents, especially where there
are women and children, the provision of a fire-guard is urgently
recommended. These are now made at such a reasonable price that it is
incumbent upon even the poorest to obtain them.
It may be added that Merryweather’s system of periodical visitation
by a staff of fire inspectors is now extensively adopted by the
nobility and gentry.
For the various methods of rendering wood, clothes, &c., fire-proof,
the reader is referred to ‘Workshop Receipts,’ Second Series, pp.
289-300.
SUPPLEMENTARY LITERATURE.
Ernest Turner: ‘Hints to Househunters and Householders.’ London,
1884. 2_s._ 6_d._
Eardley F. Bailey Denton: ‘Handbook of House Sanitation, for the use
of all persons seeking a healthy home.’ London, 1882. 8_s._ 6_d._
H. Percy Boulnois: ‘Practical Hints on taking a House.’ London, 1885.
1_s._ 6_d._
C. J. Richardson: ‘The Englishman’s House; a practical guide
for selecting or building a house, with full estimates of cost,
quantities, &c.’ London, 1882. 7_s._ 6_d._
Ernest Spon: ‘The Modern Practice of Sinking and Boring Wells, with
geological considerations and examples.’ London, 1885. 10_s._ 6_d._
Charles Hood; ‘A Practical Treatise on Warming Buildings by Hot
Water, Steam, and Hot Air; &c.’ London, 1885. 12_s._ 6_d._
William Richards: ‘The Gas Consumer’s Handy Book.’ London, 1877. 6_d._
E. Hospitalier: ‘Domestic Electricity for Amateurs.’ London, 1885.
9_s._
Clarence Cook: ‘The House Beautiful; Essays on Beds and Tables,
Stools and Candlesticks.’ New York, 1881. 1_l._
Lewis Foreman Day: ‘Everyday Art; Short Essays on the Arts not Fine.’
London, 1882. 7_s._ 6_d._
M. E. James: ‘How to Decorate our Ceilings, Walls, and Floors.’
London, 1883. 4_s._
Rhoda and Agnes Garrett: ‘Suggestions for House Decoration in
Painting, Woodwork, and Furniture.’ London, 1876. 2_s._ 6_d._
_THE LARDER_
Much attention has been given in recent years to the art of
conserving foods. The subject really divides itself into 3 distinct
branches, viz.: (_a_) Keeping foods _fresh_ for a limited time, (_b_)
_storing_ them without changing their character, and (_c_) submitting
them to a _curing_ process which will preserve them for an unlimited
time.
(_a_) _Keeping foods fresh for a limited time._
Some very useful remarks on this point were published by Miss
Ascham in the _Exchange and Mart_ a short time since, and will bear
repetition.
A housewife’s duty is to prevent waste. She must therefore know what
is likely to go to waste and why, or perhaps she will do just what is
wanted to spoil things which would have kept a little longer if they
had been left alone. Most things in the larder are perishable, but
not all alike.
Meat will keep three weeks in dry, frosty weather, and more than a
week in cold dry weather, but not one week in damp, and hardly a day
in very hot weather. If it has been frozen, it must lie in a rather
warm place 3-4 hours before it is cooked. Meat should be taken down
from the hooks every day, well looked over and wiped dry, and the
hooks scalded and dried before the meat is put up again. Do not
flour it. In very hot weather it is sometimes necessary to rub salt
over the outside of a joint which is not to be cooked that day; but
putting into a pan of treacle is much better, only it requires care,
so as not to leave bits of fat, &c., in the pan when you take out the
meat, and plenty of cold water to wash off what sticks to the joint
when it comes out. It must, however, be carefully looked over when it
comes from the butcher, and any doubtful bits pared off and burnt. If
meat shows signs of “turning,” it must at once be put into a very hot
oven for ½ hour, so as to be partly cooked. If it has really spoilt,
nothing will save it, because the inside of the joint is then bad;
but if it is browned, not just scorched, in time, the inside will be
found perfectly nice. Of course, in a doubtful case, it may all be
sliced up and fried; but then, as a joint, it is spoilt.
The dripping from a half-spoilt joint is useless for food, and the
bone will certainly spoil soup. Some cooks will plunge the meat into
boiling water to save it, but this additional wetting is much more
likely to hasten the catastrophe. In hot weather every bone must be
baked, whether it is to make stock that day or not. Soup is just as
good from baked bones as from raw ones. Every bone that has been
boiled must be placed in a sharp heat and quite dried, and “scraps”
which would help to make stock must be burnt if the cook has no time
or room to make it. For one little bone is enough to spoil all the
milk and cream, and will cause all perishable things in the larder to
be just ready to decay.
The microscope helps us to understand the amazing rapidity with which
germs multiply and diffuse themselves, but no one is yet able to say
where their venom stops; probably they do harm to the entire house
at the least. If bones are thoroughly dried, they will do no harm.
All fat and suet should be cooked as soon as possible after it comes
into the house; it should be wiped, sliced thin, and boiled for 2-3
hours, then strained, and the skin, which seems like leather, burnt
in the middle of a hot fire. As soon as the fat is hard, it should be
removed from the gravy, soup, or stock, wiped dry, and folded in thin
paper. In very hot weather, sometimes it will not cake. Then a plate
must be spared for it. The superfluous fat from a joint reduced to
mince should be treated in the same way.
Fish must be cooked as soon as possible after it is caught. If,
however, there is more than can be eaten in one day, the superfluous
part should be boiled for 5 minutes, even if it is to be fried
afterwards--it can be dried: but nearly all fish is very nice stewed
like eels, with the same sauce; parboiled fish is as good this way as
if it were quite fresh.
It is said that Condy’s fluid will perfectly cleanse meat or fish
just beginning to taint on the outside; but prevention is much better
than cure. Never allow any meat or fish to lie if you can hang it up.
Game and poultry should be drawn, but not plucked or skinned, dried
inside, and hung head upward.
Milk is the most troublesome article in the larder, and really wants
a little safe to itself. It “takes up” the slightest suspicion of
taint, and becomes most objectionable without turning sour. City
people, at any rate, should boil the milk as soon as it comes in,
from April to December. Then it should be strained into a clean
flat pan, which must be scalded and rinsed with, first, a little
soda, and then clean water, every time it is used. It is a help to
mistress and maid to have two pans--one brown, one white--to use on
alternate days, so as to ensure time for purification. Country milk a
little sour may be used for a pudding, or to make scones (½ pint to
1 lb. of oatmeal or brown meal, into which you have mixed ¼ oz. soda
carbonate); but the milk which has been rattled about from 2 A.M.
to 8 or 9 generally seems good for nothing when stale. In case of
serious illness in hot weather, or when a young child’s nourishment
is in question, ice is necessary. In default of “professional”
apparatus, tie up as much ice as half a yard of flannel will hold,
pass a stout lath through the string, and lay it across a metal tub;
oval is more convenient than round. The ice will hang down and drip
in the middle of the tub, and jugs of milk, bottles of soda water, or
anything else will stand at the ends. Cover the tub, stick and all,
with a thick board, and that with a damp, almost wet cloth. The milk
may be boiled first, but must, of course, be cold before it is put
with the ice. A damp cloth, without ice, keeps things much cooler
than they are when uncovered.
Cheese, uncut, only needs to be kept dry. After it is cut, it should
be wrapped in a buttered paper scraped almost dry. Butter may be
rendered less troublesome in summer by being covered with a huge
flower-pot large enough to enclose the plate and rest in a tray in
which there is some cold water. Leaving butter in water spoils it.
Bread should be covered closely from the air. The pans want wiping
once or twice a week, and then heating very hot; the bread must not
be put in again until the pan is cold, nor warm bread ever covered
up. Baker’s bread often acquires a most disagreeable smell and taste
if these precautions are neglected.
All vegetables, when cut, may be kept fresh by putting the stalks
into water. Servants generally insist on immersing them, which
favours decomposition. Parsley in particular can seldom be guarded
from a watery grave. Carrots, turnips, and the like, if placed in
layers in a box of sand, will keep for many weeks, if not months.
Clean new-laid eggs will keep quite fresh for months if buried in
dried salt well closed. Boiled potatoes ought to be laid out on a
plate, and are then as good for frying or mashing as if they were
freshly cooked. Servants have an unaccountable fancy for throwing
them away, or, if desired to fry them, chopping and mashing them
first, which entirely spoils them. If left heaped up, they will often
spoil in one night, and must be burnt. No vegetables should be put
into soup until the day that it is to be used. If any soup, complete,
is left, it must be sharply boiled the next morning, and put into a
fresh, clean pan. The grey earthenware jars made for salt are most
valuable for such purposes and for keeping viands hot or stewing
things. Chopped spinach can be warmed in one of them, and, as it
takes time to prepare, may be boiled, &c., the day before, and thus
served in perfection at the early dinner or luncheon. Cabbage, French
beans, and vegetable marrows are better dressed as salad if they have
cooled, and in hot weather are almost as treacherous for keeping as
shell-fish.
Fruit, like vegetables, will keep very fresh if you can manage to put
the stalk into water, only it must not be in a close or dark place.
When apples, oranges, pears, lemons, &c., are to be stored, they must
not touch each other, and must be protected from heat, cold, and damp
as much as possible; sunshine is not desirable. It would be easy,
if an amateur carpenter was at hand, to make a frame of laths, like
a Venetian blind, which would contain a very large quantity of such
fruit, and take up hardly any room. Flour and meal, sago, macaroni,
semolina, and all like substances, are sometimes attacked by mites.
They are so small as to be invisible singly, but a peculiar fine
powder is to be seen at the top of the farina, and is not motionless.
There is also a smell something like honey or fermentation. They
never appear in a dry storeroom, though they are sometimes brought
from the grocer’s. The only thing to be done is to burn the infected
store, and heat the jar almost red hot before using it again.
(_Exchange and Mart._)
Every one is familiar with the beneficial influence of ice in
preserving foods in hot weather. It is the active medium in the
various kinds of refrigerating safes now in use. But the first matter
is to secure a supply of ice for summer use, unless it is to be
bought of the ice merchant at enhanced prices. Various contrivances
may be adopted with success, as enumerated below:--
(1) Build round a brick well, with a small grating for drain at
bottom for the escape of water from melted ice. Cover the bottom with
a thick layer of good wheat straw. Pack the ice in layers of ice and
straw. Fix a wooden cover to the well.
(2) Fire-brick, from its feeble conducting power, is the best
material to line an ice-house with. The house is generally made
circular, and larger at the top than at the bottom, where a drain
should be provided to run off any water that may accumulate. As small
a surface of ice as possible should be exposed to the atmosphere,
therefore each piece of ice should be dipped in water before stowing
away, which, by the subsequent freezing of the pieces into one mass,
will remain unmelted for a long time.
(3) Make a frame-house the requisite size, with its floor at least
the thickness of the bottom scantling from the ground, thus leaving
space for drainage and a roof to shed off the water. The boards of
the wall should be closely joined to exclude air. Then build up the
blocks of ice, cut in the coldest weather, as solid as possible,
leaving 6 in. all round between them and the board walls; fill up all
interstices between the blocks with broken ice, and in a very cold
day or night pour water over the whole, so that it may freeze into a
solid block; shut it up till wanted, only leaving a few small holes
for ventilation under the roof, which should be 6 in. above the top
of the ice. It is not dry heat or sunshine that is the worst enemy of
ice, but water and damp air. If all the drainage is carried promptly
off below, and the damp vapour generated by the ice is allowed to
escape above, the column of cold air between the sides of the close
ice-house and the cube of ice will protect it much better than it is
protected in underground ice-houses, which can neither be drained
nor ventilated; sawdust also will get damp, in which case it is much
worse than nothing.
[Illustration: 65. Ice-house.]
(4) An improved sort of ice-house, recommended by Bailey, gardener at
Nuneham Park, Oxford, is shown in plan and section in Fig. 65, where
the dotted line indicates the ground level. The well or receptacle
for the ice _a_ is 10 ft. 6 in. wide at the base, and 3 ft. wider
near the top; the walls are hollow, the outer portion being built
of dry rough stone, and the inner wall and dome _f_ of brick. The
outer wall _e_ might be replaced by a puddling of clay, carried up
as the work proceeds. Over the top is a mound of clay and soil _g_,
planted with shrubs to keep the surface cool in summer. The drain _i_
carries off the water formed by the melted ice, and is provided with
a trap _h_ to prevent the ingress of air through the drain. There
is a porch or lobby _b_ provided with outer and inner doors _c_;
and apertures at _d_, to get rid of the condensed moisture, which,
if not removed, would waste the ice. These ventilating doors should
be opened every night, and closed again early in the morning. The
most important conditions to be secured are dryness of the soil and
enclosed atmosphere, compactness in the body of ice, which should be
broken fine and closely rammed, and exclusion as far as possible of
air. (_Gard. Mag. Bot._)
(5) A very cheap way of storing ice has been described by Pearson of
Kinlet. The ice-stack is made on sloping ground close to the pond
whence the ice is derived. The ice is beaten small, well rammed, and
gradually worked up into a cone or mound 15 ft. high, with a base of
27 ft., and protected by a compact covering of fern 3 ft. thick. A
dry situation and sloping surface are essential with this plan, and a
small ditch should surround the heap, to carry rapidly away any water
that may come from melted ice or other sources. (_Gard. Jl._)
(6) The following is an economical method of making small ice-houses
indoors:--Dig a hole in a cool cellar, and make it of a size
corresponding to the quantity of ice to be kept. At the bottom of
this hole dig another of smaller diameter, the edge of which goes
down with a gentle slope. This kind of small pit, the depth of which
should be greater in proportion as the soil is less absorbent, must
be filled with pebbles and sand. The whole circumference of the large
hole is to be fitted up with planks, kept up along the sides with
hoops, to prevent the earth from falling in. Then the bottom and
all the circumference of this sort of reservoir must be lined with
rye straw, placed upright with the ear downwards, and kept up along
the planks by a sufficient number of wooden hoops. The ice is to be
heaped up in this ice-house, which must be covered over with a great
quantity of hay and packing cloth, on which should be placed a wooden
cover and some light straw. (_Les Mondes._)
(_b_) _Storing Foods without change._--This embraces the keeping of
fruits, roots, eggs, &c.
To have a fruit room in a garden does not always argue that the fruit
stored in it will be well preserved. Such a store-house is of the
first importance; but, unless care is observed, and some special
attention given to the different kinds of fruit it may contain, much
loss is likely to be the consequence. As to the structure itself,
it is sufficient to say here that it should be perfectly dry, and
so constructed as to maintain an equable temperature at all times.
An ice house, if dry, makes a good fruit room--without the ice, of
course--for a fruit room, once the fruit is placed in it, does not
require much ventilation, unless it can be given without altering the
temperature. Heats and cools, alternately producing condensation and
evaporation, soon produce decay and rottenness, and should be guarded
against as much as possible; the fruit should always feel dry to the
touch. Possibly, the very best position that an apple or pear, for
example, could be placed in, to preserve it, would be to suspend it
by the footstalk in the air, and free from contact with any other
object. Onions done up in strings in the old-fashioned way invariably
keep much better than those laid on shelves or on a floor, and it is
the same with fruit. Fruit rooms which are above ground should be
double-walled, and ceiled; but when sunk or partially sunk in the
ground this is not so important, if damp is otherwise excluded.
Hardy fruits and grapes are often kept long and well in a fruit room
that is more like a cellar (only dry) than anything else.
The shelves and tables for holding the fruit should be sparred, and
before the fruit is stored they should be covered with a layer of
clean wheat straw, but so thinly that one can see through between
the spars of the shelves, which will allow a free circulation of air
amongst the fruit. When the room is empty during the summer-time, it
should be thoroughly ventilated, washed and dried, and made sweet and
clean, and, when the fruit is stored, shut up and kept in darkness.