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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 1922)
BUILT AT MINIMUM COST. Difficulties, rightly met, be come opportunities; and limita tions, under the hand of a mas ter craftsman, become sources of additional charm. This house Illustrates both these maxims. It is built with extreme econ omy of space. Though of the typo ' which we call colonial, it is only 23 feet broad by 20 deep; yet it is required to provide spacious living quarters and good sleeping accommodations for a fair sized family. In the Interest of the owner's pocketbook all broad over hang of roof has been prohibited. There is no medley of materials. Because these limitations have been dealt with by a master the result Is an unusually charming exterior and a floor plan that lives up completely to the friendly ad vance notice of the outer view. It will pay to pause and consider that outer view before going inside. The walls are stucco on back-plastered metal lath; their light, neutral gray is the best possible background for ■hrubs and vines, but the architect has disdained to call in these helps, and has Illustrated his handiwork un clothed. He can afford to do so. The asphalt shingles of the roof lend a note of color which is brought into closer ▼tow in the covering of the entrance stoop and living porch. The twin chimneys, with only a ■Ingle course of brick showing at the top. are worth while for their graceful proportions alone. The sloop and porch are both Inviting, and their lut tlcework Is a touch of lightness, which contrasts pleasantly with the solidity of ths walls. But the front windows of the second story are espe cially worthy at notice. They are set Just high enough to make a pleasing ripple In the sweep of the roof. The center door gives access to a little hall of somewhat Irregular shape. Directly In front of the door Is the staircase; at the left of the steps Is a coat closet, and at the right end of the hall Is the entrance to the living room. This extends clear across the house, and is lighted by windows at either end, as well as in the long wall. The fireplace is In this outer long wall, as the chimney gave notice. Remember ing the small dimensions of the house, one might expect this room to seem somewhat cramped: but the reverse is true. The space usually given to a passage alongside the stairs Is here in cluded In the living room, thus mak ing a broad bay opposite the fireplace, and adding coziness as well as room. At one side of the fireplace a French door leads to the living porch, a de lightful outdoor room, 9 feet 10 Inches by 16 feet. Coming hack to the little hall, the doorway at the left of the entrance leads to a dining alcove. This Is a feature of growing popularity. With the table and benches, six or seven persons can eat here nicely, and for larger parties or state occasions the table can be laid in the living room. Back of the alcove is a rather large kitchen, lighted from two sides and fitted with range, tabic, sink, and cabi nets. It really lias a pantry, too, for the service entry at the back contains the Ice box and has room for shelves and drawers. This same entry leads to the basement. [Courtesy of the Permanent Uuilder.I The stairs, well lighted by a window at the top. conduct ono to three cham bers, each occupying a corner of the second floor. All throe have closets and cross ventilation. The fourth cor ner Is occupied by a good sized bath room and by a linen closet. A beautiful, dlgnilled, comfortable home at minimum cost. A home that will last, likewise, wit' little expense for upkeep. The interior plaster, liko the outer stucco, is on metal lath, thus keeping fire and decay at a long dis tance. Even the demands of a lot for the setting are modest; a BO foot inside lot will do, and a narrower one will sufllco if on the comer. p? jgast'WorctisParts "Fashions ('a si mile worn by Mme. Sore! at Bal du Grand Prix. Silver tissue cov ered with orange and Petunia tulle. Dinner dress of old Italian brocade with garlands of sapphire beads at waist and throat. Itlack crepe dress consisting principally l of Japanese sleeves faced with chiffon cuffs. Dress of black crepe de chine trimmed in apron and ruffs of flsh net set with coral brads. MME. SORELS BALL DRESS. By Mary Bruth Williamt. (Chicago Tribune Foreign New* (Service.] PARIS.—[Special Correspondence.] —What do you suppose I saw a hat trimmed in this morning? There was only one blessed thing on It. and that was In tho back, right where your hair comes, and It was a tortoise shell comb. Miss Cornelia Skinner threw up her hands for Joy, being now in possession of some ten or twelve of the highest, fanciest ones outside of Spain. Tho way they happen to be outside of Spain Is that she brought them out about a week ago, when she and her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Otis Skinner, returned from their tour of color collecting for tho new drama to be presented this fall. There was" only one trouble In the world about the combs, and that was we didn't think any Americans would wear them. She had got them for her college friends, and her father, being of that unfortunate sex that always discourages all progress, said every time he saw them: “ No Amer ican girl will wear a comb like that.” If they won’t, they can use them as hat trimmings, and the world is saved. I also saw this morning a little green lizard, made of I know not what, In a crawling position on a bag. A turtle Is apparently living up to his reputa tion on another bag and coming in at the head of the race, as he maintains a position much nearer the clasp than the lizard has attained on his terri tory. THE COOK BOOK By Jane Edding_ton FEEDING CROWDS OF PEOPLE. FROM half way across the conti nent women have written to me for advice In reference to opening and conducting a tearoom or res taurant or cafeteria or delicatessen, or how to go about some form of catering to the eating public. An Increasing number of Inquiries Of this sort has eome In. I am no authority on this subject. In fact. I am more of a Job's comforter than anything else, since I fully believe that there are about three times as many people in food businesses as eught to be In them. Before 1914 the food trades had to support many more people than the trafflo could, legiti mately, and now. since prohibtlon. food sellers have Increased by leaps and bounds. The advice of Miss Alice Robertson, the only woman member of congress, might be worth seeking. She was In the cafeteria business In Oklahoma be fore her election. Terhaps It Is her •htnlng example that has aroused the desires of dozoni of women to follow in her footsteps, at least as far as to possess the eating place. No knowing what air castles beyond that they are building. Without Counting the Cost. The publlo U not oonslderc<f con scientiously by more than one out of an Inconceivably largo number of peo ple who want to make money by feed ing It. There Is a larger per cent of true Incompetents In food businesses than one would dare mention. It is safe to say that not one-tenth of the feeding done Is of first grade. Thero ought to be some method of grading eating places other than by the prices charged. People give the shabbiest and most unconvincing reasons why they think they might succeed in food work, al though totally Inexperienced, totally ‘ untrained, and without capital. With people as Impatient as they arc today, this latter drawback Is far greater than the Inexperienced can guess. Coffee urns, bread slicing machines, power whips, dish washing machines, and other marvelous labor money saving, and time multiplying devices are need ed to go Into this work, even on a rather small scale. “Always on the Job." A great number of testimonials might be collected from people of ex perience as to what is required. But before equipment, I would place the ability to be “ always on the Job. A woman with a successful eating place In Ban Diego. Cal-, called and calls her place a box because when she began one of the dimensions of her miniature eating place was eight feet. Judging by her larger place and everything concerning, the merest amateur can see that she does not sit around while some one else does all the work. There is no bit of it she cannot do, whether it Is the cooking, or some quite wonderful Interior deco rating to give her place an absolutely unique and exceptional air, with noth ing of that machine made uniqueness we find in some such places. A woman whom I have watched in . her caf£ where 600 people a day are fed, and of whom I would Bay that " she is always on her Job.” has depre cated the idea—in print—“ that people today enn successfully start and con duct a business on a shoe string.’ Neither will-just a knowledge of cook ing suffice, she Bays. There must be considerable capital, some business ex perience, and good Judgment. 5.000 People Fed in One Minute. The great Oscar, maltre d’hotcl of the Waldorf in New York City, who has Just made a contract for his services for ten years on a basis of $500,000 for the term, is quoted as saying In an Interview that If he had been told ten years ago that the time would come when 5.000 people could be fed in one minute, ho would have said it was Impossible This great chef sees or knows that 600.000 people are fed In the restau rants of New York City between the hours of 12 and 2 o’clock. This fact has produeod a profound change in menus. To read some of the ways in which this food is avalanched to the crowds is like reading a modern fairy story, with an ogre in the background and all. The quick lunches seem to be the profiteer’s chance, for one ogrelsh thing. There are also good reasons for saying that the most food with the least nourishment is served, as a rule. Machinations in food manip ulations, which have come through the uses of marvelous machinery, cheat humanity more than it can guess. Power Mixers Brin* from. Take the wonderful power mixers. The white of one egg and a cup of some sort of liquid can be beaten up to an incredible volume witfi this w hip ping device. One man, serving 2,500 people a day, r answer to a quiz on the subject, said that the power mix ing machines increased hia volume 25 per cent. And it is quite within rea son that this was clear gain to him. These mixing machines are used for fifteen or twenty different things—mix ing cakes and fillings and icings for them, for beating " pie toppings,” for bread and griddle cakes, n-ayonnaise, mashed potato, whipping cream, etc. How could a woman with a small hand egg whip compete with a thing like th's? Tf fresh material, as nature made it, was used in all these cases the quality would be Improved us well as the quan tity increased enormously—but the speed demon of today has his minions Inventing all sorts of sophisticated or near foods. There are powders 10 which sopie water is added before the power whip is set to work to make jut of them pie fillings, rake icings, or, note, 11 pie toppings " Pie toppings is what they are called In the technique at today. 1 taste and choke on them, and the overemphasized fillings under them, and do not wonder that " pies pro not as popular as they used to Lo. A great authority says they are not. I have but recently watched some pie crust makers and know that pie crust making is also largely a lost art. Thick, dry, bitter, sandy stuffs arc urged upon customers as tine and flaky, though a true mince pie Imp would fall down and expire if given such to eat. Owns 104 Lunchrooms. But this is not to suggest that some of the largest eating places are not run with wonderful tnoroughness and cleanliness. The owners of the great places are sometimes, if not usually, peoplo of much more general cultiva tion and training than the general and careless eating public imagines. Take, for instance, the owner of a widely scattered chain of lunchrooms—101 in all. An article printed in June, 1921. shows that he Is not only a man of wide cultivation, but of Indomitable energy, which he lias put into his busi ness. This man contends that a restaurant man, besides having “ natural endow ments as merchant or salesman,” should know about cooking. So what did he do? As he tells it, ho first worked In his own bakeries In Boston, learning all he could about bread. Then, having been an extensivo wan derer in Europe, and realizing that they had better bread over there than here, he apprenticed himself for eight weeks to a French baker, who. If he had known the facts about his appren tice, wouid have thought of him as a millionaire and would certainly have bent the knee to him had lie known that this man was living with his family in an expensive hotel near Those weeks were In summer, and the work was conducted in a base ment,'where “ the ventilation consisted almost entirely in the draft through the oven up the flue." But hero is a part of his description: The French Bread Process. "The custom in that ghop was to strip completely to the waist, and the first job every night was to go into the dough trough up to one’s elbows and above, and belabor that dough for an hour or more The dough for French bread lias sticking qualities beyond the wildest imagination of one who haa made the ‘straight or quick doughs’ of Boston. It has clinging characteris tics only comparable with Wabash mud or Arkansas gumbo. E#?r since those fifty-six nights of overexertion, In tolerable heat, and smothering close ness, I get a nerve shock when I see in old fashioned dough trough. It was the limit of my experience In hard work." The hardest work of this rich man had previously been cutting cord wood for E>0 cents a cord, pushing wheelbar rows of dirt up long Inclines, painting acres of tin roofs In July and August, digging rocks and making fences of them. He had been Paid ai these, but in this case he paid to a man who cursed, etc. Note then what lie brought to the restaurant business to insure tho great success that has followed his efforts. Stuck to Sticky Business. This man stuck to tho sticky busi ness until he could really make French bread. Ho says: “I was still In pur suit of knowledge in this inferno, and clung to that job as faithfully as that dough stuck to me every night, mostly because my boss actually went in tho trough with me and did show mo the peculiar movements of my hands tnd arms in the dough to effect tl best results. Then when the dough ' comma flnir,’ the regular understudy would pare the dough off him and lie from me." There are other entertaining de tails of how the boss gave him only half as much to eat as ho had himself, sent him on errands at unearthly hours, etc. Any one who wants to learn a food business should ltavo this man’s spirit. Such a man should have intelligence enough to get and hold a Job easily in a place where the necessary * things could be learned. If such people are^, without the grit to do this, they are not likely to overcomo the trials of establishing, building up, successfully continuing a place for feeding people, and putting some conscience Into their work rather than all selfish concern to " make money." Bookkeeping Is Important. Some flourishing eating places go to die wall because a little success, with good clothes and automobiles, turns the heads of the good cooks who started them, and who liavo to go again into service—and look the part. On the other hand, I havo seen a whole family, after comifig into great opportunities through money, "stay right on the Job," doing the buying, keeping the books, etc. No one who is too lazy to keep books should try to feed people. It is lazi ness, or a queer repugnance to that sort of exactions which hinders many an owner of a tepidly run eating place from keeping hooks. Today, there are curious and wonderful systems, with machines for adding and tabulating, to help in this work, but they cost money. It should be noted, however, that there are great places for feeding people whero the bookkeeping seems to be carried on as un end in itself, and everything so conducted by rule of thumb that the food has no more character than a chromo. There is at least one high class maga zine conducted for those in these busi nesses. It is called “The American Restaurant, the Magazine devoted to Eating Places." It contains some re markably good reading, as well as every sort of information for those in the business. The initial article in the June number tells of what the great chef Oscar says about our national food weaknesses and failures—how wo fail to recognize subtlety in the art of cooking, how haste has intruded on our eating habits, and how seme valuable customs have been overturned. Mrs. Otis Skinner has been trying to tell me about a cape that one of our American friends bought out of Lewis’ the other day for about a million dol lars that consisted of a couple of bolts of ribbon—black alternating with White—I believe, in long, fringelike streamers from a round yoke of the ribbon interlaced like a cane bottomed chair. The streamers are held gently at the waist line, and after that are left to fly. It must look awfully pretty over a white dress. A useful costume that, I should think, for a Lake Forest horse show—do you have them still? Mrs. Granville Miller bought it; daugh ter-in-law of Henry Miller. Hut to get down to everyday prac ticabilities, such os the ball follow ing the Grand Prix races. It was a costume afTalr, the gayest of anything —I was going to say, since Habylon fell. What I meant was since the war. Tou couldn’t go, if you were a lady, unless you wore something in fuchsia color or magenta, and not hav ing that in your wardrobe regular, you had to stop wliat you were doing and lay out about a million dollars to get something. It wasn't altogether extravagant in the eyes of the rich to do so, because, of course, this creation of the best skill and art of Paris could be dyod for motoring. Anyway, here is the simple thing which Mme. Sorel, most spectacular of French actresses, whipped up for the occasion. It consisted of a coat of silver tissue and a huge skirt also of silver tissue, spraying from which were flugs of tulle In orange and petu nia colors. The coat was lined with a splash of magenta chiffon. The helmet was of silver, stuck with all the lengths and shadings of ostrich plumes. Descending In an anti-climax, we ar rive at a dinner dress of some one whom tho artist describes ns “ one of the most attractive of the yflunger countesse3.” It is of old Italian bro cade, and it goes back to the middle ages not only for the inspiration of Ha material but its line also. As you can see, It is tho straight silhouette which we have long called moycn age. To resort once again to--the phrase ology of the artist, it has a “ singlo accent of decoration." This consists of garlands of sapphire beads at neck and waist The younger countess carries a hugo ostrich feather fan of the color known to the French as " lie Ue vin,” which means dregs of wine. We are working our way gradually to the practical. Pretty soon we shall arrive at something that can be worn. Here is a gown consisting almost en tirely of sleeves. They are Japanese In line, and French in embroidery. It is in black silk hnd Jet. The sleeves terminate in deep cuffs of chiffon. As a complete anti-climax to such spec tacular sleeves, the simple chemise dress which carries them has a nar row. inconspicuous belt of black patent leather. The material is black crPpo Marocain, topped with a wide, flat hat of yellow organdie, with a wide, flat airplane of a bow across the back. A woman was seen wearing this dress at a smart art exhibition. The artist says that the following dress has an amusing sleeve. The valud of it and the sleeves to me is that they illustrate a present and growing style for ornamentation yet on more or ies» extraneousiy. and as If they had run out of ideas and had to make a show ing. . . v Tlio trimming in this rase is of nsB net studded with red coral beads. The dress proper Is of black crfpe de chine, made perfectly plain except for these two excursions Into ornamentation, with an undecorated back and a V shaped neck. That Is to say, the skirt Is plain except for an ample amount of fullness, and this Is by way of point ing a linger to the fact that all autuma skirts stand a show to be gathered fuller. The weight of the apron Is an Im portant feature In making for 1U at tractiveness. The hat accompanying tlie dress is of black crfpe, decorated with a fringe of the beada. We have a friend visiting us who was our near neighbor until a few years ago, when site tnoved to an other city'. Yesterday, while walking on the street, site was surprised to hear a child, who also used to live in our neighborhood, speak to her, call ing her by name. Sho turned to him and said: “ How did you know me?" " Why,” be said, " I knew you by your face.” k. M. Guy was out calling with his moth er, when ho saw a picture of angels on a wall in a home where they were calling. Calling his mother s atten tion to this picture, he said, "Mother, somebody must have token a kodak to heaven with them.” H. M. Maxine was visiting a friend. Her mother told her to return home at 4 o'clock and when the Ume arrived she put away her playthings and prepared to leave. Her friend urged her to play Just a little longer, but seriously she replied: "No, Molly. I can't play any longer, for If my daddy come# home from work and I’m gone he will cry hla blue eyes out." B. H. Mary Jane went to visit her grand rna with her aunt. When they arrived her grandma started to talk baby talk to her. Mary Jane looked up and said: “ What Is the matter with you? Cant you talk good?" B. R. C. The baby was sitting In his go-eaH and Jack was wheeling him up and down the sidewalk. Some man paa» ing asked him If the baby was his brother. Jack looked at him a n* ment, and then *ald: " Sure, so® wouldn't catch mo hauling a strong* kid around.” J« Practical IRONING BOARD COVERS. MONO the many pieces of work that fall to the housewife is keeping her ironing board cov ers clean and well put on. Most women, I imagine, use the long board that coine.3 attached to a btand that can bo folded against tire board when not In use. And many women use pieces of old sheets, more or less clum sily tacked or pinned on. And doubtless many times these oov ers are allowed to remain until they are rather disreputable, because it is such a nuisance to take tacks out, and put fresh muslin on. Ironing board covers that can be slipped on and off quite easily are on sale in stores, but if a woman likes to do these various things she will not mind including the making of several covers in her list. Heavy unbleached muslin is the thing to buy. and It it Is going to be of service alter It Is laundered, it will be best to shrink it well before malt ing up. Set the ironing board up and lay the length of muslin on tt straight th > entire length, allowing it to come enough over the edge at the widest part to cover the depth or thickness about one inch. Then, cut it hke the diagram. You will see that It is cut to fit around the widest point to a depth of six Indies. From that point it Is cut straight out for, say, five inches, and then straight down to with in twelve inches of the opposite end. From there on it in cut to fit the end of the board, allowing the one inch margin on both sides the same as at the opposite end. The long ends of the cloth are hemmed and a piece cut exactly like the narrow end. making it twelve or a little more inches long. For the wide end two lengths of material about six inches deep and wide enough to lap at the middle one inch after a narrow hem is put in are cut to fit. These pieces are hemmed down the middle and across the ends, then basted to the cover and stitched in a narrow seam; then turned to the right side. At the narrow end the piece is hemmed across the bottom and then basted and stitched on and turned to the right side. Small rings are sewed at two Inch Intervals down each long length of the cover. To put the cover on, slip it over the narrow end first, then over the wide, and lade the sides together, using • corset lace. A couple of thumb tacke will hold the ends in place, and the result will be found to be worth the trouble. It is a good Idea to keep tw* of these covers on hand at a time. Board as it looks when ready lor use—• Above, shows underside ol bodrd-(minus .collapsible lramc)-with cover titte.d on — riryfs end thumb tacks hold it tirmly —>
