Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/851

Rh from the front area, so as to provide for constant circulation and change of air; this can be done at a very trifling cost, as the shaft may be formed of, say, glazed drain-pipes eighteen inches diameter, covered at each end with large open gratings made to lift up, so that the shaft may occasionally be cleared out.

In every basement a comfortable room for servants should be provided; some small sitting-room, fitted up with book-shelves and cupboards, and if possible facing the street, so that the workers of the house may have some sort of spare room in which they may be at rest from their ordinary duties; for if you want good servants you must treat them as ordinary beings like yourselves; and it is hardly fair to leave them for all hours in the heated and not always pleasant atmosphere of the working-rooms.

I can not too strongly insist upon the necessity of making those about us as comfortable as possible; for I am quite sure that, if we provide comfort and health for them, they will be much more capable of doing their daily work fairly and acting well by us. Remember always that a large proportion of their lives is spent absolutely underground, and that it is essential that they should have at least one room which shall be cheerful, well ventilated, and as pleasant as we can make it. Put yourselves in their places, and do as you would be done by, and, so far as my experience teaches me, I am morally certain that the master or mistress who provides well-lighted apartments for them to live and sleep in, will be more certain of keeping good servants, and of obtaining good work from them; if they are to be mewed up in ill-ventilated, uncomfortable, and unhealthy chambers for the greater part of their daily lives, you can hardly expect their work to be properly done; the atmosphere in which they live will enervate them, and make them comparatively useless.

The kitchen department should, as far as is consistent with proper and quick service, be shut off from the staircase of the basement, as this naturally acts as a funnel up which all smells ascend, so that, when the door at the top, which opens into the hall, is open, they escape and permeate the whole house; a swing-door can generally be arranged at the bottom of these stairs, provided with one of those patent American valve springs which close the door at once without allowing it to bang.

In every house, if possible, a small coal and luggage lift should be provided; in a new house, where there is a back staircase, it may run up in the well-hole; and in any old house it may often be arranged outside the back wall, with openings on to the various staircase landings.

If attention be paid to these smaller details in house-planning, I believe that in many cases the cost of a servant may be saved, for every one knows the daily labor in winter-time of carrying up heavy scuttles of coals and wood, and the great addition to the work of the