The following is a list of duties, and we must add to it the answering of bells, tidying up after untidy people, any personal services required (in many cases this is considerable), door opening, telephone answering, letter posting, note and message taking, "running out" for things which have been forgotten, whistling for cabs, waiting in the hall to see visitors out, etc., window cleaning, washing, mending, listing house linen for the laundry, extra work at special cleaning times, sweeps' visits, etc. Household Duties. Light kitchen fire; one or two days a week clean flues and thoroughly clean range. Get in coal. Clean doorstep and brasses. Make tea, cut bread and butter, and take trays and hot water to bedrooms. Draw curtains, put washstands and possibly baths ready. Brush clothes, clean and take up boots. Sweep stairs, do hall and sitting-rooms, grates and coals. Get breakfast and set and serve it for servants and dining-room. Clear and wash up. Knife cleaning. Area or backyards to brush out. Kitchen and back premises to clean. Housework and turning out of rooms. Polishing bright metal, silver cleaning and pantry work of all kinds. Cooking, washing up and cleaning after cooking. Keep a supply of coal ready. Laying, serving, and washing up lunch and servants' dinner. Tidying the washstands after lunch. Tea. Shutting up rooms, bedroom work, hot water, etc. Wash up tea. Dinner. Cooking, washing up and tidying. Pantry work. Servants' supper. Bedroom work, hot bottles. Bed. These duties entail rising at any hour between six and seven, bed at any time between nine and eleven, at the best a fourteen and a half hours' day, during which hours in an easy situation the maid will have two and a half hours for meals (though parlourmaids and general servants cannot always enjoy uninterrupted meals), and about one and a half hours for reading, working, etc., leaving a ten-hour working day. From this deduct half a day a week and half of each alternate Sunday. I contend that quite a third of this labour might be eliminated, and what remained greatly lightened by the adoption of labour-saving methods. The following experiences are interesting as depicting the extraordinary difference in the amount of work which is exacted in a labour-making and a labour-saving home. [Illustration: _PLATE XVIII_ THE "ACMEFONT" BUILDERS' SET A combination of circulating Boiler, 20-40 gallons storage Cylinder, the circulating pipes between Boiler and Cylinder, and stand for the whole. This is a very suitable apparatus for fitting into houses where there is little available space.] [Illustration: _PLATE XVIIIa_ A "GILLED" CIRCULATOR Can halve your work and double your comfort. It can provide a continuous supply of hot water in the kitchen, scullery, bathroom, and bedrooms at all times of the day and night. It needs no attention and is thoroughly reliable. It can be hired from most Gas Companies for a quarterly rental.]