THE FAMILY WORKROOM The family workshop is in several respects one of the most important rooms in the house. From the stand point of economy a reasonable invest ment in the equipment of such a room will, in the long run, pay for itself many times over. A good equipment includes a convenient work bench, good tools, and a supply of nails, screws, and other hardware; utensils, and materials for soldering and tinkering of all sorts; various adhesives; paint and varnish; appli ances for simple metal working, woodworking, and working in leather, and many other incidentals too nu merous to mention. A good rule in furnishing the workroom is to buy, in the first instance, only a limited num ber of the most necessary articles, and to purchase others as needed; but in purchasing to make sure that each article is the best of its kind. A few good tools, well cared for, will be found much more serviceable than a large number of inferior imple ments that are constantly getting out of order. Only those who are obliged to live in restricted quarters, as per sons who are boarding or living in city " flats," realize the total saving resulting from the numerous small economies that can be practiced in a well-equipped workroom. On the other hand, those who occupy larger houses have more needs of this sort. And to farmers and others who live in partly settled rural neighborhoods some equipment of this kind is indis pensable.
Order in the Workroom.—From the standpoint of convenience, and time saving, much depends upon the condition in which the various con veniences of a workroom are kept. It is too often the case that nobody knows where to find the hammer or the screw-driver, and it is necessary to search various parts of the house to find out whether or not there is a supply of nails or screws available for a certain use. Sometimes this is due to the lack of a suitable place for a convenient and well-equipped workroom, but more often such waste of time in useless running to and fro is due to thoughtlessness and failure to appreciate the value of order and time.
Educational Value of Manual Work.—From the educational view point the workroom is (or ought to be) next in importance to the library. And in the earlier years of childhood it is probably of superior importance.
Every boy and girl should have man ual training in all the domestic arts. To know how a thing can be, or should be, done is of very little value in comparison with the acquisition of skill and ability to do it and do it properly. Many persons nowadays— when it is customary to send for the carpenter or the plumber, or to take articles to be repaired to the cabinet maker or the harness maker or the iron worker—are wont to say that they could do these things for them selves if they had a mind to, but that it is cheaper and easier to have them done by others, and that they have therefore no need to acquire the nec essary skill. Aside from the question of economy that is involved, this is a very shortsighted view to take of the matter. It is impossible to use the forgers without at the same time using the brain. And it is also im possible to use for any other purpose those parts of the brain that govern the use of the fingers. Hence, if the fingers are not used in a great vari ety of ways, certain parts of the brain are not properly developed and the mind is limited and restricted in certain important ways in its devel opment.
The Good Old Days.—It has been pointed out that the American farm er of the past generation carried on in the neighborhood of sixty to sev enty different processes on the farm that in modern times have given rise to as many different arts or trades. The pioneer farmer had necessarily to be his own blacksmith, iron work er, carriage ironer, wheelwright, car riage painter, carpenter, cabinet maker, harness maker, bootmaker, shoemaker, and so on—just as his wife had to be her own spinner, weaver, dyer, dressmaker, tailor, soap maker, and the like. In those days there were no artisans in the vicinity of the pioneer farmhouse. No one could be called in, nor could the work be sent out to be done by oth ers. Hence so many necessary tasks accumulated that the boys and girls of the family were obliged at a very early age to master a large number of domestic arts and processes. The natural desire felt by all children to equal or exceed their models resulted in the acquisition of considerable skill, which was thus transmitted from father to son, and from mother to daughter, through generations.