New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-11-24
vssh themselves. They are not Clean
Where enc waehes himself from top to tee each

dsy. there are hundreds who do not. 1.-The greasy
mob il thus term too true. And why should it
be So Why canno. the man Of small means be as
careful Of his person the dandy, as the courtier,
as tie aristocrat' Wash and be clean. Look
well at the type Of baptism, and find it an ever-iv-
irg declaration sgainst the filth of the masses, and
the diseases, moral and physical such filth begets.
If we had to give advice 10 parent, the first thing
We would say would be- Battle daily, and make
your children do the same; be spotlessly clean.
But the standard of cleanliness il now awfuly low.
Another point is cooking in the country. The
American cooking there is generally as repulsiye
10 taste as il is to health II is difficult TO recog-
pize the goodness Of God with such cooking as one
gets in the vast majority Of houses in the country
Good cooking will make inferior materials palst-
able. and bad cooking will make a canvas-back
duck unfit 10 be tasted. Miss Leslie says there
are three reasons why women will not learn to
cock snd in the country all the cooking is done by
women. The first ia, that no woman will use the
scales TO weigh the proportions of dish: the
second is. that no woman Will use Thermometer
TO determine the heat Of the water used; and the
third is, that no woman will use watch TO mark
tie tine dish has been on the FIRE. II is, in
word, sheer guess-work. Now few shlllings
sLent on good cook book, and the habit Of meas
urirg and marking details by scales, Thermometer
and watch. up TO the time, if that should come
that habit becomes nfallibe Will turn all the fem
mine YahCOs Of American htchens-say 100000
in pumber-intO decent, God-fearing caterers OF
III IL g ha fat Of land
of fruits and meats, and all the abundant harvest
Of His ineflble goodness.
As a general rule, IN the country there is nothing
fit to eat First as to breakfast. The coffee is
simply slops, though nothing is easier than to make
a cup Of good coffee. There sso..d be ys!y little
water to it, and much pure milk or cream 10 dilute
il. of which last items there ought to be an overflow
in the country. The tea may be generally better
than the coffee but il is sufficiently bad and unfit to
drink Then on the breakfasttable there is a chaos
of crude dishes, when some two or three things at
most. well cooked are ample. The bread is too
often sOdden. the butter too much like taow; then
there is mess Of tough meat, creased and cooked
to the consistency Of sole leather general horror
of hot cakes, pies, and heaven-knows-what-all,
| sufficient TO repel, but not to invite appetite
II this rampant, mutitudnOus array of breakfast
table came Of poverty, we would have nothing to
say about it-but it i. simply the product of igno-
rance There is generally an excess on the table,
an extract of which excess might be, and would be
6t to eat if there was any thing like discreet prepare
ton Of food-but there is not. Housewives in the
country, take our advice. Buy cookbook and
learn to cook and don't spread your breakfast table
with chaotic mass of indigestbe, repulsiye crudi
tee Have little, but have it good dish to put
before king" and then j. is fit to put before
Yourselves and not otherwise. Reform your cook
ing. II is simply savage.
Then another point as to heating and Sentilating
rooms We have no question that the standard Of
good looks and of health is lowering, owing to the
present mode of heating and yentilating-that is,
of not ventilating-houses in the country. Formerly
tie houses were so rudely built that the air had
secure play, and the foul air engendered within was
purified without malice prepense." Then, too,
there was great chimney place, where blazing
wood fire carried off the impurities of the cooking
and-stting- room and nursery, for in most houses
in the country they are all rolled into one But
now the houses are better built. The doors shut
close, and the windows shut closer. the heavens
and the atmosphere are cOntraband. Like the
meat.jars of the Shakers, the air is scru-
puousy excluded. TheD again, the no.
bic, jolly, practical, poetical, ample Chin
ney place is obsolete, and an immense stove,
which would properly be the devils patent has
taken its place. This Internal arrangement, hot as
PandemoDium, CLOVIS night and day in the Kitchen
and nursery, and sitiing-room. The good wife and
her babies are broiled over it like their cakes and
potatoes. As for the composite stenches of such
an arrangement, it were impossible to describe
them. Pure air, under such an arrangement
where can it be- How can it exist In
regard to the sleeping apartments: Chlmneys
these have not, and the windows are constructed
that the sashes will either not slide up or if they
will, there is no weight to hold them-so you
cannot find something to hol them up, your bed
room before morning will be in closeness like the
Black Hole Of Calcutta. That there Ough. to be
ventilation, appears to enter into the heads OF
the unfortunate creatures who construct such
houses. Such alterations from the painest laws
of nature-whch bees and birds, animals and rep
tiles, all and equally understand-and this among
people whose FOurth-OfJuly orators vaunt the pop
ulati,ns to the skies is as sad as il is incredible.
Our domestic arrangements for health have declined,
while Injuries have increased-decined simply be-
cause the present state of living in the country is
generally speaking, neither one thing nor the other
not the pioneers nor the huntsmans, nor that OF
the disciplined and scientific man. But, good
conn.rv friends do reform all this Live a Lit lie