The Oxford intelligencer. (Oxford, Miss.) 1860-18??, 1860-08-15
A New study for Girls.

ARCHBISHOP HUGHEs said very sensible
thing in his address, few days since, to the
young ladies of the Mount Saint Vincent
Academy, Catholic school for girls in New
York. After complimenting the young girls
as angels, in style rather exuberent for
man who, ercfeio, has no right to know
much about the angels of this world, the
good Bishop said he intended before another
year to arrange with the sisters teaching the
school for the introduction of new branch
of study into the academy; he was going to
have the yong ladies taught the science of
euisine. He said every young lady, though
she be queens daughter, ought to know
the art of housekeeping; even it she docs
not need to practice it she should understand
it, for it may happen some day that her cook
will dismiss her, and what predieament
she would be in then. At the end of anoth-
er year, if his purse was long enough, he
would give a gold medal of fifty dollars in
value to the young lady who should write
the best essay upon this new branch of acad-
emic study. The Bishop said he did not
mean that the girls should study the theory
merely of Cuisine but each scholar should
have the opportunity to learn it practically in
the kitchen.
We suppose the Bishop intended some
thing more than a good joke, and that he
would be glad to see the girls in the schools
under his supervision trained to some prop
er knowledge of housekeeping. Protestant
girls need instruction in this science quite as
much as Catholic girls. 1t used once to be
considered essential that young woman
should be indoctrinated in all the mysteries
of the kitchen before coming to marriagea-
bic age Now the daughters of people in
moderate circumstances grow up and assume
the responsibilities of family without the
slightest idea how to make good bread or
even decent cup of coffee. Everything has
to be trusted to an ignorant and indifferent
servant girl, and, with an expenditure sufi-
cient to secure luxurious living, everything
comes to the table STALE insipid, and indi-
gestible Many a man OF means fares hard
er than his neighbor who lives by days
works, but who has a wife who knows how
| to cook.
The perversion of the good things of Prov
idcnce in this country by bad cookery is
monstrous. II is one of the great sins of
the day, calling for reform. There are hun
dreds of families spending freely for table
supplies who have not the least idea what a
good palatabIc meal is. All the West
labounds in the most tender aud delicious
beet, and yet there is not one Western man
in ten who knows the favor of beef lie has
always eaten it fried up to the consistency of
sole leather in salt pork fat. If he should
eat a steak properly cooked he would be
overwhelmed by new sensation. In coffee
the sin against nature is still worse. There
are not probably twenty public houses in the
Union where real coffee has ever been made
Even if the peas, the chickory, and other vile
mixtures are avoided, the coffee is so CON
cocted as to be Of the color and consistcncc
Of thin mud, and all the cream in the world
will not bring it to the lively golden hue and
delicious flavor that distinguish genuine cof
fee We should like to send woman we
know on a mission to instruct all the cook.
in America in the sublime art of making cot
fee She might do more for human progress
in that way than by teaching the Assembly's
catechism to the Hottcntots, or by going
round the country in boomers to lecture on
women's rights The woman who can make
good coffee and bread, and cook steak
right, has got the essentials of the art Of
cuisine in her, and may be trusted to perfect
herself in all the minor details. The pud-
dings, the pastry, and the fancy work are all
easy after the great first principles are mas
tered
This may seem waste of words over a
small matter to those who affect to despise
the vanities of this life, but we believe no
greater benfit could be conferred upon Amer
lean women and girls than to instruct them
in the culinary art. The comfort and health
of every family is greatly dependent upon
the wisdom and skill exercised in the kitch-
en-. Hence we go in, with Bishop Hughes,
for the introduction Of the theory and prac-
tice of cuisine into the schools for girls, I'M
less their mothers will drop all false notions
on the subject, and teach them themselves at
home. But either at home or at school, let
the girls be taught how to cook.-Spriag-
field (lKdss.) Republican.
Precedence of CrinOline.
AZ the corner Of one of the streets loading into