Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1870-09-29
Household Education For Women.

great Importance of instruction in
the housekeeping, food, and cookery
departments. There are many wo-
men who, while repudiating or ridi-
culing the necessity for higher ed
ucation in other matters. are no less
scornfuly ignorant of what ought to
be q very important part of every
woman's knowledge. There are
other women again, who, in grasping
earnestly the higher, lose sight OF
the lower, but not the less appropri-
ate part of their education. When
We consider this subject carefully,
in relation to every woman's life, we
find that in no instance can the
knowledge of housekeeping and
cookery be dispensed with. The
only women-few and far between
in comparison with the number OF
other wOmen-who might be able
to dispense NTH this, are those who
are so wealthy that they can afford
the luxury of a hOusekeeper; but
even these may be plunged into pow
erty some day, and then the requi-
site knowledge of practical things
will not come badly to them. Be
sides, as no woman can be certain
that she will be thrown into that par
ticular sphere, it is well in early
youth to accustom every woman to
look upon life as practical reality,
not to be dreamt away in idleness,
and contempt of the lesser daily du-
ties. This knowledge can be incul-
Gated before the higher branches of
education are reached, and it ought
to form part of the programme of
evey girls school, as well as of in
struction at home. There would be
ample time for it, for there are ac-
complishments which are insisted
upon for girls, whether they have a
talent for them or not; and they
would be much better employed in
acquiring more practical forms of
education. 1t does not necessarily
follow that, because a woman has a
fair amount of practical knowledge,
she must lose all feminine sweetness,
andbecome a mere household drudge.
On the contrary, the so-called house.
hold drudge seldom knows anything
ofthe science of cookery and food.
And this knowledge, far from inter
fering with higher education, in any
form or phase, is real necessity of
that very movement for opening
fresh employments, and for the more
technical education of women.
First, we will suppose that a wo-
man has been well educated, and
that her lot in life is to be married,
and that she is not one of the ex-
ceptionally wealthy ones. Will she
not be the better wife for a knowl-
edge of the physiological properties
of food, and of the best mode of
cooking the same? Ifshe does not
know wnat is the fault of the i'll
cooked Wand that her cook sends
up to table, how is she to direct her
to rectify it for the next time? And
frequent repetitions of bad cookery
are sure to put her husband in a bad
temper, and perhaps drive him to
his club, so that he may get a good
dinner! He will most likely blame
his wife for not being able to direct
the cookery department more wisely.
AS rule men care more than wo-
men do for good cookery; and, as
suredly, it should not be considered
beneath a wife to see that her hus-
bands home is mabe happy, and
teat her household is well ordered
in all things.
So then with a view to matrimony
alone, every woman should be taught
domestic management, and in turn
she ought to instil that knowledge
into the minds of her daughters.
We will suppose, however, that a
woman-and her name is Legion.-
has no husband to please, or house
hold to order, but that she is going
to enter upon the medical profess
sion, or to be hospital nurse, matron
or superintendent of any public in
stitution, a housekeeper or sister
of mercy, or that she is going to en-
igrate to the West. Will she not
require culinary knowledge for every
one of these things?
First, as a physician, she must
know what is good or not good for
her patients; for, if she be anything
of a successful practitioner, she
will find that diet is everything in
many diseases. AS matron, su-
perintendent or housekeeper. she
must know how to direct the servant
under her; and both in hospitals
and schools the quality and mode
of cookery of food is very important,
and in many cases not sufficiently
attended to.
AS hospital nurse, she will not be
the worst for practical knowledge
of what she is administering to her
patients; and as a sister of mercy,
it is equally important that she be
qualified to instruct the poor whom
she visits, for they might often be
better and more wholesomely fed by
the mere knowledge of how to util-
ize the small means they possess.
And if woman means to emigrate,
it needs no argument to prove how
idiotic she will be to undertake the
life of a settler, without that most
necessary practical knowledge of do
mestic economy.
We see then that, in every station
in life, the knowledge of the quality
of food, and how to cook it, is very
essential to womankind,-to enable
them to make others happy and
comfortable; by qualifying them to
detect adulterations or bad qualities
of food; and to prescribe the best
food for sick people under their care.
1t is a great cry of the age that
servants are not up to their work,
and it is mainly because so little
trouble is taken to instruct them
early in youth in the forms of SER
vice. 1t would indeed be a very
good thing if our idle women would
but undertake to instruct, the poor
in the practical duties of domestic
life. Much illness and misery might
be saved, and better servants secured |
to the community; and no woman
should think it beneath her-be she
as learned as any man livinU-tO az |