The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-11-27
Is Housekeeping Degrading.

A lady asks: Do you think it inn
peratively necessary that woman
should 90 into her kitchen and redden
her face and ruin her hands by the
drudgeryof cooking? Is not this eter-
nal catering to the stomachs of men
rather derogatory to women?
We do not perceive the necessity of
running hands or reddening faces any
more than we recognize the idea that
cookery or any other household duty
necessarily be drudgery. Any work
is drudgery to the unwilling and in
competent. No household or other
needftll employment is drudgery to a
woman who prefers the health and COM
fort of her family, or personal indie
pendence, to pale face and nerveless,
flabby hands. AS to catering to the
stomachs of men" being "derogatory
to women that depends. If wo-
man gives all her time and mind to the
kitchen in order to minister to the
wants of her family, when she is capa-
BILE also of ministering to their spiritual
and intellectual needs, of course it is
derogatorv. But woman who is thus
capable will not be likely to merge her.
self entirely in her cuisine, and the
more intellectual she is, and the higher
her nature isdeveloped. the more likely
she will be to perceive the necessity of
a well ordered household, plentiful
and wholesome table, and take the
requisite measures to furnish them,
even if she has to accomplish it by
descending to the kitchen and making
her own face rosy over the range and
her hands somewhat less delicate by
contact with work. The women who
do not care for their homes, and who
find housewifery derogatory, are not
the cultured, studious women, but the
apes of fashion, the vapid, silly would
bes, who are not"
1t is reported of the Empress Jo-
sephine that she did not disdain, even
when at the acme of her power and
glory, to cook for Napoleon the delica-
cies for which he had a liking, and in
one of the apartments of the royal pal
ace she kept cooking utensils, that she
might be able to prepare at a moments
notice an Omelet or "pate," such as her
husband delighted in.
One of the most remarkably intel
lectual women we ever knew-a lady
by birth and social position, a scholar
by attainment, the wife of distln-
guished public man, and the most mag
nificent of grand dames-was also the
best practical housekeeper and cook,
rivaling in this art the most renowned
of citizens. She could, when occasion
demanded, without regret or fear of
consequences, dismiss insolent or in
competent servants, and with her own
fair, jeweled hands, serve up for her
husband and his friends a dinner of
which Soyer himself might have been
proud. We would have all women
learn that no work which is necessary
to the health, comfort or pleasure Of
those beloved can degrade or humiliate
the worker. 1t is by no means deSira-
BILE that women of culture and refine
mcnt should he confined to kitchen
work, while there are whole armies of
women who have no other decent way
of self-support but it is essential that
every woman should be abundantlv ca
pahlc of overseeing the whole house
and doing all or any part of lis work
when necessary. Itccrtainly is asserted
that they should know more of cooking
especially than most of them do at
present. Let some of cur ladies' lay
aside for Il short time their fine airs
with their fine clothes, and, instead of
trusting to ignorant and dirty servants,