Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1875-04-29
SOME CURIOUS THINGS IN HOUSE
KEEPING


that battle knowledge, we are not so
much astonished at these as at the start
ling facts that are forced upon us from
day to day In social life. Some of the
most surprising of these confront us in
the developments of the science of house
keeping They are entirely beyond ex-
PLANTATION, and would be beyond belief
If they rested on mere assertion; but as
all of us, unfortunately, have tested them
by our own senses, we accept them with
wonder, and with some show of resigna-
ton.
Take an important branch of house
keeping How inexpicable
are some of the results of culinary study.
A woman with whom we once lived for a
time had kept house for thirty five years,
had never had servant, and had, during
that time, as she informed us, "baked
twice week regular" Consequently,
to 60 into the statistics of the matter,
bread had been baked in that establish
ment $3.50 times. Deducting 24O for
occasional sickness or absence of the
mistress "a large allowance, for she was
healthy, and seldom went from home),
and We have 400 times that this woman
had made and baked bread.
She used good flour, and yet her bread
was invariably damp, sticky, and unfit
for savage to eat, and no Christian
stomach could possibly J;cest it with
comfort Now surely vas won
derful thing By what methods I'M
fathomable to ordinary reason could she
have avoided In thirty-fve years prac-
tice learning how to make good yeast,
how much to work the dough, how long
it should stand to get light, what temper
allure the oven should be, and the proper
length of time to bake it! How could
she help doing it right the three thou
sand four hundredth timel 1t would
seem that vast amount of labor would
be necessary to do it badly. She was a
woman of average good sense, and, no
doubt, conscientious. She had no as
pirations and no mission" and read
nothing but weekly religious new spa
per- Her whole mind was in her house
keeping, and here was the result
Another woman, now over fifty years
of age, has cooked more or less, gener-
ally more, since she was twelve. She
has special liking for lamb chops, and
has cooked them very many times. And
to this day she serves up iver-colored
chops, fried, and swimming in greasy
liquid Merely looking at them will
give a right-minded man dyspepsia.
This woman has eaten lamb-chops else
where, cooked according to the best
civilized methods, and has praised them;
but each time she returns serenely
to her frying-pan and grease. Now
upon what hypothesis can this be
explained Can it be possible that
there are human beings so constituted
that their bodies and minds act indie
pendently, so that the sensation of taste
has no mental effect whatever! For in
these instances the results were not the
effect of carelessness or Indifference
they both thought the horrid abomina-
tions were feasts for the gods.
And not the least curious things in
these cases is that these poor cooks have
sharp eyes for the faults of the butcher
and the baker. The butcher knows better
than to offer stale or tough chop to No.
2; and if the baker were to serve No. /
with such bread as she makes herself
she would refuse to payf it, entirely
unconscious of the rehe Il she would
thus cast upon herself.
Why do some housekeepers continue,
week after week, month after month,
and year after year, to use raw -four for
thickeningl" Would it not be rea-
sonable to suppose that after a num-
Der of years-say ten--the raw -four,
and the sickness of the compound,
would suggest to them the possibility of
altering their manner of prepsring it!
We have suggested but few things
that happened to occur to us, and these
belong to only one branch of house
keeping; but if we were to pursue our
inquiries into other departments We
should be met at every turn with phe-
nomena similar to the above. They in
dictate the existence in the midst of home
life of marvels that science has so far
failed to explain, and for which reason
can find no law.