The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-07-31
Brain VS.. Bread and Butter.

Magnolia-Iand Her sentences snap like
wbin-cords. but it needs sharp strokes to
drive the arrows of truth into the toughened
comprehension of the average man. we
print with pleasure:
E,Itors farmer and mechanic Will you
welcome a stranger to a seat IN the ladles
circle say a stranger, because unknown
ia YOU. though | have been a constant rea-
der of your valuable paper from the time
that your first copy was issued.
Some of YOUR readers may think me I'M
nertinept in thus intruding; but the fact IS,
I have been provoked beyond endurance,
and as your columns are open 10 US l nave
determined to say a word III behalf OF the
girls of our State.
For the last Twelve months ! have hardly
seen a paper that did not contain a lecture
to girls. and the lectures have gencrnrg been
about the all important subject of cOoEtag %
with q view to matrimOny. We are told
'sHow to cook a husband :" what, and how,
to cook in order to make the men folks hap
ny. and a good deal more to the same point.
The gentlemen are told that when they go
to choose a wife they must be sure to get a
girl who knows how to cook, whether she
knows anything else or not. Yes, indeed
protest against all this. In the first
place the girls are not all as anxious to mar
nv as some folks would have you believe,
and in the second place it Is an imputation
on YOUR own sex.
have been expecting to see a reply from
some gentleman resentin@ the implied insult,
but they seem to be dumb on the subject
though they may think it better to treat the
matter with silent contempt. Is 1t possible
that the only avenue to a mans heart Is
through his stomach ? Is nothing else es-
sential to happiness in married life, thanthe
wife's ability to cook? So it seems, and
yet | scarcely think it can be true. 1t can
not be possible that the men of the present
day are all like the prince who could never
find a suitable companion till he stumbled
on a girl who could make good apple dump
lings. Neither are they all like an eminent
Englishman of other days, who married a
woman whom he had never seen but once,
simply because she was a good cook.
| am free to admit that cooking is, or
ought to be, a part of every girls education;
but should a talent fer such work be cult
waited to the exclusion of all others? | think
not. Still another question: How many
girls, the daughters of farmers, do you sup
pose there are in North Carolina, who have
reached the ages of eighteen and twenty
years, who do not know how to cook? They
are few indeed.
And the farmers daughters are not all a
good many of our city girls are good cooks,
though a great many people seem to think
they Know nothing whatever about house
work. Lee the mothers of the land teach
their girls to sew, cook, wash, iron, scour.
if need be, and then let the newspapers
quit slandering the poor dJense7css e. men,
by telling us it is only a cook they want
when they get married. In addition to our
knowledge of and skill in household matters,
girls, lets cultivate our minds by reading
good wholesome books, and be sure that a
man Of any refinement and cultivation can
appreciate a woman whose mind is stored
with prose and verse, Just as highly as he
can a good cook. What we most need is
not SO many lectures on cooking, for we can
nearly all cook, but it is more reading. We
cook too much and read too little, and if
some kind Samaritan, who is capable of
doing such a thing, would only point out a
course of reading for US that would be both
pleasant and instructive it would do us more
housekeeping generally.
Mary Powell, the first wife of Milton, was
probably a nice housekeeper, but she failed
to make the great poet very happy. If her
mind had been trained by choice reading, if
she had been taught to love history and po-
etry as well as to attend to household affairs,
1t is more than probable that we would be
spared the humiliating thought that Eng
lands most distinguished poet was unhappy
III lie Ii'iiitU lIc. lie WOulu EOU nave /
held up to Us the picture of his desertion
and loneliness simply because his wife could
not understand and appreciate the magni-
tude of his greatness.
Let's make ourselves familiar with the
issues of the day, girls, let post ourselves
on history, let's read the standard works,
both prose and verse, so that we may be able
to converse with ease on any subject intro
duced by our fathers and brothers. and then
we will be more respected.
Then the gentlemen will not remark SO
frequently, as a distinguished legislator did
last winter IN presence of several ladies,
Lets talk about the fashions now for the
entertainment of the fairer SEX" For our
pleasure tndeed!! No, girls, LETT not cook
SO much but let read more.
And now before you begin to think me a
| will stop. Twill add in conclusion
am not "a sour old maid as some
one will call me, who has never learned to
cook, therefore has not married, but only a
H. Il