Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1879-04-26
HOUSE WORK.
Some Sensible Thoughts on the Proper
Training of Daughters.


From the first hour to the last of ex-
istence every man, woman and child
must have food to eat, clothes TO wear
and some place TO stay in. In warm
climates clothing may be largely dis
pensed with, but not SO with either food
or habitation. Provision must be made
for disposing Of the wastes of the body
as well ss for its renewal. Starting with
this groundwork Of facts, the question
is certainly pertinent one whether the
education OF our girls and boys is of the
kind that these facts naturally suggest
TO be the true one.
This train Of thought was set in lively
motion by pleading letter from girl
Of Is, stating that she was nearly out of
money, out of employment, found it i'm
possible 70 procure employment, and
was at the time dependent on the kind
ness of friends for home. OF house
work she "knows little, of cooking
nothing at all.'' When she was young
there was no need OF her help and she
was kept at school. Now she wisely de-
terrnines TO take lessons in house-keep-
ing Of the friend with whom she is stay
ing, thus improving the time until she
finds work.
This case is by no means exceptional.
There are girls by the ten thousand in
this country who "know of homework
little, Of cooking nothing at ALL" and
they are by no means all of them the
children Of wealthy parents, or of par
ents who can afford to bring up their
daughters in idleness. The ignorance
of these girls results from several con-
ditions. In the first place, where there
Is a L" hired girl ~ in the family it is a
very difficult matter to train the dsugh-
tiers in practical knowledge of kitchen
work. The ordinary servant-girl gives
an uninviting look to the kitchen, and
the expression Of her countenance is un-
inviting to the intruder from the sitting
room and parlor. Her tones of voice
indicate no welcome; she prefers to be
left to do her work in her own way
without help or interference, and she
can not be made to cooperate in any
plan which will enable the daughters of
the house to feel at home in the kitchen
and pantry. In the next place most
mothers who do not employ servants
find it SO much easier to do the work OF
the family themselves than to teach their
daughters how to do it and compel them
to do it, that the girls are left to occupy
themselves with more congenial pur-
suits. There are very few persons who do
not find sweeping and busting and dish
washing and cooking and scrubbing and
laundry work any thing else at times
than pure drudgery; very few persons
indeed who are not quite willing to al
low all this work to be done for them
certainly the ordinary American girl is
no exception to this rule. She likes to
practice her music, to take lessons in
French, to learn the last new embroid-
cry stitch, to read the latest novel, to
keep her hands clean and put on nice
dress in the morning and wear it all
day without any need of soiling it or Of
putting on an apron TO protectit. She is
quite willing to put the parlor in order,
to make the dessert for dinner or the
cake for company, TO arrange flowers
on the sideboard and dining table, and
do all the little nice things that make
the home tasteful and coy; she can
80 1.-THE mint, anise and cummin," but
the weightier matters of the law-bread
making, meat cooking, plain sewing,
mending-these are too hard, too tedi-
Gus, too embarrassing. We hear a
chorus of rural voices protesting that
this isn't so; that there are country girls
by the hundred who pride themselves
on their ability to do every kind of
Homework skiilfully, and aren't afraid
TO put their own hands to the family
pillow, and do pnt their hands to it from
one years end to the other, and run a
straight furrow from May TO May again.
This is al so, and Yet the statement re-
mains true that there are girls by the
ten thousand who :" know of Homework
little, of cooking nothing at ALL"
Now what are We going 10 do about il
The remedy lies chiefly in the hands of