The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-03-25
When the Cook Is Sick,

When the Cook Is Sick.
There is distress in the household. for
tho light of the kitchen and the joy of
the department of domestic dradgery
languishes on bed of rheumatism.
Having during long term of service
regularly answered to rollcall, she has
unwitting!y conveyed to her employers
the idea that she might be counted on
forever and in any emergency. The
possibility of her absence from days
duty had not occurred to anybody in
the house. 1t would seem as natural to
find the church stceple lying fiat on the
pavement as to mark cooks absence
from stated duty. But as the frost Of
winter arrests the activity even of the
busy brook and confines it in letters of
ice, 80 does autumnal rheumatism catch
and cripple the poor girl while waiting
too late at night outside the gate to wish
her departing cousin q safe journey
home. 1t is not so much a hearty SYM
pathy for her sufferings that fills the
family with sorrow. True, there is a
fair amount of sympathy. and what
there is is deep and sincere. But the
trouble is to know how to get along
without her services. So long has it
been the custom to depend on her
for almost everything necessary to
daily existence that the various MEM
bers of the family are almost helpless.
There are some things which the girls
know. Sophia Serena can make Char
lotte russo, and meringues, and
whipped cream and soap-bubble pie,
and seven-story jelly cakes in flats,
with layers of jam to keep the flats
apart. Maria Magenta can tastefully
adjust on the parlof mantel and the
etagere the neat little plaster Samuels,
Japanese pagodas, and other articles of
brio a-brac which have been bought
with her own pin-money or presented
by admiring friends. But neither of
these young ladies knows how to kindle
a fire in the kitchen range, or to keep
it going in the event of having succeed
ed in setting the fuel ablaze. After
some discussion as to the proper rela-
tons of kindling wood to anthracite,
they decide to place the hard coal at
the bottom, because it is the heaviest,
and to lay the chopped wood and news
papers on top, because they are SO light.
A neighbor, who kindly comes to the
rescue, explains to them why this
method of lighting the fire was fail
ure. Old Mrs. Materfamilias has not
for many years taken an active part in
details Of household effort or culinary
art. In a rash moment she resolves to
try her skill in compromising and bak-
ing q dish of tea biscuit. Disrespectful
little Billy says that he and some of the
other boys are going to have game of
croquet, and he wants to know if he
can take these biscuits for balls, as they
are exactly hard and tough enough.
The family ring their hands in disgust
full despair over their various failures,
and hope for the speedy convalescence
of the poor serving maid.
) But a felicitous thought strikes
Sophia Serena and Maria Magenta, and
even worries its way into the brain of
the improvident Mrs. Materfamilias,
who has never trained her daughters in
ways of household usefulness. Why
should these amiable and excellent peO-
pie have been so helpless? Why should
they have depended on the servant for
works of daily necessity which some-
body must perform for every family?
Why should they have grown up in
such ignorance of all that a woman
ought to be mistress of? Have they
not sold themselves out to the kitci-
en- administration, and made the cook
queen of the household? Have they
not been her too-willing slaves and
dependents? They will turn over a
new leaf. They will still esteem the
young woman highly for her works
sake. But they will remember that,
however helpful she may he, she may
be taken sick, or die, or get drunk,
or be married to her cousin and
stop living out. They will learn how
to do for themselves. So when the ne
cessity is laid upon them they set to
with willing hands and eager hearts to
learn those domestic arts in which
every woman should excel, whether she
intends to practice them or not. They
become experts in all manner of kitchen
accomplishments, and are Independent.
They learn how to tell the difference
between a steak and a turky, SO that
the marketmen no longer impose on
their ignorance. Their pies are whole
some; their biscuits are digestible;
their roast meats are faultless. And
far above the mere ability to make eat
able things. they have the joyful salts
faction of being able to reign supreme
in their OVID home, instead of being
sold out to tyrant. Some of these
days Sophia Serena and Maria Magenta
will marry. If they are slaves, their
lives and the poor fellows who wed
them will be miserable. If they are
able to manage their own households,
in all the details, they will be EN-
presses, whether they keep one servant
or half dozen, and whether the whole
kitchen force of hired help is sick or
well. hiL1x2cZhhin Times