Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-03-05
Where Is the Blame I

Where Is the Blame
In our large towns and cities there
are many wives who are saddened with
the knowledge that their husbands are
happiest when they can find or manu-
facture plausible reason for dining at
lunch house OF a restaurant instead
of at home. Where lies the blamep
Sometimes, doubtless, with the hus-
band; quite as often in the kitchen.
And why? In most instances it is not
from straitened circumstances. The
poor cannot afford the luxury of choos-
ing between the home table and pub
lie one, and with the rich these public
resorts should be no luxury, but only
necessity when business takes the hus-
band so far away as to make it impOssi-
BILE, or at least a great Inconvenience,
to lunch at home.
The wife, who alone should be the
mistress of the home, ought so to man
age her kingdom that all the inmates
of the family will feel not only that
there is no place like home, but no
table to be found anywhere so tempt
ing as that which is prepared and pre-
sided over by the wife and mother.
/ Even II bIlt HIS lllt llAO6N NblADtNGhb
cook she must still be well assured be-
fore the bell calls all to the dining-room
that her table is spotlessly clean, at
tractively arranged and appetizing in
its provisions.
The proprietor of every restaurant
knows very well that he must use every
possible effort to make his tables look
attractive, and make sure that every
article of food called for IS prepared in
the most acceptable manner If one
finds after a few trials that the coffee is
poor, or the soup with too little season
| ing or rs salt as brine; that the meats
are badly cooked and worse carved
mangled rather; that the steaks are
| tough, or raw, or cold; that the bread
is sour, or streaked and clammy-and
this not once or twice, but almost in
variably-hew long would he be in
duced to patronize thatplacep II wives
trust all the "kitchen work" to hire
lings; if, having provided a well-recom-
mended cook, they feel that their re-
spOnsibility as far as the meals are con-
cerned ceases; if they do not make
their cooks understand that the mistress
holds full and disputed author
ity, not only over the parlor but over
every department in the house, de.
manding implicit acquiescence in all
reasonable requirements, and is fully
competent to Judge of the performance
of every duty-they cannot complain il
their husbands and sons learn that
creature comforts are more surely sup
piled at restaurants, and patronize
them rather than submit to the discom-
forts of the home table.
If the wife first understands how to
manufacture each dish that she allows
to be set before her family, herself,
and is, by this knowledge, fitted to in
struct her servants and secure theil
ready compliance with her teachings
she has it in her power, without the
least danger of being overburdened, tC
surpass in attractiveness, if not in alb
solute culinary excellence, any place
of public entertainment that can bC
found.
To understand all the arts of cook
cry, and be able to practice or super
intend the work whenever anything
elaborate or intricate Is wished for, Il
an accomplishment for any lady to bt
proud of. But it is far more importan
to understand and successfully super
intend the less intricate, more substan
tial and healthful everyday famil,
meals-to be so able to provide aoharm
ing variety that there will be littlI
pleasant surprises every day or two
instead of that monOtony that enable
each member of the family to know
Just what each days bill of fare will be
For some of our readers the most re
ligious part of this paper is its direc
tions how to make the home happy b,
making the table attractive. God ha
called heaven our home that He ma,
teach us to make home our heaven
and any wife and mother who know
not how TO do this needs 10 seek instruo
ton in the first principles of her life
duty. Christian Union.