Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-06-18
THE coNvENTIoNAL1rIEs OF LIFE

| THE CoNTENToNALITIEs OF LIFE
become bore, and everyday duties a te-
| dlous, irksome task; we grow restless, and
without knowing precisely why, as Lincoln
used to say, We want 10 "browse around"
Nature is now in her loveliest gsrb, but in
our magnanimity We think she needs the
human figure to complete the picture 1t is
not the dolce far MEME without the picturesque
| Italian peasant TO bask in it.
| A French writer once said solitude is
pleasant II you have somebody to say it TO. y
| And what's the Use of glorious sunshine,
blue skies and delicious air if you can't go
out and revel in it, making a very con-
splcuous personal part in natures royal
beauty and enjoyment?
Along with other New Workers have
iairly lived on the avenue and Broadway
! lately, and TO judge by the immense crowds
| and never-ending stream of people con-
stantly passing both ways, up and down,
you'd scarcely believe how overfowingly full
| every ocean steamer has been leaving our
piers during the past two months. The rec
ord, from waat | hear, shows most extra
ordinary number CT people crossing this
year. Then, other modes OF travel and
points OF destination for the summer have
| taken scores OF hundreds from the CITY, but
the hegira is yet barely psrceptible.
In my peregrinations the other day, l wan
| dered az far as Central Park, the giant lungs
OF the metropolis, and to me the place was
| never 80 lovely before. The air there was
30 woody aud fresh; the Towering almond
| was rich in its gay peach-tree-like biosso m,
| and Wed with the snowy spirea in its deli
| cacy OF Odor; the grass, soft as velvet
was thickly dotted with saucy little butter
cups, so tempting to childish eyes and hands !;
| and, turn where you might, delightful
arenas, either from the freshly-cut, sweetly-
scented sward or the many shrubs and plants,
| intoxIcatinoly Derfume0 the air
| happened there Just ut the time of
THE FASHIONABLE DRIVE
in the afternoon, and swell Iiveries and
teams OF all descriptions were out in full
| force.
Crowds of pedestrians were thronging the
| paths, and some OF the poorer CLASSES with
their children, to whom the park is bless
| ing the wealthy will never be able to under
stand or appreciate.
There is a nursery" set apart for the
children where they are allowed to play on
the grass, and L believe on May-Day festi-
walls there are certain privileges granted
but | do not think there are a sufficient num-
Der of sections portions Of the park
especially assigned for the free Use of grown
people in that particular. One-hslf the
pleasure of a ramble there Is therefore
spoiled by restrictions senseless and self
ish as unreasonable
As l continued my tour through the
pdIh Tue NODeiiSk was the next IN
teresting object, which, although not new to
my eyes, yet has never ceased TO be
to me most lonely and home-sick thing.
L stand before it and muse and wonder till
my eyes fill up, and my throat aches as if it
we're seniieDt being. Somehow or other. [
feel about that needle as | used TO hear the
old negro nanny in the South say, when
children would steal little kittens away from
the old cat mother, take 'em back, chile, to
der nanny, dey'n pine away and die; leave
'em dere ontwel dey's older, honey"
/ wonder how much older Egypt's stray
child must be before it is weaned? Or when
1t will cease to have that far-off home-sick
look?
In all the civilization of this great city
there is a "screw loose somewhere" WHY is
not the Metropolitan Museum open on Sun
day, as well week days? | know several
gentlemen of the highest culture and taste
here who have nerer been to that museum
simply because they did not have the time
during the week, and Il is not open on Sun
days. 1t seems to me the principle "strains at
gnats and swallows camels" New York can
learn from Boston in that at least. Boston
would say more than that perhaps, but the
people would be satisfied with that.
The APPEAL has heard, no doubt of
MISS JULIET CoRsoNs NEW YORK COOKING
SCHOOL,
most excellent institution. And ever since
tasted some of that lady's "pink velvet souD -
contributed by her to the Pot. Luck picnic. a
year ago last March, have always been
curious 10 know how that soup was made
Tor 1t looked Just like pink velvet, and tasted
most dellclousiy-and to meet the clever
woman from whose brain such a receipt was
evolved.
As faint heart meier wins fair Iady,"I
knew l should never capture Miss Corson
unless stormed her, and that was Just what
/ did.
But | did have a card from "Fanchon,"
the New York correspondent of the Cleve-
land L<dde', who had the pleasure of Miss
Corson's acquaintance previously, and on
that card some pleasant things were said of
the subscriber, 80 | felt sure of a welcome. |
Miss Corson herself, however, is 20 amiable |
and lovely l should have been well received |
any how. Miss Corson's school is No. 1916 |
Broadway, and If anybody from Memphis |
should ever desire few lessons from that |
school hope the above address will ke re- |
membered. Miss Corson is an intelligent, |
intellectual woman, and / know when say |
that, the APPEAL readers will wonder what |
l mean. But she Is, and a more charming |
talker never listened to.
Ten years ago Miss Corson had about as |
little idea OF starting a cooking school as |
any refined, educated and cultured woman |
North or South. But connected as she was |
Win 4 CldTlldDle eStaDIl5nIn mt, ana teach |
ing different branches to the struggling and |
poor, she finally drifted into that branch Of |
living that has been such a stumbling block |
to matrimony, and one hard to solve for |
both rich and poor la 1866 or thereabouts. |
Miss Juliet Corson was one of the contribu- |
tors TO The National Quarterly now no longer |
in existence, then edited by DIR. Sears. a |
graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and |
man OF rare attainments and superior schol- |
arly and literary culture. Miss Corson had |
written previously for the Leader, a New |
York daily, also no more, but which was the |
means OF bringing her to DIR. Sears's notice. |
All that time she was associated more or less |
with
ELEEMoSYNARY INSTITUTIONS,
teaching the poor in one way or another. In |
1873 Miss Corson began the experiment of a |
cooking school, and during the ten years that |
have passed since then she says she has studied |
and worked very hard, as there's nothing |
ever satisfactorily attained in life, no matter
the genius, without hard work. Miss Cor
son is woman of fine physique, with beauti-
full, grayish brown eyes, heavy, dark eye
brows, brown hair and clear peach like
She ia amiable and good
na;ured, l Judge, with great earnestness of
character and large fund of practical COM
mon sense. She gave me many interesting
items concerning her experiment Of cook
ing school, which would take too much time
and space 10 tell, out showed so plainly how
we slip into places and necessities uncon-
sciously to ourselves, which none of us can
ever foresee or control.
The step Miss Corson took seemed to me
to be from the sublime to theft not ridicu-
lous, at least intensely practical. And how
jollily she laughed over it as / asked her
now N the world she ever managed to let
herself down from book reviews in National
Quarterly, and other peculiarly intellectual
acta n DlaIn repeIntS FIR oil |
dressing fowl, making bread, etc, and which
must have been awfully dis. asteful-t to her at
first. She said she found it uphill instead Of
down-hill at FIRST beginning as she did at the
wrong end, the top, when she should have
begun at the bottom, where she had just now
reached. She has published quite number
Of books, among them little pamphlet called
"FIFTEEN-CENT DINNERS"
for workingmen's families, which at the time
of the great strike In November, 1877, L be-
lieve, among railroad hands in Pittsburg,
great sensation among all classes
She SAYS she distributed the edition OF 90, 600
in a very short space OF time, after which
that plain little book was translated into
German, then it travelled 10 China, and
Japan, and Hindoostan, and other foreign
from where the author received
many complimentary letters concerning il,
and she has every reason 10 believe great
good has been done, as sne Iuliy meant, Dy
the pages of that unpretending little
pamphlet.
Her system has been from the first to work
down to perfect economic plan. She felt
that the wives of the laboring classes might
do much 10 solving the difficulty of small
wages, and to that end Miss Corson worked.
I ought to have said that Miss Corson's
Fifteen Cent Dinners was printed at her own
expense, and circulated entirely free.
During my call that morning asked her
if she "knew anything of the negroes system
OF cooking, which to me, a Southerner, was
the ne plus ultra of good things to eat?" so |
yes" she said, she had learned to make egg
bread from an old negress. She was told,
she said, to go into the kitchen every morn
ing for week and observe the old auntie |
carefully. What surprised and amused
Miss Corson was that "the old cook never |
followed her receipt twice alike" and she said |
as much to her, which the poor old soul |
answered very adroitIy, but which didn't |
seem to affect the result, as the bread was |