Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1882-05-05
Housekeeping.

housekeeping.
The Rev. DIR. Talmage furnishes the
following for that excellent journal,
Frank Leske's Sunday Magazine for May:
While in the regular harness of city
life the sitting-room is so far from the
kitchen that we have not much under
standing of its tolls and perplexities, we
have not much to say, save when there
has been an accident, and the pudding
comes in burned or the coffee has not
been settled. But housekeeping some
times in the country, and during Vaca-
ton, we have more time to consider;
and, our appetite whetted up by sea-
bathing, we wander into the culinary
department to see when dinner will be
ready. We then bethink ourselves OF
the grace necessary for the kitchen.
First. There is the grace for manag-
ing balky stove. You, being in the
hardware business and interested in
certain patents, may begin to rattle
over the names of stoves which never
finch, which do things brown at the
right moment, which never take up the
habits OF our human race and begin to
smoke, and never let the fire go out.
But we do not believe you. Stoves be-
long to fallen race, and the best OF
them sometimes prove tricky. Some
times they fly into a hot temper and
burn things up, and sometimes they
will pout for half an hour because a
green chip or unseasoned stick of wood
is thrown at them. The best DISPOSE
toned stove will sometimes refuse to
boil, or stew. or bake, or frizzle. You
coax it in every possible way. You
tell it how important it is that it do its
duty, for company has come, or a de-
parting guest must meet the train, or
you are too tired to bother any longer,
and all it does in reply is to sputter
Here is place for christian sympathy
and help. For lack of this Martha OF
Bethany acted precipitately, and many
good woman has lost her equilibrium.
Secondly. There is grace needed
for the pantry. Somehow cups and
glasses and baskets will get
broken, and no one has done it.
Knives will disappear, and no one has
taken them. An old saucer that was
given to your grandmother the day OF
on the shelf as though it had been I'M
injured.-The tea-caddy has been
despoiled, or flour unreasonably failed,
with no miracle, as in Zarepath, to re
plenish it. There are but few women
who can keep their temper when their
best china set gets broken. To study
economy for month, and TO find the
result of this unusual carefulness has
leaked out at some mysterious spigot,
to have whole mess of milk soured
by one thunderstorm; to have the
washboiler boil over and put out the
fire; to have the dessert only half done
when the people at dinner are waiting,
wondering whether it is to be sage
pudding or Narcissus blanc-mange; to
have the servant make up her mind
she don't like the place, and leave the
house in the midst of the ironing; to
have to provide elaborate entertain
ment for some one whom you asked
to come to your house without any
idea she would accept the invitation
TO lind after the ounces are all peeled
and cut that the brass kettle has been
borrowed this demands grace for
the kitchen.
We masculines have yet to learn that
the kitchen is the most important end
of the household. If that go wrong,
the whole establishment is wrong.
Itdecides the health of the household,
md health settles almost everything.
Heavy bread, too great frequency of
plum pudding, mingling of lemonade
and custards, unmasticated beef, have
decided the fate of sermons, store
houses, legislative bills and the destiny
of empires. What if Bismarck had
been seized with long fit of Indigestion
about the breaking out of the last
French and German war? What if,
when Plimsoll was trying to raise an
Instruction among the sailors of
Great Britain, Disraeli should be over
come of the govt? What if, when the
monetary world was shocked with the
failure of Duncan. Sherman Il Co., the
cook at Saratoga Springs should by
means of some unhealthy pastry, have
killed Commodore Vanderbilt i, The
kitchen knife has often cut off the
brightest prospects. The kitchen grid
iron has often consumed a commercial
enterprise. The kitchen kettle has
kept many good man in hot water
1t will never be fully known how much
the history of the world was affected
by good or bad cookery.
Let no housekeeper, therefore, des-
pise her occupation, but rather pray
for grace to fulfill her mission. The
tolls and fatigues and vexations of such
a sphere may be unappreciated by
husbands and fathers and mothers,
but God knows and sympathises. If,
to the Bible, God puts into a
bottle ] his peoples tears, He will
count the number of sweat drops on
your forehead while bending over the
stove in the midsummer solstice. By
the potential way in which you perform
your duties ] ou may make the rolling
pin a sceptre. Be faithful! There
will be grand supper after awhile for
the preparation of which you will have
no anxiety. 1t will be the Marriage
Supper of the Lamb, and you will be
one of the banqueters.