New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-05-24
TEACHING TIE POOR TO COOK.


The work being done by st. Augustlne's
Chapel, Houston-st., in teaching tenement
house dwellers to cook, is really one which
ought to be undertaken on a much larger SCALE
and as a genuine missionary enterprise. For it
is certain that the prevalent ignorance regard
ing the choice, purchase and preparation OF
food among the wagc-carnng classes Is largely
responsible not only for the spread of intem-
peratc habits, but for the practice of a waste
fitness which prevents accumulation and
fosters uncleanliness and general discomfort
and squaor. The poor, rs a rule, are very eX-
travagant in their eating. Their want OF
knowledge and their strong preiudices cause
them to reject many food materials which are
cheap and wholesome, and which, properly pre-
pared, are arpctizing. The same ignorance
causes them to waste large proportion of what
they cook, while their cooking is generally so
barbarous as to spoil even the best material
The workingman who comes home tired to an
UNBEATABLE meal naturally resorts to the saloon
for consolation. The wife, Disguised with the
results Of her own incxperience, becomes still
more careless. Ill-temper and ill-health are in
troduced to the family and when these arc
added to narrow quarters, bad air and squald
neighbOrhoOd, it is almost inevitable that
mutual dissipation, dscOrd, dirt and misery
should be as common in such circumstances as
they are. In households so handicapped there
is little opportunity for progress. The mind is
vainly addressed by the advocates of culture
while the body is tortured by swarming discOm-
forts, and the stomach, outraged by unwhole
some food impoverishes tho brain with thin
and disordercd blood To such bodies and
brains, what may seem to the well-nOurished
slight temptations become indictments to
crime, and at intervals the public are startled
with horrors for the preparation of which the
calprts were really educated by slow yet sure
processes.
To teach the poor to cook. therefore, is one of
the most practical and useful of undertakings,
and perhaps il is the most important primarily
in any large scheme for their elevation. No
doubt the task is not an easy one but Mr.. Kim
ber at st. Augustine's, has shown how some of
the difficulties may be overcome. To conquer
the preiudices and whms of ignorant people is
often discouragingly hard matter. They are
not open to reason on these points. Habit is
frequently law to them. 1t is only gradually,
through the exercise of great patience and tact,
that they can be got tO abandon their old waste
full ways, and to learn new and economical ones.
But every step gained in this direction marks u
distinct advance, and there is little danger that
those who have once learned the benefits of
wholesome, wel-cookcd food will relapse into
barbarism. One advantage Of this instruction
is that il enables the poor 10 escape some of the
worst evils of ordinary poverty. Enlightened
cookery costs less than barbar0us cookery.
That is one of the secrets impaired by Miss
Corson and her school. knowledge of how to
market makes small wages 90 much further.
Ability to utilize remnants is also wonderful
aid to thrift and since there can be no good
cookery without cleanliness, the housewife takes
lesson here well calculated to suggest reforms
in other branches of her housekeeping. few
who have mastered the elements of cooking
moreover, are apt to turn missionaries them
selves, and thus ambition will be aroused and n
civilizing ferincnt be spread abroad
There is room for much more means and
energy In this field The harvest promises to
be large, but the laboIers are few. The friends
of temperance. the advocates of penal reform
the churches, the champions of popular cduca-
ton. the supporters of tenement house reform,
all in short, who are concerned for the pro-
grcss and the wcl-being of the poor-should in
tercst themselves on behalf of a movement
which really goes to the heart of the whole
social problem, and promises the best results 10y
putting sane minds IN sound bodies.
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A NEW EVANGELIST
The Rev. sam Jones. who has been known in the