Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-07-03

should Belinda Learn to Cook?
From the Boston Courier.
Belinda came in easy as fine sunrise.
She has long violet eyes, with piquantly arched
chestnut eyebrows. There was a delicious dim
pIe in her lett cheek. Her ruddy chestnut hair
was knotted demurely in her neck, and
she Wore blue cotton gown, severely plain in
cut.
Look at me-" she began imperiously, 81
am pretty girl Tor a doctors daughter am
nOt?"
''ies, or for the daughter of anybody in the
NO, persisted Belinda, dimping and frown.
Ing, "Dut am really in earnest. thought
was very wise and l believe l should never
have found out that l wasn't if we had not
hotse.' ~ o"i
What do you mean by a concatenation?,,
was asked; "what has happened?"
:, Belinda took low stool, gave her head q
iittie toss, and ciasped her hands about her
knees.
Three happenings she replied. First OF
oil, brother went over to Fairview to spend q
week with grandmother; second, Eunice Mel.
cher brother came after her aud bore her OF
before my very eyes, TO nurse his children
through the measles. There are seven children
and they're all red-headed, SO had to admit
That they needed Eunice more than did: third
and last, and worst, home came father very
cheerfuliy, with tour doctors from the Eve and
Ear convention, and not a soul in that house to
get the dinner Ior them but myself"
AND could you not lit? You are eighteen
years old
81 am eighteen years DID, interrupted. Be.
linda. 81 was model scholar at Howe's col.
lege. / took a prize in Domestic Chemistry
and was ANONYMOUSLY routed yesterday by q
GU may laugh, Ii you see ANYTHING
funny, she continued dOlefully, "in the spec.
tacle OF Iuil-grown woman, i'll supposed pos.
session OF ali her faculties, actually without the
least idea what TO do trst. And the dinner
served up to those doctors! If do not read
their deaths in to-day's paper, shall be sur
prised.'
But was asked in some establishment, chow
have You lived in your own home tor eighteen
years, with your mother keeping only one SER
want, and failed 10 absorb knowledge enough
for the cooking OF so simple dinner?'
"Mother always said 1t was u pity for young
girls to be burdened with the drudgery OF the
kitchen before they were obliged 10 be- an.
swered Belinda; besides have cooked" she
added, laughing. "When was little often
used to scrape the cake-bowl and bake the
dough on top of the stove, and Pve picked over
currants for jelly and beaten white OF eggs tor
cooking. Seriously, though, ought not to
| learn To cook? Even il Eunice Melcher comes
back and the Eyes and Ears never convene
coOk?"
Seriously, then, Belinda, since you ask, you
ought. Never mind if you do think that you
thing that you cannot possibly know. Even II
tate should Gail you iii later years to reign in the
White House as the first lady in the land, y
practical understanding OF domestic affairs.
Once for all, Belinda, disabuse yourself Of the
idea that education and culture are not to be
| held in the very highest respect. No sensible
woman of to-day denies the ad vant age OF study
| and scholarly labor. You will make better
hOusekeeper because you are trained to good
habits of application in your school or college
but while the high value of the college educa.
ton is freely granted, IL Is the simple and prac
| teal truth that one can keep house we'll with.
out it. The plain fact is that, as far as accom-.
/ piishing the ordinary domestic duties is
| concerned, one had better take common sense
and the advice OF experience Tor guides, rather
than all the chemical cookery books ever com
piled by learned professors who do not know
the look OF the inside of kitchen.
Build your fire with gumption, not chemistry
and IL Will burn, never fear. Go about your
| work with single-mindedness. We have ali
| read, and some may have admired, anecdotes
| of struggling poets ana students who washed
| dishes and pared vegetables with poems or les
| sons pinned on the wall above the Kitchen
| sink. Girls, that is not the way to do The
lesson will he halt learned, and the carrots hal
| washed. Do one thing at q time. You car
learn your lesson better in fifteen minutes o.
| single-minded study than in a whole morning.
hall coming, with one eye on the soup-kettle
| Do what you do with u will, and do 1t thor
| oughly; and be sure. too, that some day, wher
| the force of that cynical old proverb about the
| road TO u mans heart lying through his stomach
has become plain TO you. you will bless the day
| Won learned to cook.