The Arizona sentinel., 1886-04-17
INCOMPLETE TRAINING.
Knowledge Which Ever,
 Young Wife Should Possess.


 a certain defect in education-we regret to say it-on the part of the wives. Other portions may arise (to say noth- ing of other shortcomings in the wives) from the exactions, tyrannies, tempers and general ill-behavior on the part ot the husbands. But one serious flaw in the knowledge and habits of the wives is sufficient to develop many of these tenn pers and exactions, and sometimes to drive the husbands elsewhere for the comfort that they ought to have at home.
 If woman marries and undertakes the conduct of home, it is supposed that she knows how to conduct the house, and if she does not know how, she must learn how; for no matter what she thinks is womap's sphere in general, it is certainly her duty to fulfil her obli- gations, and the obligation that she has here assumed is that of conducting the household affairs as well as it is possible to conduct them.
 Yet, in view of this, how many young wives are there who, if the cook should suddenly fail them, can make one single article of daily diet-the article of the morning coffee, for instance-as. well as it ought to be made? Some sort of coffee, of course, she could turn out, but, as a general thing, it would be a strong and bitter draught, rather inclined to be muddy, and not the clear, amber, translucent durunt po- tabile that diffuses a rich and pungent odor through the house. Or, again, take an entirely different branch of housekeeping affairs-the washing of the fannels. Perhaps the husband is sensitive to the weather, rheumatic or phthisicky, cannot wear the ordinary and comparatively inexpensive flannel, and has to have peculiarly thick and nice flannel that is very costly, or sven if he does not differ from the great majority, but, wearing fannels at all, he can not afford to have them shrunk to nothing, or so that it is an effort to get into them after they have been washed few times, and dis likes to go about trussed up like fowl ready for the spit. Ten to one, then, the second time the new flannels come out of the wash they will not only be as stiff as a board, but so shrunken as to be some sizes too small for the owner. In vain the young housekeeper has them washed; she thinks her mother had fiannels washed; in vain she asks all her acquaintance in subtle ways how it is that they wash flannels; in vain at last. she makes no ado, but asks the scornful elder housekeepers, perhaps, indeed, her husbands mother among them, what course they have pursued with this troublesome branch of laun- dry-work; every one has different way, and few of them right way, and some of them even tell her there is no way; and it takes struggle of months, together with infinite unhappiness, crimination, recrimination and tears, in order to make the thing satisfactory, and to do right at last that which should have been done right in the beginning. | The whole trouble is due to defective education. For while the young lady has learned to talk French, to play Schu- mann and Schubert. to understand political economy, and has, it may be, all those accomplishments with which Miss Pinkerton represented Miss Tltfln to Mrs. Butte Crawley, she has not learned the proper way in which to make coffee or wash fannelS. It was supposed, perhaps, that she would never have such work to do; perhaps she never will; but all the same it is ex- ceedingly desirable that she shall know how to do it, even if she is never called upon to lift a finger in the actual effort.
 In some of our schools of late certain domestic branches have begun to receive attention, whether in the interlude o1 books or as of equal importance. One of these branches is sewing, in whose various departments the girls are in- structed, and proficiency with the needle is required of them as much as with the crayon and blackboard. And although as much as that is assuredly great gain in public instruction, as the neat placing of patch or working of a but ton-hole is something to be learned early, yet it would not be amiss if the matter went still further, and instruc' ton were given in the arts of the kitch' en, the laundry, and the buttery as well, Even if this were too much to have intermingled with the regular and usual course of study, it might not be lmpos sible to add it to the course subsequent ly. and to consider no girls education complete till she has diploma in tht common sorts of every day cookery and the simple housekeeping usage' which will come into play the momen that she has home of her own. It il very well for her to know Greek if sh' will, or to be able to read the Vedas 1T the original, but she is by so much les a woman if she do not know how also tt set her house in order. She is the vic tim of misplaced confidence, the martyr to her husband, the slave to her work if she has not this knowledge; and she has it, she is mistress of the situa tion, and rules her corner of the worl' with an absolute sway from whicl
 there is not only no appeal, but no wisl
 for power of appeal.-Hdrper'S BazdT