Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1886-12-30
rrrprLxa Housn.
what n CLEVER wommn has 10 say
About EG.

KEEPING HOUSE.
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what Clever wOsnmn has 10 say
About IL.
Writing in the Chicago Inter OCEAN,
Mrs. Spofford says that one Of her first
lessons in housekeeping was given In tia
ilbsrty to arrange alosetfulof ehinh aud
glass on the occasion Of 8 moving That,
climbing on the shelves for scuie hidden
dainty, afisrward broke down the whole
in q promiscuous crash does mot, she
says, impoir my belief that those shelves
were arranged with eject. But laying |
the table was an early pleasurei and much |
was learned by the habit OF tue family OF
not excluding the children from the gem |
eral society, Conversation and pleasures.
may have been about 10 years old |
when remember my father praising me
for my ability to warm over cold meats
with certain herbs aud spices in savory
fashion and II Mas about the same tins
thut wns allowed the Joy Of skimming
the milk, of holding the toast over the
GOALS, Of occasionally making the tea. l
WAS IL years old when received serious
less otls In bread making, and at IL had
made butter, custards, junkefs, ginger
sn4ps and such other diehes as pleased
my childish fancy had fried buck
wheat aud Shroye-Tuesday pancakes,
and, if had mot roasted fowl, knew
enough to smile ut the error OF young
person brought mp at boarding school,
who, wishing the cook to dress turkey,
aud not to know that she herself was
unable to do II, said: ''And make the
dressing with -four, and season 1t with
balm and catnip and pennyroyal, you
know" A couple Of years later, and
with no special, pains taken, other than
doing what was handy, finding time, too,
for my dolls, for voracious read
| ing, and for the wild romping
| which laid the foundations for
unusual health, had made straw.
berry and peach and plum pre-.
serves, batter and bread puddings, soups
and oyster stews, bad roasted meats,
broiled steaks, prepared vegetables, had
learned how to sweep and dust, to make
beds after Miss ophelia's most approved
manner, 10 clean silver, to iron starch
skirt tucked to the knees, TO trim bonnets,
and to finish my own gowns after they
we're cut and baBted, and could do almost
ANYTHING in the line of such tasks in
tinttely better than could do ii now. /
was not solitary example. Most OF nay
companions could do as much, and some
of them could do more. l do not mt au
that had done all this habitually, bat
that had done ii enough to know how,
aud yet none of this was housekeeping.
really began to learn housekeeping in
the days when, my mother being i'll and
the burden of responsibility coming upon
me, used to hang over whatever was
about with the tears running down my
face, heavy with the selfish detection
brought by n sense of this responsibility
and lis ht or unit assumption that in my
own case have found large share Of the
weight of Housekeeping to lie.
Tho first thing that found best to do
| | when became an aciual housekeeper on
7 my own account, so to say, was TO estab-
lish system and SGT of rules growing
. ont of the requirements of the household.
6 Meals must he at such hours; servants
8 must be in and the back door closed al
a such hours; certain taGks must be a.
+ signed TO certain days, this day to the
Q washing and those days to the ironing
q this day to the silver cleaning and con
o genial work, and that to the care of hall
r and parlors. The next Imperative ces
sity, | need hardly say, was to IND ,
s place for everything, and to see thai
4 everything was kept in its place; ant
il having satisfied myself at last with a cool
y who never wastes particle, whose spot
10 less aud orderly closets are perpetua
L. pleasure, who loves new recipe, VIII
l. keeps tue run of the provisions, and
housemaid whose pride is in dark corner
II and speckless windows, housekeeping ha
}. become, so far as l am concerned, u
x much play as it used to be in the oil
I. burial place. / can hardly stat
If anything else except that hay
y made it practice to let my servants d
10 their work in their own way and at thei
own best convenience, only requiring lit
n be done, and always trying to respeC
1f their idiosyncrasies. For l have foun
sr that,if one wants a happy home, one mus
is endsayor to procure happiness in u
ID kitchen as much as anywhere else nj
4, merely because disorder and unqui,
there will disturb the whole house, bl
Of because the inmates of the kitchen hay
st the right to their happiness, and it is Il
le absolute duty of the house mistress to st
Ut that they get it as far US it may be in Ii,
d, power to do SO. Any exertion made
Is this wise is sure 10 yield hundredfol'
IN In the course of my so years l have nev
re received what held to be higher cor
a nliment than the remark Of psTs,
I'D lshiDg to engSpA service with u! vi
ng said in this connection, not as All aIaufl
IL impertinence, but AS matter Of cours
is 81 have heard you we'll recommended
,es [f I have found it best not to II
servants perpetually over the perfornan
of their tasks, have also found it 4
amiss to satisfy myself as to the perforl
auce. Says Ma Chere Mere, the TT
'cr heroine of Frederike Bremer's delight
IA. novel: at is only now aid then, my dc
Franiska, that l make house revie
rit but it keeps everything in order and ii
err the domestics with respect. Set the clio
in only to the right time and it will go ria
mas of itself, and thus We need not 20 abe
TVS tick lacking like pendulum. Ma
,ed ladies affect a great deal and make the
for selves very important with their bunch
ted keys, running forever into the kitct
her and storeroom-all slnttIshness, all
DIS: management, Franiska Much better
was it for a lady to govern her house with
My head than with her heels. Many lad
the are forever scolding and treading on
ing heels of their servants; that does no GO
1ar- Servants must always have their libe
was and rest: one must not Inuzzle the OK Il
lost treads out the corn. Let your people
ong answerable for all they do; it is good
tent them as for the mistress. Have b
not upon them either by heart or by hor
ito and give them ungrudgingly whate
,ck- by right is theirs; for the labt
10 is worthy of his hire.
into then, three or four times year, yet
zeal at any regular time, come down Vi
ling them like the day Of judgment; t
ar every stone and see into every corr
! of storm like thunder tempest and sti
sat down here and there Ut the right time
cka- will purity the house for weeks" Nj
light mistresses may prefer not to storm
and tempest, nor to come down on kite
his and cellar like the day of judgm
the Nevertheless, the general principle of
/ tho Chere Mere's philosophy lis a good
they 1t is the princlple upon which my z
lroiy general or executive officer must act ];
he there is nothing the good housekeepe
lteu, much resembles AS the good general.
1t az it is not necessary for him TO hant
nted muaket, neither ia it necessary for ht
d as cook and iron yet he must know no
had do the one and she must know how /,
was the other. He must have all his su
etter dinates we'll disciplined, all his resou
linu- at communicable can do no less he
b he be- able to meet tho calls of compar
wdly of illness without evidence OF surpri
confusion and every year to the y
honsekeeper must be vigorous
paign, until habit makes her and
adel- command only an army of occupatiC
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