Wichita eagle., 1888-04-26
DOMESTIC TRAINING.
COMPARATIVE MERITS OF AMERICAN
AND ENGLISH GIRLS.

Good Effect of the Social Intercourse
That Prevails Between the People OF
This Country and England-Engiish
Girls Home Life.
The comparative merits of American anc
| English girls have been OF Late frequently dis
cussed. Advocates of each nationality have
made many good points, and victory cannot
| honestly be said to have been won by either
There can be little doubt that the largely in
creased and close social intercourse that now
! prevails between the peoples of this country
and of England has had the effect Of obliter
| ating many of the strongly marked differ.
/ ences of their daughters.
| English girls have caught something of the
brightness, the ease and the self reliance
| which have made certain American laGies
who have married Englishmen take rank as
fayoriteS-alTnost indeed, as leaders in Lon
| don society. And even those Englishwomen
who have not succeeded in initiating, or have
not sought to initiate, will be generally found
/ willing to admit the charm of the imported
/ style. American girls, on the other hand
! have not been slow to borrow ideas from
| their English cousins. We have only to look
at our girls tailor made gowns, their com
| mon sense shoes, their round hats and their
listers and Newmarket coats, to see how
! much they owe in warm and sensible modes
/ of dress to English fashions. Then, too,
/ English out door games, particularly lawn
/ tennis, have become very fashionable here,
and their good effect is to be seen in the i'm
! proved health, the greater ease of movement,
and the rounded figures of our girls.
PLUMPNEss OF OUR GIRLS.
1t was only about year ago when for
eign visitor to this country remarked that
one of the things that most impressed her
was the plumpness of American girls. The
remark caused a great deal of establishment,
for we had been so long accustomed to think
of the American type of beauty as extremely
delicate and spirituelle that we had not
recognized the change that had been slowly
but surely effected. Any one who now walks
Broadway in the afternoon and who is old
enough to remember the appearance of its
feminine frequenters of ten years ago, can
scarcely fail to indorse the truth of the
foreigners observation.
do not hesitate to say that there is one
noteworthy and valuable respect in which
believe English girls are superior to Ameri-
can girls. That respect is their ability to
| conduct the affairs of their homes This, of
| course, is not an inherited ability, but is the
result of training and practice. l am not con-
sidering the daughters of the farmers, but
those Of mercantile and professional men. In
England, the custom is to train the girls to
relieve their mothers of many of the duties
Of housekeeping. Among families where
there are several daughters, it is a common
practice to have each in turn take charge Of
the house for a week or month. l do not
assert that such plan is never followed here,
but at the most it is done with comparative
infrequency. The system of living in board
ing houses has in many instances made it inn
possible to instruct our city bred girls in
domestic duties but happily the increased
facilities for suburban travel have placed it
within the power of many heads of families
to secure homes of their own.
TWO IMPORTANT REASONS.
Very probably the daughters of wealthy
parents are slow to see why they should I'M
dergo any of the work necessary to the learn
ing of how all the departments of household
economy should be run There are however,
two important reasons for acquiring such
knowledge. One is the extreme vicissitudes
of fortune, characteristic of business life in
this country; and the other is the fact that if
the mistress does not know when work is
properly done, her servants, no matter how
good at the start, will soon grow careless and
forgetful. In no other country in the world
is there so much trouble with help as here
Some of this is due to the ignorance of serv-
ants who have had no previous experience;
but possibly as much is due to the ignorance
If I,,iStreSSeS who IN NOT poScacc Tho
edge that can give instruction or command
respect.
In England, no matter how wealthy the
parents, the custom of giving the daughters
domestic training is usually observed A re-
Gently published Life of Queen Victoria"
states that after the estate of Osborne had
been bought, 1.-The lower portion of the Swiss
cottage was fitted up as a kitchen for the
young princesses, with pantry, closets, dairy
and larder, all as complete as possible, and
here these juvenile royal highnesses, dressed
a la cuisiniere, and with arms white with
flour, learned to make cakes and tarts and all
sorts of plain dishes, to cook the vegetables
which they had themselves cultivated to pre-
serve fruit and to prepare different sorts of
pickles. In fact, they were trained to be
good English housewives" The example set
by the queen has permeated all the higher
classes
The cooking schools recently started here
arc steps in the right direction. But cook
ing, though very important, is only single
branch of the domestic duties The other
can best be learnt at home. | am glad to
hear that the board of education III New
York city is considering the advisability OF
giving instruction in sewing and cooking to
the girls in the public schools.-Julan Mag
nus IN The Ep,ch.