Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-11
MAID AND MISTRESS
Blakely Hall Describes the English
Schools Of Cookery.
ENGLAND'S REGISTRY OFFICES.
Why the British Matron Does Not Advertise
for Servant.
THE DOMESTIC QUESTION In ENGLAND

ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DISPATCH. ]
LONDON, August 2.-During the past
| five years an unusual amount of attention
has been devoted to the question of the
domestic training of young women in En-
gland. In the State-aided schools the train
| ing is chiefly theoretical, and of little value
In after life. The girls are collected once or
twice q week in special classes
and solemnly lectured by domestic
economy" professor. or a professional
cook who has developed orstorical gifts.
The professor warns the lasses against the
waste involved in the use of the frying-pan,
and the cook explains how much better it is
to use butter and not drippings in making
pastry, oblivious of the fact that the parents
of the majority of the pupils are in q posi-
tion to afford neither butter nor pastry as
part of their daily meals. There is much
learned talk at these lessons about the con-
stituents of various kinds OF food. But Of
practical knowledge little is either impaired
or acquired.
Middle classes and aristocratic girls are
even worse of, for in their schools there is
rarely even pretense of teaching house.
wifery. A few years ago correspondence
was started in one of the big daily news
papers upon this lack Of domestic training.
Young men wrote pathetic letters setting
forth how they yearned to get married. but
were unable to do so, because they could not
find the right kind of girls to take charge of
the households and make the best of their
slender incomes
THE GIRLS WERE SORRY.
The girls replied with equal pathos, Ia
mentihg their shortcomings, and pointing
out that it was really not their fault, be-
cause they had no chance of learning things
which would make them useful wives. The
correspondence was not without effect, for it
led to the establishment of a national
association for teaching housewifery, and of
practical cooking classes, where girls and
ladies for a small fee could learn all about
the culinary art. The classes have proved
great success and increase in number and
usefulness every year. The teachers are
supplied chiefly from the National School
OF Cookery and the teaching is severely
practical. Food is actually prepared and
cooked before the eyes of the pupils who
follow each detail, ask questions and make
experiments on their own account. 1t is
sometimes very funny to see class of
grown-up women following with rapt atten-
tion the deft hands of smart young teacher
banging on pasteboard or making an ON
elette. They are generally half-ashamed of
being present and rarely speak to each
other.
The teachers are in most cases women. but
in the West End of London, George
Marshall, a well-known English chef, has
started classes and must be making at least
$1,000 year by them. They are attended
W cooks, male and female, belonging to
middle class families which pay an average
fee of 3 shillings a lesson TO have their
servants taught how to make a particular
kind of dish or improve their knowledge as
to the preparation of entrees, salads and the
like. On certain days of the week, Marshall
and his wife give lessons to the mistresses of
the servants who seem to look upon the
business as great fun.
A GREAT INSTITUTION.
The National Housewifery Association
undertakes to teach woman everything
connected with domestic economy, from the I
scrubbing of a floor to the cooking of joint.
A fine mansion has been hired on the banks |
of the river Severn as a training college, !
and good work is being done. The associa- |
tion has practically provided new profess !
sion for women. Ladies are received at the |
college and boarded. lodged and taught for
less than 5000 year. The curri-
culum of this curious college includes the
domestic kindergarten, plain cooking.
home dressmaking and needle work,
home nursing, all branches of housework,
hygiene, nursing babies and domestic sani-
tation. Girls are received for training at
the age of 16 and upward, and quick and
clever young women are turned out perfect
housewives in year or less. Armed with |
the associations certificates of efficiency,
they have little difficulty in obtaining we'll |
paid employment as teachers. But they |
rarely remain teachers for any length of |
time, for their value in the matrimonial |
market is obviously so great that they soon
have at their feet all the most eligible young |
men in the district in which they happen to |
settle.
In some of the more enlightened towns |
efforts are being made to include cooking |
and domestic training generally as part of
the regular school course. Sanguine re-
formers even hope that some time before the |
arrival of the millennium the government
education department will recognize that it
is of more advantage to the State for women /
to become useful wives than to fill them up |
to the chin with ornamental learning. Good
domestic servants are growing more and
more rare in England.
TOO PROUD FOR HoUsEwoRK.
Within the memory of middle aged men
it was the almost universal custom for the
daughters of the working people to enter
domestic service. But IN these days de-
cent artisans and clerks, here as in
America. do not consider the position
of cook or housemaid genteel
enough for their daughters, and the
girls themselves too often prefer the ill-paid
freedom of the factory or the
shop counter to the excellent wages and
good feeding obsainable as domestic servants.
No tradesman in LONDON need advertise for
q shop girl. He has only to put up a notice
in his window, "shop girl wanted, wages
shillings week." to obtain a choice of
scores OF applicants. There are thousands
of girls in London shops and restaurants
whose wages range from 81 soto IS 90 week,
out of which, too often, they have TO lodge
and clothe themselves, and sometimes even
to find food. The same girls could obtain
liberal wages and comfortable homes as
domestic servants, but domestic service |
implies constant restraint, and they will