Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-02
WORLDS HOUSEWIVES.
How Women of Different Nations Boil
and Bake, Wash and Sew,
Sleep and Eat.
Cooking in Iurkey-Bed Rooms of the Orient
Leaf Wearers OF India-rivided skirt
OF Siam-Bustle OF Japan.

ihiS "CCh uu4OuS liit IOuSO"A'NS ".
world. The National Museum has cook
ing utensils of every nation and every
tribe, and you may see within it how
women wash and iron, boil and bake,
stew and steam all the world over.
picture of o Samoan kitchen has just
been received and there are complete
outfits of japanese and Chinese houses,
with models of the women working away
within them. The Samoan range is a
hole IN the ground and the cooking Is
done with red hot stones. When the peo-
pie want feast they dig q hole as big As
q cider barrel, fill it full OF wood and
cover it with stones. They light the
wood and when tine stones are red hot
they pull they off to one side and clean
out the hole. They then put layer of
the hot stones in the bottom of il, and
upon this layer bananas, chickens and
vegetables wrapped in leaves are laid.
Another layer of red hot stones Is put on
top and on this is another layer of eata-
bles and so on till the hole is filed. pom
the top a fire is built and the whole
steams and cooks away until the lightly
dressed Samoan lady prolounces the DIM
ner cooked. 1t is said TO be feast for
king.
HOW THE ALASKANS COOK.
The Alaskans also cook without stones,
and there are boiling and baking baskets
III the museum brought from the Esqui-
maux. The boiling baskets are of course
waterproof. and the water is heated by
al !, mr. They
are of about the size of peck measure
and are as beautiful as any fancy work
basket you will find in the United States.
The baking baskets are little larger.
Ihe food is pat into them and is roasted
by hot stones beng rolled around over
them. The shaking of the basket keeps
it from burning and the people get fat
upon such food. Among some of the
tribes small cast iron stove has been
lately introduced. II stands in the CEN
ter of the room and the fuel is often
made of seal oil. The chief food is fish,
and the kindling wood Is grass.
The women are the woodcutters
of the family, but they are
the wash women only so far rs their own
clothes are concerned. Every man in
Alaska washes his own clothes and IRON.
ing is practically unknown.
THE WASHER WOMAN OF THE WORLD.
Every nation washes its dirty clothes
differently from every other nation. The
hardest worked washer women of the
| world are the Koreans. They have to
wash about q dozen dresses for their hus-
| bands and iuasmuch as every man wears
pantaloops or drawers so baggy that they
| could come up to his neck, like those OF
| d clown, they have plenty to do. The
washing is usually done in cold water
| and often in running streams, and there
| is here in the museum Korean ironing
board and irons. The board is nothing
| but block of wood and the irons are
two paddles. The clothes are laid on
the wood and are pounded with these
paddles until they shine like shirt
| bosom fresh from Chinese laundry.
The best dressed people in Korea are the
men. They wear the most delicate COL
| ored gowns of cotton and silk, of red,
| light blue, pink and green, and 1t takes
| q woman half her time to do the wash
ing. You hear this pounding going on
| day and night in any Korean town, and
| it is one of the dueerest characteristics OF
| the Korean people. The Japaneser rip
| their clothes apart for every was hing and
| thew iron their clothes by spreading
| them out on Il Hat board and leaning this
| I'D against the house to dry. The sun
| takes the wrinkles out of the clothes,
and some of them have quite lustre.
| The japanese woman does her washing
| out of doors. Her washtub is not more
| than six inches high and is about as big
around as the average dishpan. Sue has
| never heard of a washboard and she gets
| the dirt out of the clothes by rubbing
| them to and from between her hands. She
sometimes uses japanese soap, which is
full of grease, and she works away in
her bare feet. If the weather is warm
| she will pull her clothes down to her
waist and will feel no shame, though the
street be full of people: No blueing is
used, and as for boiling out the dirt in a
| tin boiler this is unkno II. The Chinese
| girls do their washing in much the same
vay, save that there is not so much
| publicity about it, and the pretty short
| haired beauties OF Siam wear their gowns
| on them into the big river and wash
| them while taking their bath. When
| they get through they trot up the steps
| of their floating houses and wrapping a
| clean sheet around their bodies they slip
| off the wet clothes from under it and
wiring them out to dry. Many of the In
| dian girls battle in the same way IN the
| Ganges, and the washing III Egypt ia
| usually done by the men. The Egyptian
| pasherman stands naked on the banks of
| the Nile and slaps the wet clothes, with
noise like the shot of pistol, on the
| smooth stones at the edge of the running
water, aud such fellah women as wash
pound the dirt out of their clothes in the
same way. The Scotch girls tramp the
| dirt out of the washing with their
shapely feet, tuckIug their dresses up
above the knees as they tread the suds,
and the French women pound the dirt
out with paddles, often slapping the
clothes upon stones as the Egyptians.
SOME CURIOUS KITCHENS.
The Japanese kitchen is always sup
| piled with running water, and the cook
ing stoves shown in the museum would
be laughed at by an American housewife.
| They ere little affairs about two feet
| square, anu the average stove cooks but
| one dish at q time. They are heated
| with charcoal, and in both Japan and
! China a great deal of cooking is done with
| little round balls made of coaldust mixed
| with mud. The Chinese and the Koreans
doc I1f hair IN lie mo