The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-11-07
WOMEN OF THE WORLD.
DAILY LIFE OF WOMEN or DIFF
FERENT NATIONS.
Samoan king Stove and the Boiling Baskets
Of Alaska-Curious Kitchens in Turkey
How the Girls Of Siam, Egypt and
India Clean Their Clothes.

Howthe Girls Of Siam, Egypt and
India Clean Their Clothes.
have spent this week among the
housewives of the world, SAYS a Wash
lngton correspondent. The National
museum has cooking 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. A picture OF a 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 ground
and the cooking is done with red hot
stones. When the people want feast
they dig hole in the ground as big
as cider barrel, fill it full of wood
and cover it with stones. They light
the wood and when the stones are red
hot they pull them off to one side and
clean out the hole. They then put
layer of the hot stones in the bottom
Of it. and upon this layer bananas,
chickens and vegetables wrapped in
leaves are laid. Another layer of red
hot stones put on top and on this is
another layer of eatables and go on till
the hole is filed. Upon the top fire
Is built and the whole steams and
cooks away until the lightly dressed
Samoan lady pronounces the dinner
cooked. 1t is said to be a feast for
King.
The Alaskans also cook with stones,
and there are boiling and baking bas-
kets in the museum brought from the
Esquimaux. The boiling baskets are
Of coarse waterproof, and the water is
heated by dropping red hot stones into
them. 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 a little larger. The food is put
into them and is roasted by hot stones
being 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. It stands in the center of
The room and the fuel is often made OF
seal oil. The chief food is fish and
the kindling is grass. The women are
the wood cutters of the family, but
they are the wash women only so far
IS their own clothes are concerned.
Every man in Alaska washes his own
clothes and ironing is practically un-
known.
Every nation washes its dirty clothes
differently from every other nation.
The hardest worked washerwomen of
the world are the Koreans. They have
TO wash about dozen dresses for their
husbands and inasmuch as every man
wears pantaloons or drawers so baggy
that they could come up to his neck,
like those of 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 muse
um a Korean ironing board and irons.
The board is nothing but a 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 a shirt bosom fresh
from a Chinese laundry. The best
dressed people in Korea are the men.
They wear the most delicate colored
gowns of cotton and silk, of red, light
blue, pink and green, and it takes
woman half her time to do the wash
ing. You hear this pounding going on
lay and night in any Korean town, and
1t is one of the queerest characteris-
tics of the Korean people. The Japan
sse rip their clothes apart for every
washing and they iron their clothes by
spreading them out on fiat board and
leaning this up against the house to
Try. 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
round as the average dish-pan.
She has never heard of wash
board 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 blu
ing is used and as for boiling out the
dirt in tin boiler this is unknown.
The Chinese girls do their washing in
much the same way save there is not
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