The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-01-26
Training Girls.

Training Girls.
1t must have been a man who originated
that highly popular and over-wise remark
that mo girl should marry until she car
make bread and cut and make her own
dresses" Every woman knows that bread
and dressmaking are trades, only to be
mastered by long practice, and that thou
sands of girls are growing up who may
be able to pay dressmaker and yet may
suffer in home and purse for the lack both
of training in housekeeping and of practice
with needle and scissors.
With girls whose mothers hire no help
the question settles itself AS we live now.
a-days one pair of hands simply cannot do
cooking, homework and sewing for a
family of children. The daughters must
learn to help in every department. But
wnen work is not compulsory the girls will
usually learn something for the love of it.
Perhaps Mary will discover a knack for
millinery and trim hats for all her friends
without instructions, but display an in
ability for understanding that there is
any other way to mend stocking, except
to snatch a threaded needle from mothers
cushion and draw the hole together. Or
Jennie will become an expert at cream
cakes and chocolate caramels, in spite OF a
dlsagreeable Bridget in the kitchen, and
yet if called on in some emergency for a
slice OF toast and a cup of tea, will start
the tea with cold water, and wonder why
the bread doesn't brown with the back
damper shut.
Now, leaving out of the account the semi
invalid girls only not forgetting to insist
that ovelreading is as trying to weak
eyes as mending, and that dancing, roller
skating or long walks strain weak backs
as much as chamber work, the question
still remains, when shall our girls be
taught these things which they don't want
to learn and yet need to know!
boldly say, only little in school time
The girl who goes regularly to school.
especially if she must walk some distance,
who must study some out of school, get in
an exercise or experiment, write compo-
sitlon, or look up reference in the library,
and perhaps find an hour every day for
piano practice, has very little time and no
possible interest in either homework or
sewing. She will probably hate them both
heartily and feel herself abused if obliged
TO do either.
Anu yet il is absolutely necessary for
her to learn that daily 1 isSties must be done,
nor can the lesson begin too early. Even E,Tei
a child OF three Can learn that she can't
have the picture book until she has put the
doilies away, nor the button-boX until the
book is il its place. nor goto walk until the
buttons are picked up. The girl under ten
little while every day, or sweep the steps
or run daily errand; the larger ones can
fill the pitchers or make their own beds or
get the potatoes ready Tor dinner; small
duties changing with age or circumstances
and needing but few minutes in the
morning and few more at night. The
thing for the mother to remember is that it
will often take more care to get these
things done than to do them herself, but it
is just here that the training comes in
The mother who insists on the small daily
duties done regularly and done well, in
sists that the sheets be tucked and the
pillows straight, the corners swept and the
broom hung up, has taught her daughter a
lesson in thoroughneSS and falthfulneSs
that will tell in her character as well as
her housekeeping-andh herself a lesson in
patience besides.
Saturdays are, too, often claimed by the
school girls as their rigbtful holiday for
visitors or visiting, for making extra work
in the family, and for emitting the duties
of other days 1t. can safely be taken for
granted, however, that the average school
girl is not killing herself with study. She
probably doesn't know how to, in the first
place, nor doesn't care to, in the second
place And is there any reason why she
should not help in the kitchen an hour or
two on Saturday! or if that means too
much war IN Dublin, why cannot she sew
on her shoe buttons, mend her gloves, re-
wise dropping pocket, replace hat elias
tic, exchange safety pins for stout stitches
in the draperies of her overskirt and
strengthen the buttons that remain on her
Jersey! Such things done are as truly a
rest from study as visiting, and are q
training in habits of care and thrift.
The only times for systematic and con-
tnued drill of a girl in either cooking or
sewing are the summer vacation, or the
term, when for one reason and another she
stays out Of school, and the year or two
Immediately after she leaves school. be-
fore she settles to either work or pleasure.
Now is the time when something more
than busting the parlor, an occasional des-
sert or bit of fancy work may be expected.
Now the mother may give over the whole
care of some one department of house
keeping to her daughter, and let her work
out the problem. If she goes into the
kitchen she must learn to manage the
stove and handle the dishes, to stew with
out catching on, and bake without burn
ing; to cut meat and not fingers. to make
drippings do the work of butter and to put
up fruit; and to do these things and a
thousand others quickly, neatly and with
out making note of every step.
Now is the time when some coveted gar
ment, some pretty dressing sacque or fancy
wrap may be allowed if the girl will take
time and have patience to do it all herself
from pinning on the pattern. She can
learn in this way to use her cloth with
prudence discover where straight edges
must come, where piecings can be hidden,
where to cut and where to tear. She can
learn to haste straight and bias edge to-
gether without pull or quicker, and to
make hem lie straight without winding.
She can master the machine and its tan
trums, and learn to handle large and awk-
ward work without defacing. These are
the tests of a seamstress in these days, tnat
machines are taking so many stitches that
fine thanksgiving is fast becoming confined
to experts. and can, without inconvenience
be left unlearned, if these other arts are
mastered. And these are the steps, too, in
both cooking and sewing, that a girl needs
to know, whether she marrles or not. The
bread making and dressmaking will settle
themselves with circumstances. With such
knowledge gained she will be better served
if she is rich, more intelligent in her chart
ties, more considerable to her dependents.
But few of our girls will be rich. The
wheel of fortune turns rapidly nowadays,
and no girl can afford to be ignorant of such
things. Sooner or later she will want all
this knowledge. Whatever her circum-