Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1891-08-07
TRAINED HANDS.

bnStlNGD ElFINCS.
How They Prove of IncaIculable Value
to Woman at Her Work.
Too much cannot be said in favor of
training the hands to do whatever work
they are called on to do with exactness,
A vast amount of the force of the world
is merely wasted because the worker has
not been properly trained to work in
the simplest and best manner Want of
method is at the bottom of most of the
troubles of overworked nervous women.
They fritter away more than double the
amount of energy required to do their
work properly, and yet often fail in &C
complishing it at the end.
A systematic cook will go into her
kitchen, lay out the materials for an
elaborate dinner, and by steady, orderly
work will have everything ready at the
proper time. She will leave no debris of
her work behind when the dinner is
served, and-except for the few pots and
pans soaking-there will be no sign
about the kitchen of what she has &C
complished. The housekeeper who in
dulges in brilliant flashes of industry
and lets her work slide between times is
an abject failure, but not more of one
than the over energetic housewife who
| takes dozen steps where three will suf-
fee, and uses up her strength in petty
ways, so that she is unable to accomplish
necessary tasks or only does them finally
by an almost superhuman effort.
AS rule American housekeepers dis
like science and method as applied to
their work, and with some show of rea-
son. Grahamites and various other food
cranks have appropriated good terms,
full of meaning originally, and have ap-
piled them to their own ideas Scien-
tiic cooking is associated almost irrev-
ocably in the mind of the average
hOusekeeper with bran bread and oat-
meal mush-a diet now warranted by
intelligent physicians to break down the
strength of Tartar savage. Thorough
scientific knowledge of what is neces-
sary to sustain life would lead any one
to avoid such diet. The matters which
it is especially necessary to bring down
to scientific basis in order to save time
are methods of work.
In the kneading of bread, for example
if the work is done properly and the
dough turned and folded Systematically
in kneading there is no waste, no stick.
ing of bread to the bowl it is raised in,
and no dust left over the board. The
simple exercise of kneading steadily and
easily for half an hour is no hardship
1t IS, on the contrary, an admirable and
delightful exercise, which may be recon-
mended for broadening the chest. When
the proper method of handling the paste
in making puff paste is once acquired
you may discard marble tables and
chilled rolling pins, and success is as Ger
tain as it can be from any merely human
| work
If the skilled housekeeper is offered
any labor saving tool to assist her in this
work she can tell in a moment, if she
understands the best method, whether
the new tool will be of assistance OF
merely offers d 1nakeshift for the genuine
process. Good makers of cake formerly
used an old fashioned egg whip. By
taking long strokes in moment or two
they beat the whites to a coarse, moder-
ately stiff froth, such as makes deli
cate, tender cake. With some of the
new patent heaters they can produce a
fine froth, stiff and tough enough to bend
when cut. A good cake baker knows
however, that such froth will produce
a fine grained, but tough cake.
Again, in mixing in the -four with the
other ingredients, the trained worker
knows that if she folds the -four in care.
fully, instead Of taking circular stirring
strokes, her cake will be feathery light,
but that with the circular stirring she
will break down the whites and render
the cake liable to be tough. Her success
depends upon scientific knowledge of the
proper way to do her work in every case.
In cleaning there is a right and a wrong
way, If the worker scrubs floor in
the go lucky hit or miss" style of some
charwomen she can devote a great deal
of strength to her work and yet leave a
larger part of the dirt on the floor when
she is done. If, on the contrary, the
worker keeps two pals Of water at hand,
one to scrub with and one for rinsing the
+ floor with, abundance Of clean cloths and
a firm brush, and the floor is scrubbed
with the grain of the wood, it may be
cleaned with very little outlay of muscle.
New York Tribune.