Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-21
MRS. EWING ON LABOR.
She Holds That Good Cook Is More Dig
nifed Object Than a Society Idler-Com-
missioner Harris Delivers Another Lee
ture on Education

ture on Education,
| ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATCH.1
| CHAUTAUQUA, N. Y, July 2O-This has been
a very quiet day at Chautauqua. The great
bulk of the people here now are college stu
| dents bent on study, and hence there is not
| that hustle and activity that characteriZes
| the month of August Prof. John Bach Nc
| Master, the historian, has concluded his
series of lectures, and will go straight to
| Bay Head, near Barnegat, New Jersey, where
| he will try to get out the third volume of
his History of the People of the United
States" by October next, bringing the his
| tory down to 1877. There will be two more
volumes, bringing the story down to Lin
coins administrations. These the Professor
expects to get out within the next four
years.
Mrs. Emily Huntington Miller, President Of
the Womens Club, arrived on the grounds
to-day and formally opened her department
this morning. The ladies are going to intro
duce something new at Chautauqua. They
propose to show upon the grounds here
'model home" for the average family of this
country. The "home building" will be
model structure and will be furnished so as
to accommodate family of six and keep
them on a small income. Mrs. Emma Ewing
will have supervision of the cooking, and
proposes to illustrate practically how fam
lily can live on splendid fare at 81 30 a week
per capita. The ladies mean business, and
all the married men here are going to watch
the experiment very closely.
This was the days programme: At P. M,
United States Commissioner W. T. Harris
lectured on Manners and Morals in the Pub
lie Schools" before a large audience in the
Hall of Philosophy. At 4 o'clock, in the
same place, Prof F. N. Thorpe, of the Uni
XHepsty Of on
to-day being '"The Beginnings of Govern
ment in America AT P. NJ. Mrs. Emma
Ewing, Of the cooking school, gave very
spicy and even sensational talk to both men
and women on the dignity of labor, and at 8
P. NJ. Prof. Cumnock, of Chicago, the elocu-
ZIONIST, entertained an audience in the am
phitheater in can Evening With Scottish
Authors"
Dignity of the Cook.
Mrs. Ewing's subject was "Only Cook"
and was substantially as follows: "a liter
ary woman not long since wrote thus
FLAVOR the kitchen with the parlor, instead
of bringing the kitchen into the parlor.'
Such talk is foolish. l don't understand how
the flavor of a parlor is more inviting than
the odor of a kitchen and don't see how
laboring In the kitchen is less dignif1ed than
lounginS in the parlor. Is painting poor
pictures and making poor music more dig
nifed and refining than making good bread
and coffee? The woman who paints unnat-
ural flowers ON china or canvas Cor pounds
unmelodious music may be lady, but the
woman who makes nutritious bread and de-
licious coffee is only cook. But is not the
latter doing infinitely nobler work than the
former?
"The health and happiness of the human
race depends more largely upon the proper
preparation, of food than upon all other
things combined. Is not the cook who
makes good bread and salads and dainty
dishes in US respectable profession as the
doctor who dresses ulcers and amputates
limbs, or the dentist who extracts dead
teeth and inserts rubber gums? The trend of
public opinion seems to be against the dig
nifty of labor. Are not the joints enlarged
by honest toll deemed vulgar, while the
fingers broken by baseball are accepted as
tokens of gentility? Is it not considered
more genteel to make cake than to make
bread? Is 1t not universally believed to be
more respectable to crochet tides and mats
and other useless things than to knit stock
1ngs and make trousers? Is it not thought to
be more high-toned to thump a piano than
pound washboard?
Biased Views of Society.
GAS general thing society consider as
most genteel the employments that are the
least useful and that it is more respectable
to do useless things than useful ones. The
truthfulness of these statements is attested
by the wretched food on our dining room
tables and the useless rubbish in the parlor.
Society's unwritten laws are most curious.
1t is considered vulgar to carry vegetab bles, |
genteel to carry fruit; but where is the |
dividing line? 1 once had a colored servant |
who would announce colored females to me |
as ladies and white ones as women. Her |
was not a whit less ridiculous |
than our classification of daily pursuits.
"Does an intelligent shoemaker cease to be |
shingle with the legend attorney at Iaw?'
Does the difference in occupation make the
difference in the respectability of menP Was |
ness to u S. Grant, the general? The dis
tinctiOnS OF society are artificial and gauZy.
spend their lives in trying to get |
into good society $50 called) rather than to
get into good occupations. Someone asks,
Would you be willing that your daughter |
should marry man in an inferior social po-
sitiQn?' ! answer, Intelligence and ignor-
ance rarely affiliate;' virtue and vice sell
dom clasp hands, would train my daugh-
ter to be an accomplished housekeeper and
cook, as well as give her q good education,
and instill into her mind tho true dignity of
labor, and when she married would be con-
fident that the man of her choice would
marry lady, though he only married
cook.
The Training of Schools.
Commissioner Harris said in substance:
''There are two phases of educations in
schools. One is addressed to the intellect
and the other to the will. The latter we call
moral training. The school is, when we'll
the best training in civics, or
that exists to-day. The pupil is
taught how to behave. so as to combine with
mis- fellows and produce rational result.
In order that the school may perform its
work, there must be regularity, punctuality,
silence and industry These four semi
virtues are a sort of foundation
On which the moral character is built for by
conforming to these requirements, the pupil
earns selEcontrol and gains just the habits
needed to enable him to combine with his
ellow-men in after life.
"We live in an age of machinery, and to
yet through the day we must be regular and
Dunctual. The habit of quiet and prompt
obedience to established order is the funda-
mental education for citizenship The |
school trains the child to speak the truth
Every lesson is an exercise in accurate
and precise use of language. The
pupil is related to his equals ana to his
uperiOrs and learns how to behave toward
ZACH. Thus the American school, with it's
trict mechanical discipline, is great sup |
port to the State. Children educated in it |
orm habits of order in public, and naturally
combine to secure order whenever they are
brown together under new conditions.
Education and Crime.
"But weare told that although education is
yet crime is increasing; more
ver, it is asserted that the schools furnish
or example, the returns OF the Detroit
Iouse of Correction for the first 25 years of
is existence. There were about 10000 COM
nitted, and it is recorded that 20 per cent of |
hese were able to write; but when we learn
hat in the State of Michigan 50 per cent of
he population over 10 years of age can
write, we see that the illiterates have fur
lished eight times their quota of criminals.
The alarmStS who deal with historical sta
iStcS and try to show that education is ac-
by an increase of crime, omit
ne of the terms of cOmparison-they omit I
he denominator of their fractions so to
peak If 70 per cent of the criminals are
urnished by5 per cent of the population !
Who can write, while 80 per cent of the {
are furnished by the illiterate
'er cent of the population, it is clear that ,