The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-07-15
M(lIIit f,a9le
ADVICE TO GRADUATES.
KATE FIELD SAYS "lET THERE BE
COOKS" is A NATIONS CRY.
The Only Gospel That Will Make Happy,
Healthy Homes Practical Questions
Put to Intelligent and Ambitious Young
Women-Need of the Hour.

to school after / was fifteen, and l never
learned anything at school after l was
twelve
Not being graduate, the world having
been my university, you girls can probably
teach me ologies and osophies never heard
of, yet am asked to give you advicel
want to ask you few questions.
Do you really know anything thorough
" we'll? Are you mistress of your own
languageI Can you speak it purely and
musically, or do you torture sensitive ears
by talking through your noses with sloven-
ly enunciationS Do you write legibly, or
has distinct chirography been beneath
your notice2 Do you sign your name so
they who run may read, or does it require
an expert to decipher it, / ask feelingly.
I've been an editor just one year and a
half, during which time have gone more
or less mad over atrocious chirography
than dreamed possible in nation of al
legged universal education. The number of
women who can't or won't write their own
names clearly is shameful. That so few
women charm by refinement of speech tells
a story of illiterate homes and culpable
teachers.
Can you write an intelligent letter, spelled
production as you would not be ashamed
to have picked up in the street car or read
aloud in a court roomP If not, you may
know something of ancient history and
decline Latin verbs, but you are an awful
failure in English.
Can you keep accounts? No. Then all
your geometry won't avail you in facing a
hard and practical world.
icol ToIc 80, nh yef
ology and hygiene2 Did you ever study
your own wonderful mechanism and the
laws by which it is governed? Have you
been taught to stand in awe of your own
stomach Have you learned what foods
you can digest and what you can't? Do
you realize that sound mind is only pos
sible in a sound body? Do you wear such
clothing as gives perfect freedom to vital
organs? If not, your teachers have ne
elected to impress upon you the most i'm
portant of all knowledge-the knowledge
Of yourself.
Do you drink ice water before and during
your mealsS Then, as an animal, you are
on the road to ruin.
How many hours have you given daily
to the study of music, and what is the re-
sult2 Can you play well enough to please
connoisseurs, of whom there are many
nowadays? Do you really sing or only
scream?
Can you earn your own living? If not,
my dear graduates, it seems to me that
your lives so far have been thrown away,
and the sooner you begin over again the
better.
There are exceptional men and women
who are a law unto themselves to whom
schools and universities are more or less Of
a nuisance. These people have rare tai
ents, are to be given their heads and let
alone. Sooner or later they work out their
own salvation in their own way, and the
world is the gamer. The general average
of human beings stand upon a common
place plane, and if they don't do common
place duties well they fail to fulfill their
destiny.
Taking it for granted, therefore, that
many of you graduates do not feel called
upon to startle the world with the corrus-
cations of genius that you are going home
to be a comfort to fond parents, let me ask
whether you are good housekeepers. Can
you cook? If not, in the name of common
sense, of the man you propose TO marry, of
the friends who may visit you, of an inno-
cent posterity, don't rest until you have
learned the business of almost every wom-
ans life, which is to keep house well and
economically
The woman who cannot turn her servants
out of doors and do their work better than
the best of them has no right to marry I'M
less she has money enough in her own
right to employ a skilled housekeeper TO
carry out her orders.
Dear graduates, cooking is the alphabet
of your happiness.
do not hesitate to affirm that this re-
public, great as her necessities are in many
directions, needs cooks more than all else.
The salvation of the national stomach de-
ponds upon them. We are a nation of dys-
peptics, and Americans are dyspeptics be-
cause they eat the wrong foods. badly
cooked, which they drown in ice water
They are dYspeptics because our women
don't know the rudiments of their bust
ness and resign their kitchens into the
hands of incompetent servants, of whom
they are afraid and whose impudence they
frequently endure through sheer helpless
ness.
OF what use a smattering of French and
music, of what avail even profound
knowledge Of something worth acquiring,
if unable to face the awful and universal
problem of servantgalism and solve it by
mastering it?
Living in Washington, have visited our
National Chautauqua, where the well
known expert, Mrs Emma F. Ewing. was
giving lectures on the science of cooking.
One girl has come hundreds OF miles to
learn how to teach what she processes TO
know! Mrs. Ewing tells me that there are
ho- A
are fit to teach cooking scientifically.
Twenty years ago this admirable woman
married, having as little knowledge of
housekeeping as most of you girls Her
husband was a confirmed dyspeptic, thanks
to the dreadfully cooked food of hotels.
To save the life of the man she loved
Mrs. Ewing applied herself to the study of
foods and how to cook them In those
days there were no books telling how to
bake bread, how far fermentation should
be carried, what foods suited delicate stom-
achs, etc. All these vital questions Mrs
Ewing was forced 10 answer by expert
ment. Today look upon Mrs. Ewing as
having done more good in her generation
than any woman Of my acquaintance
WhyY
Because she has elevated homework to
the region of scientific investigation
Through her efforts the Agricultural Col
lege OF Iowa established in 1852 school of
domestic economy Of which she became
professor. Since then Mrs. Ewing has had
the satisfaction of establishing the same
chairs In other western colleges, and now
is at the head OF a training school in do
nestle science at Kansas City. Her classes
are made up of young women. many OF
whom are about to be married and are
anxious 70 learn their duties. One OF these
young girls told her father she could not
conSninutinnslN be n,narr.ina ,r....i I. La Ii