The Arizona champion., 1891-03-14
A MAN IN THE KITCHEN.
Potato PeelerS of the MaScu-
 line Gender.
THEY ARE SOMETIMES VERY USEFUL.
The Genuine Betty" is Regular Bull
 in a China Shop.

Most women heartily despise Betty" by which is usually meant man who pokes his nose into the details of household affairs, dabbles in the work of the kitchen and irritates the house. wife by assuming, regularly or occasion ally, functions which she deems exclu- sive to herself The dislike of women for this kind of man is in the main well grounded The average man is, unfor- tunately, unable to make himself useful in household work without making himself, also, more or less a nuisance A question of this kind has, however, many sides
 THE WOMEN ARE RESPONSIBLE.
 The women who are most jealous of their prerogatives in the kitchen are not always possessed of the best capacity for maintaining them; and some of the most perfect housekeepers the writer has ever known, easy mistresses of the arts and systems that make up the various de- partments of household management and industy, have been most indulgent and appreciative of the efforts of hus- band, son or brother to help about the house, even encouraging original experi- ment along the lines which have brought into being the scornful epithet above quoted.
 In their households the men were never spitefully ordered to "Let things alone" told to "Keep out of my way" or requested to mind their own busi- ness," because, in the first place, the housewife respected herself too much to use such expressions or their equivalents, and because, in the second place, the men had acquired such familiarity with the ins and outs of the kitchen that they were not likely to hinder rather than help when they had occasion to turn their hand to this, that or the other mat ter of housework. This touches the secret of the whole matter, and a little thinking along this line will suggest query whether women are not, generally speaking, to blame for the fact that the average man is a nuisance in the kitchen. A mother carefully taught her sons many details of work usually considered the sole province of girls and concerning which boys generally grow up in utter ignorance They washed and wiped | dishes, learned to prepare plain meals, | had practice in sweeping and dusting and putting to rights, and were taught to patch and darn neatly and to sew on buttons. Some of them learned some thing of the 'higher branches" When | they went out into the world they had | frequent occasion to bless the mother l for these useful accomplishments; and | when they became heads of households, | they had an intelligent practical knowl- edge of the details of the work of which . their wives had charge and were able to make the burden easy in many ways where another man would have made it | heavier.
 THE REALLY GOOD HUSBAND. No man worthy of the name permits | his wife or any woman in his house to perform the heavy drudgery of carrying | coal and wood, caring for furnaces and | stoves, moving stoves or heavy furni- ture, beating carpets, and so on. But | this need not be the limit of a mans use fulness about the house. There is no reasonable reason why a man should not be able to broil a steak, boil or bake po- tatoes, cook an egg, make coffee or tea | and prepare other articles of food should | an emergency arise to make it desirable | (and such emergencies do often arise), | and do it too without turning the | kitchen and dining room topsy turvy in the operation. Some men can and do ! accomplish such work, and even make biscuits, griddle cakes and the like.
 A woman whose husband is in the habit of taking hold" when needed in housework has been heard to say that | she would rather have him to depend on in case of indisposition or other emer- gency than any girl that could be hired. | He does not interfere when there is no | cause for it, but he saves labor for his . wife and expense for himself, and he | is not at all ashamed of doing it nor afraid to undertake it. No man need | be; rather, any man should be ashamed | of unwillingness and should regret in ability to perform any ordinary house. hold task on occasion.
 Some men have or profess horror of all housework. It is often grounded in laziness. They will go to great expense and trouble rather than turn their hands | to anything in the house, even to making | fire. The "Bettys" do not come from that class. Neither are they recruited | from the husbands of common sense, tact and judgment, who know "hov to do thinks" and know when to do them | and when to refrain. The genuine | Betty" is a genuine meddler, whose zeal is without knowledge, whose help | fulness is without discretion, and whose | officiousness and conceit neutralize what | might be useful in his make up. Wom- | ankind is excusable for detesting him Let her, however, accept these lines as a plea for withholding the opprobrious title from men who do not deserve it, | and for an honest recognition of the | right usefulness of a properly taught and | sensible man about the house, and even in the kitchen.-One of the ''Men Folks in Good Housekeeping.
 A Clock with Many Faces.
 Professor NJ. L. Hussey is now the l