Los Angeles herald., 1892-04-30
KITCHEN TRAINING.
A WORK WHICH HAS HELPED MANY
POOR AND RICH FAMILIES.

What "Kitchen Garden Training" Means,
How It Was Started and by Whom
Miss Huntington's Great Work for Her
Less Fortunate Sisters in n Big City.
"There Is so much to find fault with
Rnd SO much to wish for in such q great
big, dirty city as ours that sometimes
the good, sweet, modest facts connected
with our charitable institutions are over
looked" said a visitor to the Wilson In
dustrial school and mission as she came
away from there the other day. The
building at 1875 st. Marks place was
turned, nearly forty years ago, from a
factory into the pleasant school house
which it now is. This school, which was
the first institution of the kind in Amer
lea, is not endowed and is maintained
entirely by voluntary contribution. Mrs.
Jonathan Sturges is the first director,
and many familiar names are on the list
Of managers.
The matron of the school is Miss
Emily Huntington, the originator Of the
system of kitchen garden training, a
branch of work now carried on not
only at the Wilson school and elsewhere
in this city, but in other American cities
and in Canada, England, Ireland, Scot
land and France. Miss Huntington has
made the mission house her home, and
here she watches day by day the results
of the methods which she has estab-
lished.
It is with fascinating interest that
one listens to the tale of how by the
merest chance Miss Huntington, at
eighteen, just out of school and ready
to be ushered' into fashions pleasures,
chanced to be taken by friend to visit
ragged school," and how the only
daughter of fond parents put society
and the usual amusements of youth
aside, and not in the same manner, but
with the same motive as her cousin, Fa-
ther Huntington, set herself about mis-
sion school work.
Nobody could work with Miss Hunt
ington's energy and her capacity for or
ganizing without developing new ideas
which should bring forth more com
plete work, so as time passed on and she
gained experience, not only among the
poor, but with her own class, she made
various discoveries. One was that the
leisure of some of the young girls of her
acquaintance might readily be put to
good account, and another that kitchen
gardening might with profit be adapted
to the rich as we'll as the poor.
She obtained the cooperation of some
of the mothers and the interest of the
girls, so that meeting was called for
the purpose of developing a plan of
movement. Fifty girls met at the house
of one of the elder women. This was in
1867 1t was proved that most of them
no matter how well versed they were in
Latin and geometry, knew absolutely
nothing about domestic science, so ar
rangements were made for forming a
normal class which should be divided
into companies, these companies to go
to the mission for regular days of teach
ing.
These young women, as their paths
divided, removed to Boston, Chicago
and elsewhere and set up kitchen gar
dens of their own, with the result that
the system has spread everywhere. 1t
might even be said with truth that the
other thought, that of the Working
Girls clubs, emanated from this mis-
sion, for Miss Grace H. Dodge was one
of the fifty young women who joined in
the work there, and it was no doubt be-
cause of the experience she gained at this
time her idea was conceived and devel-
oped.
The girls became kitchen gardeners
themselves, and afterward, when mar
riage had placed some of them in homes
of their own, they wrote to the founder
of the system, "You have no idea how
kitchen garden helps me with my serv-
ants and my housekeeping" and to
others it gave the means of livelihood
when unforeseen reverses of fortune
made them dependent upon their own
resources.
It must be confessed that "kitchen
garden" is a rather misleading name,
for it suggests to many place where
vegetables are grown for kitchen use
When Miss Huntington was asked about
the name, she said: "It means a system
by which all the intricacies of domestic
science are taught-sweeping, busting,
washing, ironing, waiting at table, ETC.
I thought a little of changing the name
at one time because it was confounded
with the term vegetable garden, but l
found nothing that quite took it's place,
and soon discovered that the fact that
the name had to be explained gave it
additional Importance"
The school hours are the same here as
elsewhere-from 8 to 3. There are about
200 girls, ranging in age from five to ten,
and there are the usual lessons in read
ing, writing and arithmetic, which come
under the head of study. The training
in the kitchen garden branches is little
else than systematized form of play,
and this takes up proportionate part Of
the school day.-New York Tribune.
Nickel Armored Ships Can't Go North
The remarkable discovery of the eff
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temperate climate of ordinary steel and