The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-07-23
DOMESTIC ECONOMY SCHOOLS.
How They Manage Them Abroad =
Great University of Housework.

! Great University of Housework.
| EDINBURGH, Scotland, July 16.-When
the famous domestic school started here
IN 1875 it taught cooking only. But,
says Miss Louisa Stevenson, the chairman
of the directors, then perhaps more than
at any recent time it reached the neediest
/ class. Even farm hands came from the
bothies to be taught how to cook their
porridge and boil their potatoes.
, Miss Stevenson's name is associated
with many institutions and movements
the executive committee for the queen s
Jubilee Institute for Nurses and has
been from the first leader in the move
ment to secure university education for
women in Scotland. She has prepared
the paper upon the latter topic to be
read at the educational congress at Chi
cage.
Through Miss Stevenson l was intro
| duced into the School of Domestic Econ
omy, of which Miss Guthrie Wright is
honorary secretary. With Miss Wright
went through the departments and her
description of the work OF the school was
most interesting.
L
the school, and l saw once long list OF
titled vice presidents.
The fine hall for demonstration and
practice lessons has seats for the pupils
modelled after the best university plan.
1t is furnished with a first-class range,
| large gas stove and stove for heating
irons, and all other appointments OF a
thoroughly equipped Kitchen.
The pupils comprise all sorts and con-
dltions of Womankind. Ladies come IN
for classes or single lessons and send their
cooks for obstruction in cookery and their
scullery maids for lessons in cleaning.
Most in the regular classes are working
for diplomas, as the demand for certlt-
Gated teachers in cookery and laundry
work far exceeds the supply.
Cookery, scullery and laundery work,
dressmaking, millinery, plain sewing,
mending, bookkeeping sufficient for the
keeping OF household accounts-these are
the branches taught. There are also
lectures on 1.-THE Chemistry OF Food and
Cookery on tHygiene OF the House
and Household" and on 'Home Sick
Nursing
There is also a special Housewives
diploma, - for which a twenty week s
training is taken. This is especially for
upper middle-c class girls, such as the
daughters of clergymen, etc., who IN a
home household of servants cannot &C
quire practical knowledge necessary Tor
! the mistress of a household. In this
course are included all the departments
named, and also one OF housekeeping,
homework and general management.
The fee is $96.
Lessons are also given by the staff
teachers to classes outside OF Edinburgh.
! There were thirty of these outside classes
/ last winter. Private lessons are also
| given to ladies at their own homes.
Pupils from other schools come here
for training in special departments.
was present one morning when about
fifty girls came in from the Fre9 Church
Training School for teachers. They came
for lessons in artisan cookery, ana were
taught in classes of twelve, that being
the largest number one teacher can over
see.
i One detachment received their first
lesson that morning, which was the
making OF a treachle (molasses) pudding.
They worked in pairs.
Another class further advanced took up
the making of bread-and- butter pud-
dings, of scenes and plain tarts. The
little buildings cooked light and palatable
as they were turned from out the small
white bowls in which they were boiled
on to the hot ashes-which is Scotch for
platter.
The dishes cooked are usually bought
by the pupils at a price which covers the
cost of materials. This is an admirable
arrangement for the girls who are in
lodgings and who supply their own food.
l observed several pairs who, after
viewing their Joint pudding with gratified
eyes at its success, divided it into two
parts, and, sitting down together, ate it
on the spot, thus securing their lunch at
a small rate.
During the winter months this great
| of 10 hraf ri
classes in the Old Tower. Seven hundred
girls were thus taught last winter. The
greater part took cookery, though few
were taught dressmaking. Most were
! factory girls.
, Lessons in 5ick-room cookery are given
here to the medical students of the Edin-
burph university. For convenience these
, are given at the Royal infrmary. Similar
lessons are given to the infirmary and
hospital nurses. An Edinb urgh physi-
c1an, an officer of the Royal College OF
Physicians, told me he had to take the
lessons in sick-room cookery and highly
valued the knowledge ne acquired.
/ do not know which it is pleasauter to
sea demonstration or practice lesson.
But | have vivid recollection of de-
! monstration lesson given one morning by
Miss Jack OF the staff teachers.
AN APoTHEsIs OF HoUsEwoRK.
Such teaching seems in every sort an
apothesis OF homework. l cannot but
hope that this systematic training in all
departments of household labor where it
becomes universal, as it is bound to be-
come, may help toward the settlement oil
the yexed question of household service.
It has always seemed to me that half the
difficulty has lain in the contempt cast
upon that service and the doors of 1t. II
has been largely left to ignorence; dirt
has been its natural ally and unspeakable
confusion its achievement.
But here was a woman with all the i'm
plements of her work set in orderly array
before her, as they might always be
, in any kitchen. She herself was
attired in the neatest of white
gowns, a white apron and cap-the
most easy washable of costumes. She
handled her implements as skilfully as an
, artist his brush or chisel, giving all the
time instructions in an agreeable Voice
: and in clear, terse grammatical English,
her words as exactly weighed and meas
ured as her materials.
She taught not only the more artistic
| forms of cookery, an aspic Jelly, ornate
, meats and buildings, but first of all gave
detailed instructions for the clarifying Of
7 dripping. Dripping seems to be the great
: cornerstone of British cookery of the
z palmer sort. 1t fills the place that butter
t holds in our wasteful land. 1t buffers
much OF the bread. And when you come
, to think of it, good beef and pork anc