The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1894-08-10
DOOM OF THE COOK.
THE BURNING QUESTIONS OF THE
DAY ARE SOUNDING IT.

Has No Sympathy With the Modern wom-
ans Ambitions-she Says Our Home Life
Is Rapidly Decaying.
Notwithstanding the difference there is
In the housekeeping of the present from
what 1t was in the past, women have still
certain domestic duties to perform which
add to tho dignity of tho home and the
safeguarding employment of the sex, for
indeed the old adage about satan and the
Idle hands finds its fulfillment in the pres
emit condition Of things feminine-the late
outbreak Of unseemly desires being the
direct result of having little or nothing to
do, owing to the lapse of former engross-
ing obligations. When women were en-
phatically housewives, and their good
management and notableness counted to
them as virtues, we heard nothing Of the
absurd questions and impracticable de-
mands which now fill the air as with the
cries of screech owls and the Biblical
satyrs. They had their homes to attend
to; their households to provide for; their
duties to do; their little rivalries of the
kitchen and the stillroom to inspirit them
to brave efforts; their washing and bak.
ing and brewing to arrange for. They had
too much to do with all these things, and
the periodic visits of the local mantua
maker, whereby their wardrobes were re-
furnished and replenished, to bother
themselves about politics and platforms,
public life and exotic causes" And the
burning questions Of the latchkey and the
tree Of knowledge were then as little to
the fore as medical schools or q seat In the
county council.
But with the new spirit Of aggregation,
whereby so much that had been done at
home was now brought in from the out
side, and the largo firms supplied all the
smaller needs of tho establishments, the
activities Of women, released from their
natural occupations, squandered them
selves abroad on all sorts of external sub
1ects. And the nation, and the sex at
large, and the sweetness Of society, lost in
proportion as this individual and that
gained. For one thing, decent home cook
ing became lost art. Old English cook
ing might have been heavier in material
and more massive in amount than modern
fashion allows, but it must have been
toothsome. And 1t required both skill
and dexterity. Some Of the items In the
faraway historic banquets would puzzle
the best Gordon bleu Of the day to turn
out with the skill implied In the descrip-
ton. And those Gates and comflts, those
strong waters and homemade wines, those
pies and manchets, pottages and pasties,
must have been pleasant to the taste, as
some Of the more elaborate edifces were
charming to the eye-as then educated.
All this lore, however, has departed,
and it is as much now as we can expect to
find in middle class houses q cook who
can make traditional plum pudding for
Christmas or concoct mince pies that keep
up the character of the DISH for many
get these emphatically English and ma
tional, and, Of old, domestic, glories from
foreign caterers ON the outside, and uni
versal providers add Christmas buildings
and mince pies, cheese cakes and jellies to
their list of goods delivered at the door,
together with Goals and flour, shirtings
and silk dresses.
The consequence Of this change in the
home life and doings Of English women
has been TINT decay of individual skill in
cooking which has led to the cry of the
doom of the domestic cook. Those who
can afford to pay more than the stipend of
curate to their chef can secure good
cooking of the lighter French kind. Their
cuisine will leave nothing to be desired.
But those who have to consider ways and
means, and to whom fortune has not been
so bountiful as to allow of large OUTLAWS,
to them the domestic cook, as at present
constituted, is trial, not to speak Of O
thorn in the flesh, which they would give
much to find the pinchers that would
pluck out The mistress has entirely lost
the art and cannot therefore instruct heI
ignorant servant. The servant has never
been taught, has never served an appren-
ticeship and has every knowledge but that
bearing on legs OF muuCon ana sacRs U.
potatoes.
Between these two ignorances the doom
| sounds as only matter of Justice and
common sense, and the echo Is cherished
| by the hearers as the herald of better It'd
ings But there is yet another way, and
| that other way seems to us the best and
| wisest. This is to teach the art Of cook.
| ing to the ladies who will be mistresses
and to the girls who will be servants, SO
that the one may be able to instruct II
necessary and the other to do when called
upon.
All over England are now rising uI
schools of cookery as well as Of millinery
and laundry work, whereby the national
disgrace of late clinging to the name of the
English housewife Is to be wiped out. Fo,
the hideous amalgams Of flour and water,
the slovenly waste of the fried steak, the
unhandy arrangements Of rice and fruit
which go by the name Of cottage cookery,
we are to have dexterous manipulators Of
food who will know how to make whole.
some dishes Of pleasant SAVIOR at less cost
than now these indigestible and unpalata.
BILE messes come to. Ladies, themselves
well taught are the teachers Of these
Glasses. Lynn Linton In London
Queen.
| A Coral Basket.
I saw pretty basket recently which had