Evening star., 1895-09-14


n IEMNEf1sb yet. If there is one
\ VHbFlHH field of labor more
jW' than another in which
women could earn
dlsunctlon and fame, it would be in the
direction of planning houses for the multi
tude. An architect never sees anything but
the front elevation and bay windows.
gingerbread towers from which you can
see nothing, and front stairways that are
tco narrow to walk up square-shouldered
1t was letter from newly married friend
who has ideas that started me out on the
tra!l OF a house that vas something more
than sweat box, yet lacking the preten-
sions of a palace.
Il want she wrote, "a house that will
suit my jewel of a servant, who, like Sis
ter Jane is product of New England
and unique among her class, which is away
up SO we think. Like Sister Jane, she
was born to ideness, bred to school teach
ful, abilities average; possessor of a mod
crate competence partly acquired, mainly
mi erited. She has taught school and work.
ed in factory, taught music sold ribbons
nursery goVerness. book agent, chamber
maid, and last and best, a cook At least
l take IT from her own story that she was
a round peg in a square hole at all the
other things which she tried for she liked
rome of them. She says she detested school
teaching because she was constantly called
upon to punish pupils for doing the very
things she would have done herself had
sne been in their places, and was losing all
her natural amiability and gaining nothing
Clerkns WITS the worst of all, and came
near transforming her into a pessimist.
Copy-rg was not quite so bad, but when a
little error of a figure in engrossing a
new law nearly got her into states prison
for altering bills she concluded that 1t was
a dangerous occupation. AS factory girl
She nearly lost her mind, since all the use
she had for 1t was to count the trips of the
flying shuttle. She tried slop work on a
sewing machine till she concluded that
since Adam was condemned to earn his
bread by the sweat of his brow the next
horrid thing to think of for poor Eve was
to curve her backbone over sewing ma
chine.
Janet Turns Servant.
well. to make a long story short and
get down to business. my Janet tried every
thing, ran the whole gamut of 'womanly'
occupations. and a few outside, and found
nothing to her taste. BY a singular acci-
dent dear friend was injured, and Janet
volunteered her services housekeeper for
tine. The slatternly servant aearly drove
her distracted. and she discharged her,
taking her place as cook till she could find
competent help.
Sara, much to my delight, she has not
to this day found competent help. But she
bad found at last something that her soul
delighted in, and she remained with Ler
friend for two years and half, when the
injuries proved fatal and Janet fell into
my hands. We are going to set up our
lares and penates in Washington, and the
orly way in which 1 could get Janet to
say that she would go with us was to
promise that the kitchen regions should be
arranged after unique plans of her own.
Janet says that Sister James ideas are ex-
cellent. and she would like me to conmunt-
cate them to you. Sister Jane says: There
is no work so fit and pleasant, SO profta BILE
and improving to the mass of womea-rich
or poor, wise or un1earned, strong or weak,
yes, proud or meekzas the care and con-
troll of home. None worthy OF thor
ough study, none so full of opportunity for
exercising all the better bodily and mental
powers, from mere mechanical and mus
cular skill, up through philosophy and
science, mathematics and invention, to
poetry and fine art.
The Eousekeeper's Headquarters.
1.-The kitchen is not merely cook room,
nor yet the assembly and business room Of
the entire household. as in the olden time.
1t is the housekeeper's headquarters, the
mill to which all domestic grists are
brought to be ground. 1 should never learn
to be heartily grateful for my daily bread
IL it must always be eaten with the baking
pans at my elbow. Indeed, we seldom en-
joy to the utmost any good thing if the
process of it's manufacture has been car
ried on before our eyes. Hence, the dining
room is a necessity, but it must be near
at hand. If ibis goes to the basement or
the attic, the other must follow, but always
with impossible barriers between, protect
ing each one of our five senses.
1.-The confusion usually attending the
dinner hour should be out Of sight; the
Kissing of buttered pans and the sound
of rafting dishes we do not wish to hear;
our sharpened appetites must not be dulled
by spicy aromas that seem to settle on our
tongues we do not like, in summer weather.
to be broiled in the same heat that roasts
our beef; while, as for scents! Wrath is
cruel and anger is outrageous, but who is
able to stand the smell Of boiling cab
bage?
"'Yes, the kitchen must be separated
from the dining room, and the more per-
feet its appointments the easier the separa-
ton The library and the sitting room are
completely divided by a mere curtain be-
cause each is quiet ard well disposed, not
inclined to assert its own rights or invade
those of others; but the ordinary kitchen,
like ill-bred people, is constantly doing both.
Thomas Beecher proposed to locate his
kitchen at the top of the church steeple.
That is unnecessary; we have only to ele-
vate it morally and intellectually. make 1t
orderly, scientific, philosophical, and the
front parlor itself cannot ask a more
amiable and interesting neighbor.
For Domestic Reformation.
'As the chief workshop of the house,
the kitchen should be fitted up and fur
nished precisely as an intelligent manu-
facturer would fit UP his factory. Every
possible convenience for doing what must
he done; a machine for each kind of work
and a place for every machine. Provision
for the removal and utilizing of all waste,
for economizing to the utmost all labor
and material. Then If our housekeepers
will go to school in earnest-will learn
their most complicated and responsible pro-
fession half as thoroughly as a mechanic
learns single and a comparatively simple
trade-we shall nave domestic reforma-
ton that Will bring back something OF the
Eden we have lost
Well, / should say SO! 1t is my candid
opinion that Janet and Sister Jane had
tetter start out lecturing on domestic sci
ence, and illustrate their talks with stcre-
opticon views Of the proper caper in kltch-
ems, interSperSed with q few awful eX-