The San Francisco call., 1895-05-23

Mrs. Van Pelt read letters from MRS.
Mary Lowe Dickinson, president OF the
Woman's Council, announcing the ap-
pointmenu of Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw
as representatives of that organization In
the congress.
"And these are the credentials of Miss
Anna Shaw, DID,, MD, said Mrs. Cooper.
"You have D or so too many there,
said Miss Shaw.
"Oh, that's all right, you are ID,
doubly dear to u.s." smilingly retorted the
president.
Il was ordained minister of the gos-
pel" said Miss Shaw, rising, "but only re-
ceived degree as bachelor Of medicine,
which accounts for the too many. But,
then, come to think of it, it is much harder
for woman to be bachelor than to be
doctor"
Mrs e. o. Smith of San Jose was next
introduced by the president to read pa
per on Cooks and Cookery" The lady
was kindly received and many times dur
ing the delivery of her ideas on this i'm
portant subject was frequently interrupted
by applause. She said:
The thoughts which propose to present for
your consideration are based on thirty years
experience with cooks and cookery, and are
plain, unvarnished statements. l believe in
home-home all the way through. from the
drawfng-room, with its piano; the library,
with its books and magazines, to the kitchen,
with its pots, kettles and frying pans. No
UOuc Is COupleLe WllnOQt GI lneSc, anu LQcy
are within reach OF the great middle class of
Americans to which am proud to belong. A
cooperative system covering any department
of the home as 1t has been beQueathed to US by
the aspiration of humanity to .'set the solitary
in families would break its perfect symmetry.
The public reading-room and concert hall are
beneticent institutions, but they are not home
| like, and an eating or dining room where fami-
| lies would congregate would bear the same re-
lation to the family around the festal- board,
with the hidden guest only present, that the
! hall and reading-room do to the family circle
round the freside, with book and song.
| The home has shown its right to exist in its
regard to it is all In the interest of the better
home. But home is not anybody's sphere. 1t
| is the first and last choice OF almost every
woman, but there is no iron door that shuts
| her in. The door swings in and out for her.
| Her sphere is the world, and for aught know
myriads OF worlds, and all that she can right
fully obtain of 1t and make use of Is hers. But to
! my mind the first great move to be made to the
interest of better homo life in this country m ust
be made in the department of cookery. We
have been gazing StarwArd till our wings have
sprouteu and our plumage is as gaudy as the
peacocks. James G. Blaine was once quoted
as saying that our homes have too much Queen
| Anne front and Mary Ann back. We have made
tremendous blunder by degrading the art o
| cookery to the level of the occupation of the
hod-carrier or the chimney sweep, and we
must rectify our mistakes. We eat to live
The first cry OF a healthy child is for food and
II 1t Is not soon furnished the little stranger
commences to devour its fingers and thumbs.
We eat twice the quantity OF food necessary
for the reason tnat it is unsatisfactory pre-
pared and the stomach is not nourished by it
At the close of the nineteenth century in thi.
country we know less of the chemical analysis
of food and the best manner of preparing 1t fol
assimilation in the human stomach than we dc
of the manufacture and effect of poisons. The
rank, unsavory odor from thousands of kitch
ems where all hygienic rules are broken swell
to heaven daily, and should be offered as burn
incense for transgresston of law through SIM
OF ignorance. Under the head of "Householc
Economics" we can only treat OF cooking il
the home. Not q word Is to be said of tina
great horde of professionals who carry on theil
| work of slow poisoning behind green baiz,
doors In our restaurants; who mix and smothe e1
and spice and pepper and stew cir food till
the concoction is delusion and a snare, In
tended to vitiate the taste and to create de-
sire for stimulants with which to increase the
| action of organs devitalized by the want oi
properly cooked food. The lie principle which
| was in the raw material they literally cook out
! The nutritious properties OF both animal and
vegetable food too often escape during the
process of cooking through lack OF skill care
and Intelligence on the part of the cook, and
the indigestible portion only is sent to the
table.
intelligent women of the amount of response
| bllity which is placed upon the one who super
intends the cooking of the dinners, and yet 1t
Is. time to stop a moment and ask ourselves
makes choice Of teaching as profession; she
| is kept at school, The revenues of State, city
and family are taxed fer her preparation.
Another wishes to become proficient in music,
perhaps to crafty taste only. She must be
taught at home or abroad. The concentrated
| genius Of the old and new worlds must become
her inspiration, and she must be kept under
hOthouse pressure for years to accom- plish that
| much to be desired result
| Even that one who shows taste for milli-
merry or dressmaking must give years of labor
under experienced modistcs to enable her to
begin her life work. But If one shows taste