Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1896-02-24
In the Kitchen.

Not mother folding up my things!
Pail Mall Gazette.
In the Kitchen.
While almost universally taking a back
seat in household architecture, the kitch-
en- is an important feature Of domestic
life. Like all other features, these are
sometimes handsome, and sometimes
ugly; sometimes meat as pin," and
sometimes not so neat as great many
pins. The dining room does not always
know what is going on in the Kitchen.
If it did good digestion would often rot
wait a great while on appetite. 1t would
digest at once.
Cooking is generally done in the kitch-
en-, and the kitchen odor often penetrates
through the doorways to the dining
room into the parlor, music room and
library, and even out to the front piazza
The cook is generally the reigning
queen of the kitchen, now and then al
lowing the second girl to enter. her
domain if she will mind her own BUSH
ness'' and not tell tales upstairs. Dishes
are washed in the kitchen, and when the
mistress does her own work" there are
not so many dishes to wash nor so many
to be "nicked'' as when Bridget presides
at the kitchen sink, after meal times. :,
Where there is no laundry, washing ana
ironing are done in the kitchen. then
relieve the other part of the house OF the
fragrance that went through 1t about the
time that dinner was ready.
And, again, it is here that the runners
for the grocery stores, meat and hsh
markets, farm and garden truckmen,
fruit dealers, berry pickers and lramps,
like to sit down and talk it over,' either
with the kitchen maid or the mistress,
but seldom with the ''old man Of the
house."
Here the plumber rests his kit Of tools
and waits" while he sends his assist
anti back to the shop for forgotten
soldering iron, and endeayors to tide
things over while the boy is gone by
holding interesting conversation With
whoever may be present, such as sug-
costing that there would not be so much
work for plumbers IF folks were not so
awful careless" or only knew just when
and where to turn the water Off, to
keep it from freezing.
Here the glass put in man asks for
a little space on the kitchen ia bic, where
he may ''work his putty" here the coal
man, on his way down cellar to open the
window over the coal bin. makes tracks
on the kitchen floor, which has just been
''mopped up" here the next door neigh
Dor. who "don't feel quite we'll enough
acquainted'' to ring the bell at the front
door, 'runs i'm with shawl oyer her
shoulders, ostensibly to be neighborly,
but after ali to find out what the family
are to have for dinner, or to learn about
what "Susan Jane is to wear to the
party tonight" Mayhap to gossip about
the last engagement, the trouble IN the
church, and last, IT not least, to hnd
out what is thought about that awful
scandal in which the neighbor, across the
street, is said to be deeply interested.
Here is where the slattern makes sad
havoc with household utensils and is
Wasteful of supplies, and where the tidy
and competent maid treads the path of
duty to the JOY and comfort of the whole
household.
Here is where the mistress comes to
count the cost of daily living. and finds
it such hard work to make her "calcu-
lations" and the financial outcome
dwell together in unity" comforting
herself with the fervent ejaculation Of,
Well don't see how | could possibly
be any more economical than | have
BEEN" and then sits down to doZe and
dream of another world, where meat,
fish and vegetables may be had with
out money and without price"
Here is where the Observation-Disclosures. if
from the old country, crosses herself,
counts her beads and says her prayers
with an abiding faith. at once comfort
ing and soul satisfying; if from the
Sunny South, opens a flood of delici-
Gus music" from an unwritten roper
lOA1 & v al ms 1iOll1 tICotA0 1-OfC1 VI Wy
SOUP to the air of Lucy l.''-beau-
tiful and appropriate by the way-and
Roll Jordan, Roll" etc.
The drawing room may be kept in Gap
ple-pie order" without the other house
hold departments. and so may the Ii
brary, sitting room. music room and
sleeping rooms. the dining room alone
excepted, but al are dependent on the
kitchen, and there hangs the key that
unlocks the door of the household ma
chine, and sets in motion the intricate
machinery Of household weIl-being AS
runs the kitchen so well or i'll runs on
the daily life of the household.
The sitting room can be made to do
duty as a parlor. The library as a mu-
sic room. A drapery-hidden corner of
the second floor hall as a bathroom. A
chamber with 2 folding, turn-down or
sofa bed for a sitting room, sleeping
room, smoking room or reading room.
But kitchen, however metamorphosed,
will be. must be. and cannot be other
wise, than a kitchen still. These consid-
erations mark out the kitchen. in the
plan OF household SALVATION as the most
important room in the domestic economy
of hOme-making-A Household Pro
wider III Good Housekeeping.
National Chara cteristics of the Attire of