The Republican journal., 1898-03-10
To Cook and to Sew.
Art of Producing Healthful Food and Gar
ments Advantages Washington Schools
Afford in these Directions.


Afford in these Directions.
1.-The Lord furnishes the food and the
the cooks,' the apothegm of gen
tleman of the old school. But, as Sgan-
arelle in Molieres Mock Doctor says, ''We
have changed all that now,' and our pub
lie schools furnish the cooks. The com
ing generations will eat and be happy.
''Dyspepsa'' will be marked Obsolete
in the dictionary, and pepsin will be a
drug on the market. No more will por
terhouse steak be fried in lard (ughD sal
eratus biscuit legend of the past will be-
come and pie will be no longer night
mare. For our girls are being taught
housekeeping. And not only how to cook,
how to market, but actually how to sew
The husband of the future will find but
tons and strings in place aud frayed wrist
bands will be an evanescent dream. The
fruit for good and evil which Eve ate and
which turned bitter in her mouth is prov
ing fruit of good to her daughters who
are learning to take a useful place in life
and becu ming blessing.
In the first six grades boys and girls are
taught conculrenuy along broad lines of
culture. Not only the same books are
taught, but the same manual training.
The assimilation of hand, eye and brain is
developed. They mold the same figures,
make the same cylinders and erect the
same pyramids While the boy will grad
nate from these into a higher form of
manual training for which the lower
training fits him, none the less is such
lower training beneficial to the gll, as it
renders acute her mental faculties and
better qualities them for pursuits essenti-
ally feminine.
AT an early date the present superin-
tendent urged the Introduction of sewing
into the schools; but before it was oflici-
ally instituted, one OF the lady teachers,
now in charge of the sixth grade school,
took the matter up. She taught after
school hours such girls as cared for the
instruction and furnished them the ma
terials for practice.
Aside from the training common to the
two sexes, the girls begin in the third
grade with exercises specially suited to
their sex. Sewing as an adjunct is begun
i'll this grade. Little slips of girls of eight
or nine are being taught the delicate and
exact work which our gyandmothers did
and which is the despair of the present
generation. A thread is drawn so as to
give the guiding line, and the busy little
fingers ply the needle with back stitches
along that line. The girls are taught to
measure the stitches with their eyes, and
so well is the work done that an expert
enced eye can scarce detect the irregular
tiles, if they exist. Then they are in
structed how to fell and overseam. A
piece of goods is given each child and she
makes bag to exemplify the principles
of sewing which have been learned. In
the third, fourth and fifth grades the girls
are taught right in the school rooms, fit
ting themselves for the real dressmaking
which comes in the sixth grade. And
while the girls in the lower grades are
learning sewing, the boys draw and paint.
LESSONS IN SEWING.
Cutting and fitting are taken up in the
sixth grade, and there are five schools in
operation which are far from giving due
accommodations. The De Lamorton sys-
TEN is in use, and its simplicity and ac-
curacy commends it for young children.
Having received preliminary training in
the lower grades, the children at once
readily take hold of the system in the
sixth grade and speedily acquire it. Sew
ing, as taught in the public schools. is
eminently practical. 1t has long since
passed from the experimental stage. Girls
are being taught to make clothes SO that
either for themselves OF for others they
may furnish lalment.
Along with the plying of the needle,
tile snip OF the scissors and tue handiing
OF the tape, the girls learn many things
cognate to garment making and which en-
large their ideas. Materials in the raw
and manufactured state are shown and
explained. The origin. cultivation and
manufacture Of cloth thu cad. needle,
40 Il IL,
commerce, geography, history, manutac-
lures, each receives its due share of CON
sideration, SO that the child is Intelligent
ly receiving instruction in an eminently
practical way upon a most emnently
practical subject 1t is Il subject of vital
consequence to many homes i'll the land
that the wife and mother should be
good sempstress. Not only is the direct
teaching Of sewing valuable, but the ndi-
rect Influences which flow forth are meal
culable. The girls learn to be neat and
tidy, to take care of their clothes, mend
rips and tears, and SO learn to avoid max
ing them
The practical knowledge acquired at
school is utilized at home. The girls be-
come self-reliant and useful. Not only
do they carry home and employ there the
skill of their own, bnt they become
centers from which radiate advantages to
be given ard used by others. For lack of
facilities and pecuniary encouragement
this branch of learning is discontinued
after the sixth grade. With the benefit
which is derived, therefore, it is source
of great regret and a manifest loss to the
community that further and advanced
teaching in this line may not be had.
In the seventh and eighth grades the
girls are taught housekeeping. They are
instructed at cooking schools but they
learn far more than the mere preparation
of food for the table.
There are eighteen kitchens and
twelve teachers. The instruction includes
not merely the preparation of food for the
table, but much which fits the girls for the
duties of housekeeper. Food products,
their origin, properties, life sustaining
and nourishing qualities are all examined,
explained and appreciated. How to mar
ket, how to buy, what is best for given
conditions, what is nutritious, healthy,
economical, what is essential, what adven-
titious, what the body leeds and must
have, what may be avoided, all these
things are taught the children. With
these come the actual experience in pre-
pairing food for eating.
INTELLIGENT COOKING.
One OF the teachers told me an instance
showing the ignorance which has to be