Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1899-01-26
THE CITIZEN.
HOUSEHOLD THEORIES.
Scientific Knowledge Is Not as Nnlu-
able as Practical Expert
ence.

There is nothing in the world easier
than to lay out the work of other pso-
pie Systematically, according to set
rules and method, and there are
great many people who foolishly en-
ploy themselves in this manner to the
neglect of that work which has been
given them to do on their own account.
1t is doubtful if the world was ever
benefited mueh by the theories of peo-
pie without practical experience to
guide them.
The woman who has never cooked,
who has never catered to the needs of
Il family, cannot teach cooking TO
others or give lessons in household
economy which will be of practical
value. All the knowledge of chemistry
and of physiology that can be learned
is not worth the practical experience
of one intelligent woman who has
toiled successfully, however humbly,
in her kitchen, solving these problems.
Invaluable as science is in solving the
problems of the household, its chief
value is as an assistant to practical ex-
perience. The good sense and instinct
of true motherhood, when guided by
experience, have proved far less falli-
BILE method of dealing with household
problems than science has yet given
us. There are reasons for this. If men
and women were machines 1t would
be quite possible to serve their needs
by exact methods. Households are
composed of. individuals, sensate be-
nd nnndl-
tions often vary infinitely from each
other. The problem of each household
is to meet these individual needs, and
it must be forever a problem which
must be solved individually. Science
deals only with the average man, and
fails to touch the needs of some individ-
uals. What is proved to be the correct
food for the average man may be some
exceptional mans poison. 1t has been
repeatedly proved that established the
ories of food must be abandoned before
practical experience in individual cases.
There are persons to whom strawber-
ries are poisonous, and others who hnd
wholesome meat, and even milk, ma
ture's so-called universal food" indi-
gestible All household problems,
like the problem of food, are
also more or less individual ones.
1t depends largely upon the moth
er of the family to decide what
is best for her own. She knows by long
experience the individual needs of each
child. She remembers that this one has
a delicate throat, another, perhaps,
weak digestion. 1t is the fact that she
treats her family and selects their food
from her knowledge of their individu-
ality that will always render the home
table superior to that of hotel. The
home table may be plain one, but love
guides the caterer and dictates the ex-
penditures. 1t is arranged to suit the
needs of the individual family, not on
any set theory. 1t is for that reason it
is the most delightful ard most whole
some table in the world.
One shudders involuntarily over the
physical degradation of family fed
by theory, each day on just the correct
scientific allowance of proteids,
starches and fats, as at the thought of
the table of the young bride of the
comic song, who cooked food by chem
ical formulae." Men are not willing to
be treated like machines in a matter
SO vital and so individual, though there
are a great many well-intentioned peo-
pie who are forever attempting to solve
the problems of home by some rule
that will apply to all, The fact is be-
coming more and more apparent, after
years of foolish experiment to the
contrary, that men and women are un-
willing to give up the individuality OF
home to meet any theory of what is
best for them. The day is further away
than ever when they will be willing to
be fed, housed and clothed on any
cheap universal plan.-N. Y. Tribune.