The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-04
HOUSEHOLD LABORATORY.
Happiness in the Kitchen Means
Good Cheer in the Whole House.

Good Cheer in the Whole House.
New York, Aug. 2.-As the stomach
is the laboratory of the human sys-
tenn, so is the kitchen the laboratory
of a great deal of the comfort of the
house, and if all is not we'll with it
the trouble will at once be felt
throughout the whole dwelling. With
the demands of the maids, and the
gradual but constant increase of
wages, the various panaceas of the re-
formers in domestic affairs, with such
examples as the rumored eight-hour
relays of servants in the homes of
Mrs Emmons Blaine and other wealthy
and philanthropic women, things are
in danger of reaching such point that
only the wealthy can keep servants.
It is then for the interest of every
family to make their home attractive
and comfortable for the maids, to
have the kitchen made as pleasant,
and as easy TO do work in, as conven-
fences, good-nature, good food, and
freedom from undue exactions can
make it, to have it so inviting in its
way that it will be preferred TO the
shop or any other of the various
places of employment.
The drawing room or the boudoir it
self is not more attractive than is the
kitchen of spotless floor, shining range,
white tables, bright tins and porcelains
and neat maids with cheerful faces.
But there will not be cheerful faces
there if the kitchen does not feel it
slf appreciated in the parlor, and-un-
less the establishment be on the scale
of those where earlier meals are served
expressly for the servants-does not
have its share also of the good things
of the dining room, and is not given
full share of pleasures and frequent
holidays, too.
The housekeeper who looks after the
well-being of her maids usually finds
herself rewarded by their regard in
turn for her own well-being. She needs
not be told in this age of the world
that it robs her dignity of nothing if
she takes an interest in her maids
wardrobes, in the becomingness of their
hats and jackets and four-in-hands,
in their friends and families and likes
and dislikes; If she affords them an
easy bed to sleep on, If she places toilet
articles on their wash stands to take
the stains from their poor hands, If
she gives them tickets now and then
to such entertainments as there are, if
she lets them alone at their meals and
takes pains not to interfere with their
religious observanceS, and allows them
the kitchen to themselves in the even
ings for their friends and followers.
Happiness in the kitchen means, to
a great extent, good cheer in the whole
house. "a merry heart goes all the way
YOUR sad tires in a mile-a-" The girl
who is contented, and goes singing
about her work, does twice as much
and does it twice as well, as the one
who is half-hearted and feels the world
gone wrong; she puts her honor and
conscience into it, her heart is in the
cooking, honesty in the busting and
bed-making and all the rest, and che
relieves her mistress of a hundred
cares.
1t is worth some amount of trouble
of thought and of forbearance, to bring
about this state of satisfaction in the
kitchen: and sooth to say it requires 1t.
II demands tact and good nature, also
the power to overlook trifies, the quail
ity of not expecting gratitude to be
proclaimed at every turn, and of per-
ceiying it when IL is shown in the work.
The mistress who practices these gen.
tle arts will seldom want for good SER
vice. at have heard you well recon-
mended," said an applicant for place
10 a woman whose endeavor II was to
a slave pen Perhaps the employer
smiled at the phrase; but a second
thought must have told her that she
needed Endorsement as much as the
other party and that in the wide I'M
foreground biography from kitchen to
kitchen there was little left unknown
of her own tricks and manners. 1t is
not the dependents in such houses as
hers who band against the employer
as common enemy. Save in rare in
stances of stupidity or of evil dispo-
sition, the servant in such house be-
comes an ally. treasured member OF
the family which makes her happiness,
and whose happiness she helps in
crease. coming in the lapse of time to
share the joys and sorrows of the
house. its secrets, it's sentiments and it's
condolences, beloved by the children
and leaned upon by the olders.
Harriet Prescott Spofford.