Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-04-29
HATS OFF 70 THE KITCHEN LADY.

A Mason City advertiser not long
since asked thru the local papers for
a lady to assist. in housework. Thu
DEBORAH Republican comewhat OBJ
jected to the term as applied to the
kitchen. Whereupon the Howard
County Times read a neat little lecture
on the lady in the kitchen and appealed
for the dignity due to kitchen labor.
The Times would properly have cooking
included in the c~urriculums OF schools
and make diplomas Of proficiency In
housekeeping Of the requisites of
graduation. 1t thinks homes might thus
be made happier and q recognition OF
the Kitchen lady" in polite society
might follow as u natural result.
The Republican and the Times are
both right, the one in decrying the
slipshod and ridiculous use OF the term
lady the other in support OF the
dignity OF housekeeping. Under the
present significance of the word there
should be no kitchen ladies tho there
may be and are many true ladies in
the kitchen. The old Saxon lady or
loaf giver might have been a kitchen
lady. The hireti girl, as an employee,
has no more right to the term than the
hired man who sells his services out
doors to the same employer has to the
title OF gentleman. The right to either
|appellation is not inherent but acquired.
Gentlemen and ladies are not the pro-
duct ofsNerbal whitewash. The hired
man and the hired girl may be and Of
ten are finer gentlemen or truer ladies
than their employers. but they have
no right to such designation until they
have earned 1t.
To speak OF salesladies, kitchen la
dies or wash ladies is to perpetrate an
atrocity upon the English language and
commit an offense against good taste
and sense. We do not hear of sales
gentlemen or blacksmith gentlemen or
gentlemen" OF any trade or profession.
The plain horse sense of the average
male worker would resent the silly APP
pellation and laugh it to death in a day.
The common desire OF the American
girl or woman to be held in as high
respect than any other is largely re-
sponsible for this asinine use OF the
term lady as applied p~romiscuously and
without Judgment or meaning. The
Republican is all right IN the lady"
idea.
But the Times appeal for proper re-
spect to be paid to kitchen labor is both
timely and sensible. A capable cook is
the Industrial equal of any artisan of
whatever trade. Her work, well done,
is the foundation OF endeavor. She
holds the world at her mercy. The pen
and the palette alike flourish or fade
as the cuisine wakes or wanes. Ma
tons may be judged by their food more
accurately than by their literature.
Whoever said '1et me make the songs
of a nation and l will predict it's flu
ture" might better have said .let me
select the looks"
Science and sour bread are antonyms.
Cold soups and charred roasts tune
no Tyres and carve no immortal shapes
in marble. Edison with a BAD cook
drops to the level of Darius Green. 1t
lis an added marvel to the %wondrous abil-
ity OF the great Greek that he conceived
the Iliad on a diet of goats milk
cheese. Welsh rarebits and Dutch sup
pers worm their way into law, litera-
ture and theology. Cooks make con-
crosses and dyspeptic statesmen coun-
sci war. The Kitchen range is Pam
dora's box and the cook is Pandora
herself. The insistence of the Times