The Savannah morning news., 1903-11-29
A GOOD WORD FOR
AMERICAN WOMEN.

invariably bring against the American
woman, says Dorothy Dix in the New
Orleans Picayune, is that she is not
domestic. They point with pride to
the German haus-frau who tolls from
morning until night among her pots
and pans, and whose work is never
done They hold up as an example the
British matron of the middle class who.
from the time she is married until the
day she dies, never has a thought be-
yond bread and butter; and even to the
French woman, whose whole horizon
is bounded by her hons. Now, this"
they cry, lis the real thing! Here you
see the domestic virtues in their most
splendid effulgence, not among Amer
lean women, who are forever gadding
around to clubs and travelling about
from place to place"
No one would for a moment dispar-
age the women of other nations. They
are indeed, admirable housekeepers,
but an honest investigation will show
that they possess no good qualities that
are possessed by American women.
The proof of the pudding, according to
the ola aQdSe5 Is III Cne eating, and
certainly the test of good housekeeping
is in the skill with which a woman
administers the affairs of the home so
as to make it a comfortable place in
which to eat and sleep and rest. Judged
by this standard, in what country do
you find homes so universally attrac-
tive, bearing such evidences of taste
and thought and culture as in Amer
lea? In what other country do you
find the tables of people in moderate
circumstances so well spread? More
than that, where else do you find homes
in which so much intelligent consider
alton has been given to sanitary condi-
tons?
All of this is the work of the Amer
lean woman. Her house is just as clean
as the British matron's; her family is
just as well looked after as the Ger
man haus-frau's; her food is just as
we'll cooked as the French housekeep-
er's, and if she can do all that they can
do, and still have time to spare to be-
long to clubs and travel, and take an
intelligent interest in affairs outside of
her home, it does not prove her a less
good manager, but better one. No
one will contend that there is any merit
in spending six hours in doing a job
if it can be equally well done in one
hour and it is precisely here that the
American WomanS ability asserts it.
self.
She is as good a housekeeper as the
woman of any other nation, but I'M
like most of the women of other ma
lions, she has not permitted herself to
become a household drudge To this
end she has been quick to adopt every
labor-saVing device, and no other wom-
an has so many house conveniences
Compare, if you please, her gas range
with the archaic cooking devices that
still prevail in most English homes
and you have no difficulty in seeing
why the English woman has to be do
nestle twelve hours a day, while the
American woman need only give a
couple of hours to preparing the food
for her family, and is free to devote
the balance of her time to literature or
art, or anything she pleases. Nor is
this all. The American woman not
only gets through her work quickly,
but she actually does more than the
foreign woman of the same social
grade. In middle class homes abroad
bread is seldom or never made and
even the roasting of chickens or NUT
ton and beef is done at the nearest
DakeShOp. Cakes and tartS come from
the same source. The German haus-
frau sends out for the sausage and
sliced ham for her lunch or supper, and
dozens of things that are bought al
ready prepared, that the American
housekeeper invariably cooks herself.
AS to her children, the American
mother's only fault is that she is too
tender a mother. No other children in
the world are so guarded, so carefully
nurtured, and so considered in body and
IN mind. Nowhere else will you find
great masses of women who are MAX
Ing. thorough study of hygiene in or
der that they may know how to safe
guard their children's health, and who
assemble together in great conventions
10 discuss the best methods of develop
hno rtG md lC hot
IN their care. Intelligent motherhood
mas reached its highest plane among
american women, and if any foreigner
doubts this, he is referred to the fact
mat this is the land of the sterilizer
and the patent baby food, and that no.
where else is science called in so fire.
quently to remedy the misfortune and
defects of nature.
Millions of sickly babies that would
pe permitted to die elsewhere are
saved every year by the intelligent de-
Notion of their American mothers; mill
mons of little club-footed children that
in other countries would be allowed to
grow up deformed have their limbs
Strengthened and made whole; thou
sands of feeble-minded children are
sent to special schools where their one
GUNNER of intelligence is famed into
NE; millions of children who have
ugly teeth or f1oppy ears or some other
little personal blemiSh that would
make them ugly, have their defects
cured because heaven has blessed
them with an American mother who
mad enterprise enough to remedy her
children's defects, instead of having a
FRENCH, or German, or English moth
er who would sit down and lament the
mysterious dispensation of Providence
IN sending such an affliction upon her
offspring.
one comedies that as a wife the
american woman is not so subservient
as her European sister. AS a clinging
vine 1t is probable that the women of
every other nation could give her
POINTS. Indeed, as a matter of fact,
the American Womans ideal of a per-
Iect Wife Is not so much a vine as a
prop She feels that she can help the
man she loves more by bracing him up
man she can by hanging like a mill
stone about his neck. She is his COM
panlon, interested in his schemes SYM
palmetto with his ambitions, and equal
ready to help him make his fortnue
or TO spend it. In the days of prosper
lty she knows how to dress like a
queen, and to entertain and to do her
husband credit wherever she goes. 1t