Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1904-01-29

How Group of Women Would Train
Girls For Management of Homes.
Mrs. Henrotin Declares That Pres
ent Methods Are Educating YOUNG
Women Away From Their True
sphere.
Domestic science taught in all schools
and universities attended by women.
with college degrees for managers Of
households and general recognition of
the art of providing comforts and lux
uries for the home. is tie dream o. a
group of Chicago women. says "a Chica-
go dispatch.
These ladies say they do not wish to
be looked upon as extreme propagi,n-
dists who would found conservatories
of cookery where professors of pastry
and doctors OF doughnuts would ex-
pound theories. but they do desire to
spread the doctrine that women in all
grades of life ought to be learned in
economics of the home-in the laws of
,ygiene as in the languages.
The foundation of national life, the
home. is declared to be in need of fos
tering care. The danger is said to be
greatest in the SO called educated
classes land among those who are
striving to attain a false education
which they consider higher
1T is proposed to form an association
of expert housekeepers who will take
up the question of domestic science
with public educators and enlarge the
scope of the School of Domestic Arts
and Sciences established in Chicago
4l.y
association hope then to go beyond
the confines of the city and state and
induce the great institutions ~here
feminine students go to add to their
curricula studies in chemistry of foods.
bacteriology and sanitation.
Particularly is it designed 10 save
from life of tea drinking and scandal
mongering the girl who comes out of
school. in which home management and
home occupations have found little
place. Such girl, while taught to de-
mand a reason for everything. is in
many cases intrusted with the conduct
of a household where she is given nc
reason for anything except usage. To
the mind trained in the average uni
versity such an occupation is not worth
while. 1t is too combining. and the pos
SCISSOR of it too often turns to frivolities
when she is not abusing her servants to
her neighbors.
The Chicago Woman's club as body
is championing the movement. and its
president. Mrs. Charles Henrotin. is out
spoken in her advocacy. The club de-
voted an afternoon recently to discus
sion of the subject after listening to a
paper by Mrs. Lynden Evans, who is
the head of the School of Domestic Arts
and Sciences. The fact that within the
last few years the universities of Chi
cago, Wisconsin and Michigan had be-
gun the teaching of chemistry Of foods,
bacteriology and kindred branches was
hailed as a most encouraging sign.
II think domestic science should be
taught in public and private schools"
said Mrs. Henrotin. This idea. which
was frowned upon by most educators
at first, has been gaining ground in the
/ last two years. An active educational
movement along these lines has been
/ going on in quiet way, and now it las
reached such proportions in Chicago
that it is planned to take up the propo-
4 sition with the board of education. This
4 is not fad. but a serious work along
right lines"
eve have in the United States 10
/ 100000 private homes" said Mrs Ey-
/ ans 'sIt is a safe conclusion that
4 every home must have some kind of
/ housekeeper. Add to these 100000
! housekeepers 100000 domestic work
/ ers. and we have at least 100000
women engaged in homemaking as
4 against 100000 in outside occupa-
lions. Homemaking, occupying as it
/ does 100000 women, who hold in
their hands the comfort of and health
| of so many other millions, has no place
in our census. and the future student
of these records may we'll suppose that
only 100000 out of the 24.O00.000 of
the sex were doing nothing. This labor
of maintaining a household, rearing
children and struggling with the serv-
ant problem is considered worthy of
no record. Why? Because the women
who pursue it have belittled it, have
failed to organize, classify. uplift.
"Our present educational system I'M
fits the woman for her home life by
lowering her ideal of the home. while
it does not as rule fit her for any
thing else that is useful. The absolute
incompetency of the average girl when
she first comes from school is only
fully realized by the parent who tries
to fit her into usefulness in the home
or the friend who seeks to find her en-
ployment elsewhere"