The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-11-12
METHODS In HoUsEKEEp1HG.

has yet been discovered more honora-
bic or so important as housekeeping.
Let us not forget that it is in the
homes that men and women grow
and are best trained into lives of
usefulness and solid worth. The
man who provides a good house for
his family, with full and plenty Of
everything, may feel that he is the
prime factor in that establishment.
But what would all his thrift, as a
money-maker and provider, stand for,
if there was no one within doors
capable of wisely managing and dis
pensing the. means at hand? Money
making is not a virtue of itself-it is
the use that is made of it that counts.
Some people would raise better chill
dren if they had less money.
The value of a well-kept home
cannot be estimated. 6wccPiBg and
cleaning are not all Of housekeeping;
cooking and eating do not fill the en-
tire bill furnishing and entertaining
are only small fraction of it; while
music and art and literature help, but
do not make up the sum of good
housekeeping. The milliner, the
dressmaker, the typewriter, the book
keeper, the doctor and the nurse can
perfect themselves, each in their own
pursuit, and that ends it; but the
housekeeper must be professor of a
dozen or more branches, if she makes
her calling complete. The professor
in college or university reads his lee
lures, and instructs his students in
the particular branch he has dwelt on
for years, but the housekeeper must
not only theorize, but she must give
practical illustrations of the sound
ness of her system. She must work.
She must do the thing she would
teach those under her care to do.
She is In a constant warfare with
green help, or must accept that other
alternative, no help at all. The lat.
ter is the condition in which farmers
wives mostly are found. It is on
record, as fact, that only eighteen
per cent. of American families keep
one servant, and only two per cent.
keep more. So is seems to be allot-
ted to housekeepers to paddle their
own canoes, and it is the better part
of wisdom to learn to paddle them in
the easiest and most profitable way.
Too many women seem to be desti-
tute of method in their work. They
have meals when they feel like get
ting them; read in the morning and
bake in the afternoon are often
caught in the suds and all unkept
when they could, by planning and
executing at the proper time, have
been found taking a nap, or neatly
dressed and sewing or reading, or
passing the time in some tidy, pleas
ant way.
It is not the woman who seems to
be always at it who accomplishes the
s..s=t us,.sk. Il is the s,aethodical
woman who finds time for everything.
She is always in demand people go
to her for help when they come to a
hard place, and she will assist them
out of difficulty, while the woman
whose head never saves her heels, is
waking up to the situation, and get
ting ready to lend a hand.
We are putting the cart before the
horse in the training of our daughters.
Before even they have smatter-
ing of knowledge of household du-
ties we send them away from home
for high culture and polish, and
expect them to be able to preside
over their homes-if they can hood
wink men into marrying them
without either instructions or practi-
cal skill in that which is to be their
life work.
"The middle-class woman ha S
more leisure today than she ever had
before, and the question she asks her
self is, How has she improved it r
said Jane Adams. founder of the fa-
nous Hull House in Chicago, and
she proceeded to point out how it had
been used in literature and art and
benevolent work; but their e W
leisure is not bringing method and
system into the homes. Different or
ganizations have sent out questions
to ascertain what, if any standard,
existed in the conduct of domestic
affairs, the apportionment of ex-
penses, the systematizing of work
and so on, and the answers showed a
deplorable lacking in those particu-
lars. Miss Addams pertinently sug-
gested that women cease to imagine
that cultivation must begin afar off,
and improve themselves in the mat
ter of domestic regime. Ifthey would
learn that there must be art in chairs
and tables, and wall paper and bis
cults, before the higher and less use-
full branches of art can be conserv-
ed, domestic troubles would settle
themselves.
The help question has tormented
many housekeepers, bnt back of 1t all
is largely the lack of method in house
keepers themselves. While every
woman is law unto herself, and the
working girl must learn new ways in
every home she enters, she can never
be efficient. If we had some standard
in the homes, some methods of work
that all would adopt, and regular
hours for work, I believe the help
question would be solved. The fac
tory would cease to tempt girls from
the homes, and there would be some
hope of finding competent help.
Boarding schools and large institu-
tions of all sorts have to systematic
their work; they could not get along
any other way. Why could not the
private home do the samel
The crying need of the country is
for rational, national, healthful diet,
and methodicaI habits on the part OF
the members of the household. And
let this state and condition of things
,ravail No matter who comes or what