The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-21

And the work of the last year has
been so successful that it encourages
! greater effort in the future. We see
no reason why Savannah shouldn't
have a population of more than 100, 900
| and wealth double what she has now
when the next census is taken, and
this, we venture to say, is a conserva-
tive estimate. The people seem to have
got together at last, and are working
enthusiastically and intelligently for
! the city's upbuilding. This fact, to-
| gether with the city's natural advan-
| tages, cannot help being productive of
satisfying results.
THE PASSING OF THE HOUSEWIFE.
Whether or not it be true that the
| good old days so often lamented by
moralizing middleage were really much
superior to ours and things did go bet
ter before our time, it is unquestion-
able that certain types, dear to the
| lover of tradition, are, under the pres
sure of modern social conditions, pass
| ing away. The parental roof-tree, be-
meath which generation after genera
| ton was once nourished, has become
thing of the past, and, in it's stead,
we have the modern fat with all the
| circumstances and products it's ex-
| igencies demand. It is a mode of life
becoming alarmingIy prevalent, and
threatening to submerge, under its
| system of ease and economy, that
broader life of the home bequeathed
to us with patriarchal traditions.
Our domestic bliss is no longer ruled
| over by a queen of law and order,
with household motions light and free
and steps of virgin liberty" but by a
stern and forbidding janitor, to whom
we represent nothing more than law
full revenue.
Wanderers from house to house on
| moving-day, we are fast losing the
ideal of a permanent home. We are
like certain little birds that short
sightedly build their nests under the
hood of the city's lights. deceived by
! their nocturnal brightness, instead OF
under the secure caves of an enduring
dwelling-p 1.-The trees of the Lord
are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon.
which he hath planted; where the birds
make their nests saith the proverb.
Foolish sparrows! that choose rather
dweIling-place, brilliant by night,
from which the ruthless hand of man
tears them down in the morning sun
shine!
The latest development in co-opera-
tive housekeeping is the central kitch-
| en-, a labor-saving machine by which
a dozen or more families, living in one
building or neighborhood, are supplied
from general center with the neces-
saries Of life in the shape of three meals
a day cooked and served at their own
! tables. Economic issues, the hurry of
| modern life, the increase of a luxurious
habit, the ever-deepening problem of
what we shall eat and wherewithal we
shall be clothed, are responsible for
| these altered conditions. With the
change in the exterior mode of life
has come a change more subtle and
| invidious. The housewife is passing
away. The gentle art of housekeep-
ing is dying out among us. Even
among those living in their own homes
in the good old-fashioned way, it is
| not uncommon to hear young house
keepers say, "Oh. my cook does all
the marketing and providing. She
knows a great deal more about it than
l do and is much more economical"
In many other cases, a large part of
the marketing is done over the tele-
| phone, and that nice discrimination in
the selection of meats and the choice of
vegetables, which is a joy to the true
| housekeeper, is left TO the taste and
integrity of the marketman.
There is only one gratifying fact in
| this subversion of ideals, and that is
! that the character of cooks and of
marketmen have so far advanced over
our common humanity that they may
be depended upon to place others in
| terests above their own. But If it be
true that cooks know more than their
mistresses, let us cry shame upon those
mistresses who do not quickly set
about putting this lamentable matter
to rights. They are surely not made
quate to the task Of learning what their
cooks have learned before them. Let
them. like the valiant woman of the
Scriptures look well to the ways of
their household. and eat not the bread
of idleness.
1t is woman's art. some modern
writer has said. to put soul into ma
terial things. The Offices of the house.
the provision of its larder the cookery.
and the ordering Of its service at table.
are typical of life itself. and are none
beneath her dignity. For economic rea-
sons alone, so potent a factor in to-
days home life, they are worthy of her
deepest study and best intellect on
the ideal side. they represent, done by
her hands in joyful service, much thar
can never be replaced by what Words
worth, the apostle of ideal womanhood.
scornfully calls, the mean handy
work of craftsman. cook, or groom. -
To the poet, as well as to the preacher.
lovely women is never lovelier than
when she puts her hands into the
dough. To know how to cook a dinner
as well as to order IT, to be able to do
with ones own hands what one de-
mands OF others. TO be fitted 70 direct