The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-10-18
d Captain
In the Ranks


II am to be woman. l must know
how to do all womanly things. If
don't know all that better than the
servants do I must always be depend
ent upon servants. think that would
be humiliating."
In the same spirit she took up such
school studies as she deemed proper to
her womanhood and only SUCH But
she gave to each a degree Of con-
science that always surprised her
teachers. She had not the gift Of learn
ing easily, but her devotion was such
that she learned thoroughly in spite of
all the difficulties.
When she was only a dozen years old
or so the little woman took upon her
self the duties of housekeeper in her
aunt's mansion and kept order there in
way that won something like local
fame for herself. 1t was not art or in
tuition or rule that inspired her. It
was temperament.
Absolute cleanliness was to her re-
ligion, and the servant who fell in the
remotest way short of that was quick
ly made to think Of herself as an un-
regenerate sinner. Absolute neatness
was another requirement which the
budding little woman insisted upon
with relentless persistence. Then
again it seemed to her that there was
no possible excuse for any cooking
short of the best.
A few years later the aunt's husband
met with misfortune and went west.
Presently he died, and Barbara's aunt
was widowed and impoverished at one
and the same time.
Then it was that Barbara rose in the
strength of her practical wisdom and
met the emergency with all of the char
acter that she had built up. Her aunt
was helpless, so Barbara took matters
into her own hands. She was nearly
twenty years old then, and her capac-
tiles as a housekeeper had ripened
through use until she felt modestly
confident of herself. Besides" she
argued, there is nobody else to do
things if don't"
She persuaded her aunt to take lit
tie house with a big sunny dining room,
and there she offered to the young
bachelors of the town-in her aunt's
name-better meals than they could
get at the pretentious hotel, and she
charged them scarcely more than half
the hotel rate.
One by one the best Of the young men
in the town were drawn to Barbara's
table until the dining room was filed.
After that any one who wished to join
the circle must put his name upon a
waiting list and bide his time till there
should be vacancy, for Barbara held
that it would be unjust to crowd pres
ent boarders in order to take new
ones, and she hated all injustice. The
waiting list was always long, for the
fame Of Barbara's table was great.
Really it was her own skill that made
her table famous. She hired a cook,
of course, after her little business be-
came prosperous, and sometimes for a
brief while she trusted to the cooks
skill. Then her conscience beset her
because the breakfasts and dinners
and suppers were not prepared in that
perfection which alone could satisfy
this conscientious little womans SOUL
"You see it isn't honest, aunty," she
would say in explanation whenever she
returned to the kitchen and gave per-
sonal attention to every detail 1--WE
are charging these young gentlemen
for their meals, and it seems to me
dishonest if we give them less than
the best that we can. They come tc
US because they have heard that we
serve the best meals that can be had
in Cairo. How mean and wrong it
would be for US to trade upon that
reputation and give them meals Of an
inferior quality! I simply can't get a
cook who will do things at their best.
and so l must do most of the cooking
myself, and then III know it is vel!
DONE"
She hired a meat handed Phyllis" in
cambria gown-Which Barbara insist
ed must be fresh and clean every day
to wait upon the table. She hired a
handy negro boy to wash dishes, scrub
and prepare vegetables under her own
direction. She did all the more impor-
tant part of the cooking herself, and
the negro boy Bob simply worshiped
the girl whom he always addressed as
Little Missile"