The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-08-27
The inexperienced Housekeeper.

the matter, and that Is the ignorance, or,
to phrase 1t more acceptably. the inex-
perience. OF the young housekeeper. She
has made all sorts of rosy plans as to
how she will keep house. Everything il
to be perfection, from the arrangement
of the rooms down to the set of the
maids caps and aprons. Such things
inefficient help, the annoyances of care
less and dilatory tradesmen, the spasm
of anxiety which the arrival Of the unex-
pected guest frequently arouses. all of
these unknown terrors, and do not
enter into her calculations Of things.
And then the cook books, which she
ponders and studies SO earnestly, are not
always Ineligible, anu the helps TO
young housekeepers seem to take IL for
granted that she has already stocked her
kitchen with all of the most approved
and up-to-date requirements and aids to
scientific housekeeping, without mention
ing any of them as a list, but merely re-
ferring to such-a-thing incidentally when
occasion offers.
The advice of peer of England. when
addressing the graduating class In one OF
the many schools In England that lit out
girls to become teachers OF domestic
Economy" might well be taken to heart
by many of our writer's upon the same
subject. The learned lord-who Ii seems
has a keen sense of humor and an In
telligent appreciation Of the practical APP
plication of things-advfsed his listeners
never to use word or a phrase either I'm
speaking In writing which the most
ignorant in the audience could not fully
understand.
Always address your remarks to the
most ignorant one" he said. and then
the more intelligent ones viii not fail of
understanding as well. Make your Ian
guage as simple lossible: your direc-
lions plain but terse, and never use a big
word where a small one will do just as
we'll Remember that sodium bicarbonate
Is an unknown quantity to your hearers.
although entirely ineligible to you. and
that If you mention 1t as baking soda
there will be no fear of mistake 1 re-
member hearing C ountry clergyman.
whose parish covered n vast area, tell
comicaI tale one time about one OF his
far-of parishioners. The good mans reg
ular visit was due at a certain date, and
on this occasion 1t fell to the lot OF an
elderly woman who had two daughters at
boarding school to entertain the pastor.
Being simple, quiet country folk, with
very limited menage, the visit Of the par
son was quite event, and many were
the preparations made In his noDOf.
Among others was the baking OF an elab-
crate cake for Sunday evenings tea.
Well, that cake was the queerest COM
pound tAr parson had ever swallowed It
tasted as though Rochelle salts had gone
into its composition In place Of the usual
sweetening. Not until his next visit.
some six months later. did the secret
come out. The recipe for the cake,
clipped from one Of the innumerable
young ladies' journals that England de-
lights in. placed SO much ''soda bicarb."
among the ingredients. The good lady
and her elderly cook puzzled over this
to them there were but two kinds OF soda,
baking and washing-and finally decided
that it must mean washing soda, for X Il
meant baking soda, why, IL would have
said sol And so the washing soda was
toilsomely ground up to a fine powder
and distributed In generous quantity
through the cake mixture as a Ieavening
agent"
II many of the writer's and lecturers
upon household science would but rernern-
Der the days when they, too, were all too
ignorant-aIbeit willing to le1rn-of the
mysteries of housekeeping, and pat their
observa tons into simpler language. dis
miss techuicaIifies and aim their remarks
at the most ignorant their audience would
discover many things the solution of
which IS just now a problem and
mystery.