The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-25
FOR THE WOMAN In Her HOME
HELP FOR ONE ABOUT WHOM
PRECIOUS LITTLE rs SAID.

League for Home Economics Trying 10
Teach the Art OF Home Making, Q Topic
Neglected Largely Heretofore-Les
son I'm Cooking and spending Money.
'The object Of the League for Home
Economics is the preservation Of the Ameri-
can home" said the president, Mrs. Julian
Heath, when asked to talk about the work
OF the league. we hear a great deal these
days about the wage earning woman and
the economic position Of women generally,
but precious little is said about or done
for the woman in the home.
Here in New York IL a woman wants
to become a doctor or a lawyer she can
do so without paying a dollar for her train
ing. She may become a trained nurse
or an expert stenogrspher on the same
terms, or il she prefers a trade there is the
New York Trade School ready and glad
to give her instruction free.
IF, On the other hand, she wishes TO
marry and become a home maker there
is no school, to my knowledge, where she
can learn to manage her household and
spend her husbands earnings to the best
advantage without paying q fancy price
for the instruction.
ahoe 10 Jhbe tbO hhttN bios tho ACoSbo
aims to All. We teach women, the wives
and mothers Of our w~orkingmen, how to
care for their households and spend the
wages intrusted to their care to the greatest
advantage.
about the approaching marriage Of a young
man who earns only a small wage. Can
he support a family9' Yet rarely do we
A.A. A. -,,-.sszu -.s..L -. -L-sA - ~.
girl he is marrying can properly spend
his wages.
We demand that the man be fitted to
meet his obligations, but do not think it
necessary that the woman should be fitted
to meet hers. Articles are always appear
ing in the newspapers and magazines GEN.
surins the foolish expenditure OF the work.
ingman's earnings, yet next to nothing
is m TO better the condition. The only
way is to teach their wives how to spend
their husbands wages judiciously.
when you realize hat three-fourths
OF the income in the middle class and nine
tenths in the lower IL spent directly by
the mother you understand how necessary
il Is that women should learn now 20 ex-
pend IL judiciously. In these families the
husband usually brings home his weeks
earnings in an unopened envelope and
turns il over TO his wife. IL il for her TO
her family shall be housed. clothed. fed
and educated.
1T was to help the mothers Of our tene-
ments to meet existing conditions and
teach them how to make both ends meet
that the league several years ago started
as an experiment the home cooking classes.
II experiment proved a success and every
year our circle has widened until last spring
when the classes closed for the summer
there were twenty-five separate classes.
In forming these classes a tenement
house mother is found who is willing TO lend
her kitchen for the purpose OF holding a
class in IL two or three times each week.
Then other women in the neighborhood
are asked to join. Each woman a five
cents a lesson. which takes away the idea
Of it, being a charity and also partially
pays for the materials used. IL a woman can
not pay even that fee il Is omitted.
In these lessons only the utensils found
in the kitchen are used. Often a teacher
is forced to make a bottle do service for a
rolling pin and a tomato can take the
place OF a pot for stew or soup.
After the first lesson the teacher. having
learned each romans particular need,
makes her lessons as personal as possible.
The course 10 for twelve lessons and the
women are taught to cook plain dishes
and to cook vegetables and cereals.
Last year one of the most satisfactory
classes was formed on Leroy street. Il
was composed OF young married women
brought TO the class by women who had
taken the course the year before and had
been benefited. One young m in this
class while having the stove explained to
why, [ didn't know a stove had a
damper! I never baked a thing in my
life. l always get my bread from the deli
catessen store
al used to spend my time on the street,
but now l had rather remain at home,
%scrubbing and cooking and making things
look pretty. and comfortable another
member of the same class confided 20 her
teacher. Then she added in a gratiied
tone, And my husband il so much better
natured than he used 10 be. He never
stays out evenings and never comes home
drunk any more
Later in the season a class was formed
at Greenwich street. Here the kitchen
was particularly lark and small.
Zone day after the fourth lesson a woman
fingered and asked the tencher II she would
be willing to form a class in her kitchen.
She said she had a number Of friends in
her neighborhood who were anxious to
learn. and that she had entered this Green
wich street class TO make sure that her
own kitchen could accommodate a class
and that she would not be ashamed to
have people see how few cooking utensils
she Possessed. When told that a class
would he held in her kitchen provided
she could get eight or ten women to come
she went oY happy.
in this CLASS the women were older
and the appreciation expressed by the men
OF their families wa particularly crafty
ing. One man with a particular liking
for lemon pie requested that his wife be
taught to make IL. The first lesson was