The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-11-10

Rich Women Rarely Know How Food
Is Kept, Says Il MatrOn.
(From the New York TribuneD

(From the New York TribuneD
when DIR. Harvey w. Wiley refer
red to housewives recently as Lucreiia
Eorgias no duobt his words reached
few of the ears for which they were
! intended, and of those who did read
his remarks probably few would have
| pleaded guilty" said matrOn recent
| ly who carries out in her own home
all the up. tO-date ideas on housekeep-
! ing. Least Of ALL she continued,
| would the woman of wealth imagine
that she could be in any way concern
ed with the facts mentioned She pays
the highest wages to her cook, her
scullery maid has splendid references
and her waitress is a treasure. Why
should she suspect any of these func-
tionares Of dealing out poison to the
family? If her child should fall i'll
she would rack her brain for the
cause, and neither she nor. probably.
, the doctor would ever think Of the
icebox. The last place visited will be
blamed.
What goes on below stairs is sell
dom looked into by the mistress Of q
fashionable house. She is proud of
the wonderful, porcelain-lined icebox
which has been built into her kitchen.
but rarely does she more than glance
| into it on her occasional visits to the
| basement region. The cook cheeriIy
| replies in the aft :mratiye to the cues
| ton, DO you keep your icebox cleano'
and there the matter drops.
Yet it is moral certainty that the
| lceboX is not emptied of all it's con-
| 'ents twice week and scrubbed out:
neither are the racks we'll dried b.
fore being put back. 1t is SAT. to as
sumo, furthermore. that meat is re-.
ceiVed which is not absolutely fresh,
| Tor there Is pact between the butch.
er and the cook, and that meat
is put in the icebox, tanting the air,
which is in turn absorbed by the milk.
1t is quite possible, too, that ice chop
ped for the table has been taken from
a part of the block where meat has
'c'd, and rinsing in water by no means
e"adicates what it has absorbed.
| Even if there are separate iceboxeA
for fresh meat, vegetables and milk.
as there ought to be, with a separate
repository, accessible only to the wait
ress, for table ice, they may not be
uesd according to the purpose for
which they were intended. Milk is
put sooner or later in the handiest
place by even the most faithful SER
want, and from milk that has absorb
de germs Of decay come many ills in
the nursery. Many time is the milk
man changed on this account, while
the trouble is actually caused by the
placing Of the open bottles in juxta-
position with some Wand not strictly
| fresh.
These are only a fraction Of the
abuses that go in the best-run houses.
unsuspected by the mistress. And a
well-paid housekeeper does not better
conditions in the least, for housekee -
ers, though more intelligent than
cooks, are no more thorough. They
dislike to do any work that they can
evade, and to order the icebox sys-
tematically overhauled and cleaned
twice a week would mean that they
would have to stand by and see it
done.
Even when the facts are known
the average mistress refuses to believe
in their seriousness. She has never
bothered about her ice box, and moth
ing has ever happened to her, she as
serts. If she tried, however, she might
recall an instance Of an ailing child
or an adults sudden and uncomfort-
able indigestion which a neglected
icebox might have explained"