The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1909-12-23
BACK To HOME
TALK AMAZES
Lecturer Tells Women
Must Get Back to
Fireside.
GREAT WORK AWAITS

Omaha, Neb. Dec. 22.-(spl)---A bomb
was thrown into the ranks Of the wom-
ems clubs of Nebraska and the west by
Mrs. Margaret Blair, head of the domes-
tic art department of the University OF
Minnesota and who delivered a public
address here last week, while attending
the National Corn Exposition and advised
all women to get back to the home.
In her branch of work Mrs. Blair is
recognized as one of the highest authori-
ties and one of the most advanced of the
women thinkers of the country.
No lecture delivered during the exposi-
ton created such widespread discussion
and none was attended by larger audi
ence. Since its delivery it has been one
of the leading themes Of discussion in
the mems clubs, IN the women'S clubs,
on the street and in the homes.
Hardly had Mrs. Blair uttered the OPEN
ing sentence of her address before the
listeners realized that the women's clubs
were going to be put upon the spit and
roasted TO a turn, for in this sentence,
she SAID
What clubwomen have made of them
selves has been at the expense of the
home and perhaps of certain feminine
qualities that women could Ill afford to
spare"
New Science of Home Making.
Mrs. Blair stated that she had no tnten-
tion of issuing a challenge to the wom-
ems clubs of the country, adding
"If 1t is true that clubs and intellectual
activities have won women away from
the home, II is high time to bring them
back. 1t is time the home was treated
seriously as = science, since sentiment
has failed to hold il in the high place il
occupied in the days of our grandmoth-
ers. Every home is now confronted with
an army of microbes and to maintain it,
we must recognize it as a science.
I'VE cannot say that women have not
improved under the broadening influence
of club life and civic usefulness. They
have greatly improved, in stated ways
but their Improvement has been at the
expense of the home. A reaction has sci
in and the pendulum has commenced tc
swing the other way. 1t has brought
back to the home, not the woman of the
narrow ideals and limited mental re
SOURCES that 1t took away, but woman
with a clearer vision, able to see that
while she has been in pursuit of the gilt.
terlng ideal, she has left the essence Of
that ideal in her home.
Work of Real Mothers.
"The mothers and real homemakers Of
today are the most powerful and Willing
aids to educators in getting the public
schools to include household economics
in the regular grade work, but the mod
ern woman has been away from home
in the realms of intellect and even II
that of politics, and certainly In that o.
reform. But now she begins to show
signs of coming back home with a re-
alization of it as aNplace for exercising
her highest facilities The result of hel
journey is a science of housekeeping IL
which girls can be schooled from thu
kindergarten to the college.
The seven ages of woman have beer
definitely changed, for now she is al
young at 40 as she used to be at 25 years
and she does not begin to change he
scheme in clothes until nature gives he
a broad hint in the way Of gray hair
If her complexion and hair do not change
she keeps right on wearing the san'
colors that became her in her youth
modifying somewhat the lines and cutting
off the frills so that these may not inter
fere with the dignity of her point o
view.
Living is more complex than it wa
half century ago and 1t demands
more facile technique. Long ago tn
women had plenty of time to master tn
science of homemaking by hard expert
ence methods. Now life is too rich ant
among which homemaking is still para
mount, must be learned as one is grow
ing up. After q girl has been GRADUATED
from school or college she has man!
other things to do and cannot devote he
time as her grandmother did to master
ing the details of the kitchen and th
other arts and sciences that come unde
the head of household economics. 1t 4
an impossibility that has created tn
modern home.
''When the American serving maid en-
teTs house, the real home is quite ap
to fly out of the window. And why? Sh
is looked down upon as a rule and de
serves to be. But where again does tn
fault lie? IL the cook personalIy-but a
cook-we shall be sure-sooner or later
to confuse the office with the person anC
the outcome will be that we will despis
the cook. We may even like the cool
personally, but as cook we shall despis,
her as a cook, we shall not concede he
"A personality. This disease has spreaC
its virus through practically all classes.