Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-11-18

The following paper was read at the
recent meeting of the Boys Corn club
at Winthrop by Miss Maude Isles
My title was originally simply THE
Waste Places" which l hoped might
suggest to your minds talk on barren
spots in the back yard and the way to
make them blossom like the rose, or
perhaps a discourse on the utilization
of spare corners. To tell the truth, l
Intentionally chose a title which might
mslead you at first glance, for fear
you might seriously misunderstood my
real subject, and be prejudiced.
Domestic science is not entirely, as
some people think, a study of the prep
aration of food, though that is an i'm
portant division of it. AS one has de-
fined it, domestic science is concerned
with the whole business of household
MANAGEMENT" Even the paid house,
keeper does not feel that the feeding of
the family Is all of her duty. What
then are some Of the other departments
of the subject?
| Sanitation is a long word for COL
lection Of familiar processes: clean
ing-the sweeping, dusting, and wash
ing; the right airing, heating, and
lighting of rooms; the proper super
vision of the water supply, both the
fresh and the waste water, and the
disposal of refuse are the chief points
| ;oh h01Sph0l6
sanitation. There is also the aesthetic
department, in which we would study
the applying of the principles OF art
10 the coloring and furnishing OF the
| rooms of the house, for the house or
the room in which we live is in hun
dred ways at the same time display
| ing our taste or influencing our char
acter for good or i'll. The next speak
er will have much to say on this side
of the business Of household man
agement."
The other large department is that
of economies, the selecting and buy
! ing, the providing the necessities and
Injuries of the home. There are many
phases of this which we might consid-
er and | have chosen one which is at
first thought the least interesting. Let
us first firmly establish in our minds
| the fact that economy In its real mean
| ing has no relation to stinginess. In
| fact, it Is quite the opposite, for by
| true economy we have more to spend
| for the direct good or pleasure OF all.
| Nor is economy a name FOR cutting
down the cost of living to the least
possible amount, unless our income is
no larger than the least amount. Mon
ey spent for intellectual needs and for
pleasures should appear on the ac-
counts of the economical housekeeper.
Economy is simply taking care that we
spend, be the sum great or small, so
as to get the largest and best returns
| for the amount spent
Perhaps you have been listening to
| this talk about amounts" and spend
| ing" with only the idea of money In
your minds, but we can be Waste1ul
with other than money. A woman's
| time may not seem so very valuable,
but when we consider how the using
of II affects her, and through her the
rest of the household, especially the
children, we begin to raise our ideas
of it's value The son of drudge,
even though she is drudging for him,
| is started with a large handicap IN
| life Our duty to others demands that
we spend the largest possible amount
of time on enlarging or broadening
work or pleasure, so leaves us no right
| to take two hours doing a task when
could be as we'll accomplished in one.
And our strength was not given us to
waste. Students of the economics OF
society as a whole are trying to make
people realize that a foolish waste OF
strength is quite as sinful as that of
money. We ought to be more ashamed
| of an overdrawn account on our
strength than of an overdrawn bank
account. Women are especially prone
| to be needless of this consideration
perhaps because they use less sense
than men, or perhaps because they are
| less selfish and lazy. Whatever the
reason, many a woman takes hundreds
of unnecessary steps each day. Ihese
steps may be due to the fact that she
fails to plan her work and so makes
three trips between two rooms when
one might have done. Or they may
be due to the fact that her kitchen and
dining room are so far apart, with
long porch or even with part OF the
ward and steps between them. Even
with servants the housekeeper must
make many excursions to the Ktchen
daily and why should she have 1t in
conveniently placed? Perhaps all the
water used in the farm house must be
brought from a well in the yard. The
man of the household has usually ar
ranged to have the water piped to the
barn or to have it conveniently near,
but the woman makes no move to have
it convenient for her work until some
one forces 1t on her. l knew OF one
old woman who had lived her life with
out the convenience of water in the
house and who refused to use her nice
sink and tubs after the town water
was put in the house.
A home with furniture which has
many uneven surfaces may make
cleaning twice as hard as 1t should be.
Or a room with many little useless
sO-called ornaments, besides breaking
the laws of art, may help break the
health of the woman who must keep
ii clean.
1t is a fact quite well established that
we women are unprogressive and re-
luctant in the matter of new ways of
doing things, even though the new
way is manifestly an Improvement.
Haven't you found yourself clinging to
the old way of doing something in
spite of the evidently greater ease of
some other way? / have, more than
once. The shallow, fiat pan which we
may be accustomed to use for mixing
cake is really much less suitable
and harder to use than large, deep
bowl, which holds the dough more
closely together while being mixed;
but we buy the old kind when we
need new one. 1t takes at least twice
as long to beat eggs light with fork
than with Dover egg-beater. which
costs only 10 cents, but we are ac-
customed to it and take the old, long
way. 1t takes some extra time and
thought at first to learn to use the
fireless cooker, so we waste days and
weeks of our life standing stirring the
hominy to keep it from burning and
putting wasted wood on the fire to
keep it at the burning point. You
could each doubtless suggest many
other examples of reluctance on the
part of yourselves or your neighbors
to adopt a new, easier way.
In one of the magazines about a
year or two ago was an interesting
little story about some city people who
moved to the country determined to
try the simple life. With that end in
view they dispensed with the electric
lights, the carpeted floors. the polish
ed tables, etc, and bought instead the
old brass candlesticks, the deal tables,
the white ash floors, and the old fam
lily silver from a country neighbor.