Oxford Democrat., 1911-09-26
Dress. Diet and Debt.

indignant IN DIS llIetlmo tnat tneso tuIoo
problems were not included In the
"Political Economy Studies" OF Oxford
and Cambridge Universities, he surely
would have protested against their rs
suming a collegiate importance ont OF
all proportion to their academic value.
There is no surer sign that tho School
and the State are taking the place OF the
Home aud Parents than that such SUD-
jects are now treated outside OF the
Home and of the confines OF common
sense. Surely there are too many ideal
values in education, to be balanced
against industrial training, for these
home virtues to be awarded 60 much
space and time. The low tuition fees In
private, special schools of cookery and
household arts and the many free philan-
thropic classes In these subjects are,
meanwhile, Offering large opportunities
for thorough training In housewifery.
And thus, because there are thousands
of homes unfit to take the place OF
guides and mentors and because each
one of us must dress and eat without
getting into debt, We rejoice that chill
dren are taught to sew and cook BY ex-
pert teachers and that in due time an ex-
cellent heredity will take the place OF
specialization. 1t is the unseen handing
down through Inheritance OF personal
skill in making bows or biscuits that
best justifies the number Of hours given
to these subjects In public schools. Still
an old New Englander will always be-
lieve that no bread is equal to her moth
er's and a French woman that no other
nation than hers can originate such tasty
knick-knacks In dress.
Yet to elevate dress above Its me-
chanics we have to get beyond its pass.
ing phases into Its eternal verities and
then, having individualized IL for our
many separate selves, to make perma-
nent, each for herself, her own style.
Just because We do not dare to wear
what is most becoming, II 1t chances to
be against the decree Of the moment, a
Merry Widow hat to-day and Quaker
Girl bonnet tomorrow, without regard
"to the tilt of noses," we adopt fashion
and lose ourselves. Thus above the art
of sewing rises love of beauty, gained
from noble study of noble lives and
pictures, until the art sense dominates
our lives, however limited may be our
means to attain unto the beautiful, for
which not money but heart and taste are
most needed.
1t is in this manner that many of our
schools are doing far reaching work
through instruction In dressmsking.
Girls are learning to design as we'll a.
to sew. Or II the bizarre is ooncocted,
the indulgent smile of the teacher, car
ing for simplicity of line and for har-
mony In color, corrects the pupils vaga-
ries in taste. Alas, for them, II the
teacher is bent on originality!
And that clothes make for character
is true from prison stripes to the gar
ments Of the hostess who gave away her
most becoming dress, since she found 1t
really impossible to behave quite nicely
In it,"
Diet, from fads to decorated foods
along the lines of nutrition, looms up
and Is actuslized, all that culinary taste
and science, hygiene, wealth and
economy can devise. Fortunate again
for the future is 1t that cookery has be-
come a common every day branch OF In
struction, though the babies Of our play
grounds and alleys still show how much
remains to be acquired. We are learn.
ing to respect our digestive powers and
to adapt ourselves to their demands just
as we do to the inexorableness of our
household machines. There is no profit
in getting angry with our sewing ma
chine nor with our diet. That the Prus-
sian general, Bismarck, could eat fifteen
plover eggs and hundred and seventy
oysters at single meal does not dis
prove the need of moderation 10 appetite.
Yet 30 strong is the craving for good
things to eat that the earliest forms of
children's selfishness are often seen In
regard to cake and candy.
Perchance, 1t was not always so, for
the story goes, that certain grandfa-
ther, when asked at q family dinner II
be liked the chickens wing, replied, II
have never tasted 1t. When / was q
youngster 1t went to our parents. to-day
1t goes to our children"
Food and Its preparation are as good
tests of national as Of individual charac-
ter. The total cost of the first Inde-
pendence Day dinner, July 4, 1776, par
taken of by General Washington and bis
staff, was, excluding wines, one pound,
thirteen sbillings, eleven pence. The
yellowed records of the Treasury depart
ment give the menu "a "Loyn of veal
roasting piece of beef; cabbage, beets
and beans; peas; potatoes; blackfish
and lobster"
Curious Is it that the Anglo Saxons,
who, being Chiefly dependent upon vege-
table diet, gave the names to our bread,
peas, beans, eggs, and called their living
animals oxen,' calves, sheep, pigs, deer,
found that the flesh of those animals,
when prepared for the tables of the Nor
man castles, was designated by Anglo
Norman names, such as beef, veal, NUT.
ton, pork, venison. The Norman names
without the Norman appetite still re-
main and our diet is, after all, but varia-
tions for the better on those of our an.
cestors.
And as for debt, q problem Ruskin
would have had colleges solve, its per-
sonal solution would not be so difficult,
IL we limited our wants to our means.
1t is improvidence and recklessness, the
desire to Ego 1t one better" than some
body else, which is the cause of most
uoUt. IL 10 tuo WOoh CuNoity Va iOouo w
others, when one has family of ones
own to support. 1t Is too early mar
riages because one has neither the
patience nor the energy to wait. Never
borrow; never buy on the installment
plan, go without instead; never treat II
one has to 60 into debt for 1t or to de-
prive ones own family Of their rights
incur no obligations which one cannot
fulfill and do not rely too much upon
health as an asset in paying back, since
the sense of indebtedness weakens
strength. or course there are exceptions
to all rules saving. only, that the best
rule for ones self should be the ines
capable one Of never to run into debt.
Ruskin was wise, after all, In bis sc.
lection of bis three DIS, for It is extrsvs-
gance in dress and diet that brings on
debt, a devitalizing, narrowing process.
Without debt and with plain food and
simple, pretty dressing, the "Gospel OF
Spring" is ever with us, as the ethics oi
dress and diet prevent the burden oi
debt. Then docs tho reserve power that
we all desire grow within us - We apply
sturdy, logical common sense to oui
imsginstions and desires.