South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-05-18
Some Lessons From
German Housewives
Garbage Can in Germany Al
most an Ornament So
Little Is It Used.

We quote the following from Mabel
Potter Daggetts article in Pictorial
Review for June. 1915. on the econ
omy of the German housewife. OF
the ordinary american household she
SAYS:
From Mrs AS apartment comes
the tail end of the pOrterhOuse steak
they had for dinner Tt might have
been turned into al delicious meat dish
for another day. But Mrs. A says
eve never bother. Lies too short
for such economies From Mrs. BIS
apartment comes "a whole loaf of
bread Probably it is a little stale,
but il would have made all the better
toast or bread dUmplings for that
Mrs has put on q dinlng-rOom chair
because the leg is broken, and it sim
ply has not occurred TO her 10 have
it mendcd. Like that bureaus and
brass beds and hair mattresses find
their way to the refuse dumps i'm New
York and Chicago. Mrs ID has sent
down half bottle Of cream that has
s0ured The recipes in her cook book
all say baking-pO>vder and she doesn't
know any better than that From
Mrs. Els apartment, the pail is crown
ed with at least "a pint Of custard and
half a planked snad and three toma-
toes. It was easier than to find a
zee box. And it's never going TO be
missed by Mrs. Z herself. least of all
1t is Mrs. Els proud boast that she
herself never crosses the kitchen
threshold. 81 just leave everything 10
my maid" she SAYS Ida is such a
treasure" And now my whistle is
blowing. DO YOU know that Jean. my
maid. is calling down to the janitor:
You needn't stop at the third floor "
70 or- INV
We're not using the garbage pail as
much as we did. Now there is one
inhoXible rule in my kitchen: Moth
ing shall be discarded until it can
pass the test. What would Rosika do
with this % And usually there's
something that she would do. L
haven't reached her advanced stage
of efficiency yet But j am holding
fast to the ideal
At the Won Hoffmann's house the
garbake pail is SO seldom reQuisitiOn-
ed. that it's almost q. kitchen orna-
ment. And it ,sn't their house only
It's so all over Germany. All the gar
bage pals 1 saw always looked shin
ing and new They are at least a
third smaller than ours. and at that,
there's seldom much in them. Again
and again ! looked. And there would
be only a little waste paper, the
sweepings from the kitchen floor and
perhaps a painful of fine dust all that
is left of the ashes after the burning
Of the pressed briQuettes they use in
the stove. Puzzled. over and over ]
asked, But where is everything
else?"
never did find out until I saw
for myself i'm Rosika's kitchen The
potatoes had been peeled for dinner
only not as we would peel them in
America. They had been, as it were,
carefully sculptured out of their
skins, leaving them perfectly round
and smooth, with not an angle where
@ careless knife had slipped too deep
Those Feelings lay in the pan as thin
as shavings Then Fraulein was fix
ing the lettuce. There We're three or
four damaged leaves but they were
not therefore thrown away. Only the
bruised place was carefully cut from
each leaf. and these small fragments
were added to the pan of potato
Feelings. After dinner, the plates
from the table were scraped into the
same pan. I remember seeing on top
the strawberry hulls that were left
from the dessert I think that was
all that went into the pan. A bone
from the roast. a spoonful of peas,
a carrot and two stalks Of asparagus
that remained from the vegetables, l
know went into the Spiesekammer TO
be kept for soup for tOmorrOW's din
ner 1t was an hour later. and we
were in the garden drinking coffee in
the gemutlich Ecke. the quiet corner
which every German garden has
with a table and before it a bench
and always three chair Here a pink
hawthorne tree hung its lowering
fragrance above us, and we were all
hedged about with jasmine Between
sips of her coffee. Rosika sewed. She
was making some nightshirts for Herr
Won Hoffman, and they were finish
ed now. all but the initials in cross
stitched red embroidery that she was
putting on.