Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-06-21
SHOULD HUSBANDS LEARN TO COOK?
If So Why?-An Unacadecal Dscusso-The Wife Teacher
Suggested Course Of Elementary Lessons to
Try on the Man of the House.
By PERRY BALsAM

GHoULD husbands learn to cook? This is
- not suffrage hypothesis. BY learning to
cook professionalism or even semiprofesson-
alsm is not implied. The subject of fairly
dependable household utility is broad enough.
Likewise 1t confines us to the home. Camp
fire cooks will also be barred from discussion.
The skill they attain Is purely occasional
skill, and questionable at that to say the
least. They may not pretend to neatness or
gaudness in their efforts, but that does not
let them out. Whenever they break out in
the kitchen with campfire methods some
thing happens that war correspondents would
refer to as a 'debacle.
The home-trained husband cook is the arti-
Gle, then, that we will put the tag on. He
need not be husbandette or in the merest
trifie effeminate. 1t is not to be presupposed
that he need surrender his job as bread
winner for the family The only sure skill
required of him is that he fit into emergen-
cies, be there with the right stuff in him
to substitute at odd moments and know the
kitchen and It's tools thoroughly. Just give
him the elemental principles but hammer
them deep and true. There can be no un-
certainty about him in the matter OF big lit
tie things If there is he had better be
chained to the front porch.
There is no doubt in the minds of those who
have gone into this sort of training of it's
positive benefits. While it may not solve all
the tribulations of domestic relations 1t GER
tainly softens them.
AS an initial step let us consider when this
training Should begin. Having got that far
we will go on to the do-it processes.
Some light-thinking theorists persist that the
mothers should begin the good work with
E..a.. FH
thought. Mothers are too indulgent. They
have not sufficient grip of their sons time
and attention. With the small minority who
remained fast to their mothers apron strings
we have nothing to do. They are happily
the exceptional few. and when they come to
make husbands they fall into that new and
despised class OF husbandettes. We are deal
ing with men.
Domestic Relations Begin
Having eliminated the possibility OF mother
training we come along to the subject Of
brides. There are snags and deep-mired
marshes here, so we must walk gingerly.
Most OF us datter ourselves that we know
when bride is bride. but how few of US
there are who would venture to say when a
bride ceases the brdishness-when she ar
rives at natronly maturity. Women win tell
species marks the terminal boundary by his
first outbreak OF savagery. Humorists play
round this absorbing subject with unholy Joy.
Husband derides the turnovers. the bridal
tear-ducts release their flood and the stern
reality OF life comes crashing Into the bower
Domestic relations have begun Philosophers
have described this uncertain bridal period aa
an indeterminate sentence There is no law
OF average to consult. Poets are more rash.
and say that bride is no longer a bride after
she has learned to cook. Pure pifflle that, for
a bride who can boil an egg is convinced in
the inmost depths OF her that she can cook
There Is. however a definite and at least
comparatively sure boundary. When a bride
gets up her nerve TO ask IN her mother-i IN law
to a meal Of her own compounding she Is at
last wifely sure OF herself. She may be long
way off from matronly maturity. but she is
no longer a dreamer in the clouds worship
ing an idol OF clay. She has got range OF
this clay ana sized up its shortcomings. and
In doing this she has come down TO earth on
a sure footing for herself
Now It would seem that We have got some
where. The bride-wife or wife-bride has got
her kitchen nerve with her It makes no DIFF
ference II she went to cooking school during
her days OF maidenhood nor If she learned
some OF the art Of cookery at her mothers
side Having acquired home that Is only
partially equipped with cooking school ad-
junets step-savers and the most modern Ia
ollities for hurry-up washing and drying. shs
must unlaarn a great deal Of the set pFln-
eiples Of the cooking school and build up a
new consciousness for home cooking She e
confronted with the vagaries Of husbands
appetite and the prize winning sauces ana
ragots Of the cooking school DO not ssem 70
apply. The strange creature boita earbohy-
IS Is E JACK spnatt or the opposite. he 8
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