Omaha daily bee., 1916-07-13
The Art of
Housekeeping is
Becoming q
Science
By GARRETT p. SERvISS.

| ny Hf4NNE =. ocN Ioos
The reign OF the good housekeeper
| is only just beginning. Every month
sees some new invention that helps
to diminish the slavery of homework.
Housekeeping has for ages been an
art, and, as with all arts, its practi-
TONERS range in their abilities from
mediocrity through fair talent up to
positive genius.
Now housekeeping is becoming a
science, and science has this advan-
tage over art-that it tends to equal
ize abilities by bringing results
through mechanical and automatic
methods which anybody can employ.
For plain male citizen, who knows
little about the secrets of the kitchen,
it is a wonderful revelation to read
the articles in Good Housekeeping
Magazine and to look at the devices
there shown which relate to this fast
growing science. Almost everything
about house can now be done with
half the expenditure Of labor and time
formerly required. To be without
this knowledge and these inventions
is not merely to be behind the times,
but it is to live harder, less we'll and
more extensively than there is any
necessity for.
The kitchen is the stomach of the
house, and upon the way in which
it performs its functions the welfare
of the whole establishment depends.
My attention has just been called to
a model French kitchen All the
world has long looked up to France
as the ideal home of culinary art,
and it is evident that she does not
intend to be left behind in the mod
ern transformation Of this art into a
science.
| The kitchen has also been called
"the theater of the French house
wife" and this theater is becoming
really fascinating place with its dis
play OF electrical ranges, scientific
lamps, automatic grinders, mills and
churns. Pasteur filters, coffee max
ers, ice-cream freezers, devices for
easily getting rid of waste substances,
porcelain sinks as white and clean
as Alpine snow, securing machines,
filters, convenient cupboards and all
the glittering array Of nickel, silver,
copper, aluminium, bronze and gran
lite ware utensils that fill the room
with bright reflections.
One of the great charms Of
French kitchen is that the mistress
is frequently to be seen there, not
merely as a visitor but as helper
and director. She inspires her ser
wants by her presence, and by her ad-
vice. She does not pretend to live
in another world than theirs. They
know that she understands their
business as we'll as they do them
selves, and even better. She can
take their place if necessary. This
is as true of the rich as Of the rela-
lively poor.
The economy of the French people
has long been world-famous, and no.
where is it more brilliantly displayed
than in the kitchen. A French family,
as has often been said, could live, and
live well, upon the waste of many
American families. And the exer-
else of this economy-this art of get
ting all the good out of things--fas-
cinates those who practise. it. 1t has
the charm of all applied knowledge
They not only get all that is good
they make the good better. ! know
many little country inn in France
where, for three or four francs, wine
included Ia franc is worth 20 cents),
one can have a really better meal
| thor 80, ka b,J :, MAJ, Vol. TO- 4.,,a
or three dollars.
And yet meats, and similar things,
cost about as much in France as they
do here. The secret lies in economi-
cal management and good cooking.
1t is no wonder that a first-rate
French cook can command in New
York salary of $4,000, or even more.
And if he, or she, retains on this side
of the Atlantic the economical skill
learned at home, more than half the
salary is saved to the employer.
One thing to be noticed in the
French kitchen is that there is usually
no false economy in the choice of ap-
paratus. Everything is of the best,
or at least good and substantial. The
kitchen, in its way, is as we'll furnished
as the parlor. You may be sure that
this spells economy in the end, for If
it did not 1t would not be found in
France.
have often been surprised on en-
tering a house in France, which, in
America, might be taken as the abode
of people in very humble circum-
stances, to find far larger and better
stocked kitchen than many rather pre-
tentious houses possess here, accom-
panied by a culinary skill in its mis-
tress which would earn her a large
salary on this side of the ocean.
No doubt we shall learn this eco
nomical wisdom in good time-and
the sooner the better.