Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-04-09

ing the coffee for all; but every man
boiled his own eggs and made his
own toast When they had gone to
their office a woman came in and
made the beds and cleaned up. Their
luncheons they took near their places
of business, and they returned to their
apartment for dinner. Each in turn
did the marketing for a week and
cooked the evenin gmeal, while one of
the others, also in turn, looked after
the table. 1t worked beautifully.
They all learned how to cook and they
were also congenial friends, never in
terfering with each other.
There, my dear girls, that is what
you are up against. That young man
fall SO desperately in love with you
that he is willing to give up his happy,
unfettered home for you and start an
onther one. Personally l should feel
inclined to side-step an offer from
any such competent youth. He knows
going him one better, in being bet
ter cook than he is and in giving him
a more cheerful and attractive home
than the one he has left
1t is of course difficult for you to
realize that your beauty and charm,
great as they are, very soon become
commonplaces to u mere husband. The
is temporary, but the lure of good
cooking and of comfort in the home
is eternal.
For several years of my life / was
a wanderer in the waste places | be-
came in that time fully initiated into
the horrors of average AnSrican cook
ing. That soggy, fried meat! Those
watery, tasteless vegetables! Let us
not mention the bread.
| learned the wisdom acquired un-
der such circumstances, and lived on
boiled eggs and baked potatoes and
things that could be cooked in their
own shells and skins, unless it was
possible for me to prepare my food
myself
1t is often stated that many men
become drunkards because their wives
feed them day after day meals SO
wretchedly cooked and SO lacking in
nutritive value that they take to liquor
to stop the ceaseless craving of their
starved stomachs. Why bad cooking
least a cause for divorce, 1 don't un-
derstand.
have always noticed that most of
the lofty, misunderstood feminine
souls are miserable housekeepers.
Idea Obtained From
Chance Remark Put to Work
The other day 1 overheard "'bus
talker" remark in speaking of two
sisters "Jessie is a bright, cultured
little woman, but Susan, let me tell
you, is a mighty efficient housekeep-
err" l wanted to turn around and
thank him and offer him 10 per cent.
of what l am paid for this article; for
he had given me an idea. 1 imme-
diately put it to work.
In a casual way, and trusting to
luck they would not see my under
lying craft, 1 have asked ten aver
age American women which they
would prefer to be called: "A bright,
cultured little woman" or "a mighty
efficient housekeeper
Seven of them chose the bright,
cultured little woman" Two spoke
for the Mighty efficient housekeeper." :"
One said, Both
And why, 1 wonder, did not all the
women of whom L asked the question,
say: Both" If one is an efficient
housekeeper it ought not to be diff
cult to acquire little culture on the
side unless she is one of those farm
ers' wives we read about who go in
sane from cooking all day and hearing
the wind blow.
I am inclined to think there is
deep, fundamental reason for this
preponderance of choice. Is it not
that women instinctively feel with
Alive Schreiner, that they receive their
share of the earnings of the man as
more or less eleemosynary benefac-
tion instead of the fair division in an
equal partnership?
Is this the chief cause that women
in the mass are loath to learn the
technical side of the greatest of arts
the art of home -making-and turn
instead to something they call "cul-
ture," usually a half baked substitute
for the real thing, snatched up in
some mental delicatessen shop and
bolted in hurry?
What do you think about it? Would
you rather be, "a bright. cultured lit
tie woman" or "a mighty efficient
housekeeper? And why?