Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-08-21
ByM..C.R.
CORRESPONDENT writes to
ask WHY the reviewer Is 20

OF Lnem WIN A6pcTlty, SHe says.
think this attitude Of yours most I'M
fair. 7 find in these magazines much
that is true and beautiful. am always
reading them"
Well, the reviewer is still Of her
unkind opinion. But true" and
beautiful are words to treat re-
spectfully. wherever they appear, and
so, feeling that she ought to 60 on the
evidence in the matter, the reviewer
procured the whole store Of women's
mags which her kindly news dealer
had TO offer. and carted them home
and 1aboriously went through them
True and beautiful, indeed. They
are neither.
Instead. they pander to the egotism
and wishful thinking Of their readers
exclusively. and that in monotonous
manner. The reviewer has been
through the September issues of four
Of these periodicals-the outstanding
four, they are-and she has found
just one piece Of fiction in the whole
collection which is tolerably intelli-
gent, and nothing in the mass Of
home-making hints" and secrets"
with which they coyly abound that
any girl with two years high school
domestic training does not know as
matter of course. The reviewer is
girl with two years high school
domestic training herself. and so she
speaks with authority on that point.
She would add. too, that she is
homemaker. has for years made her
own home. producing the sinews Of war
for the enterprise as well as match
ing the drapes-balaEcing the budget
as we'll as balancing the diet, If you
get the inference. She knows how
to tell whether a chair has been
pegged or glued (wonderful lore), she
knows the difference between veneer
and solid wood and. more. she can
tell you whether the veneering has
been a good job or is likely to peel
She makes a salad which owes nothing
of its edibility to meringue topping,
and 1t has never been known to go
uneaten either. She broils steak
tender and her biscuits are not heavy.
Moreover. her house is fit for COM
pany any hour of the day.
A LII this she does single-handed,
with no more help than q laun-
dress. And so. coming to review these
ladies' magazines in their unitarian
aspect, which, if it were valid, might
excuse the intolerable fiction accom-
panying 1t, she brings some practical
knowledge to her task. And she still
says no.
These magazines are not charts Of
guidance for women engaged in house
keeping thomemaking If you must)
for the very sensible reason that no
woman who has kept house more than
six months would need guidance. The
whole business is so simple today that
a completely inexperienced girl will
have it mastered in less than a year
If she puts her head to it. There
are some things which need practice.
to be sure-such as making pastry
and roasting meats-but the practice
is not obtained by reading Moreover
the recipes for pastry and roast meats
are old as the hills and q monthly
magazine is hardly needed for sup
plying them. And even less practice
is required today than has been in
the past, by reason of special hours
and Of automatic ovens, and the like.
1t can be said, indeed. that house.
keeping today requires less skill than
it ever has, and exactly as the need
for skill has decreased these periodicals
devoted to the home have grown.
For-look you-women have had more
time for reading. That is the whole
story.
No, the avowed practical purpose of
these magazines amounts to very little.
1t can be completely discounted FASH
ion news, to be sure. will always be of
interest to any woman, but how many
women make their own clothes today?
Or have them made? Skill in needle
work, like skill in cookery is at a low
ebb for the reason that it is no longer
needed. The fashion pages of these
periodicals, therefore, serve no purpose
except to inform women as to what
styles are coming in, and that matter
is abundantly attended to by the ad-
vertising of the shops. The editors OF
the home making mags apparently
know this as well as any one, and where
once they devoted the greater part of
their space to fashions. today they give
only few pages. Even as prophets
OF style they have lost their prestige.
for most women take the word of
Vogue before that of the sink-and-
dustpanners.
SO THE appeal to these periodicals.
and it is an appeal so strong
that 1t gathers in millions Of readers
and a stunning amount of advertising
gets down to the flctional matter
which fills up the great portion of
their pages. The reviewer started out
to consume every word Of this literary
treacle so that she could have a
perfectly clean conscience in passing on
1t. Let honesty prevaiIshe did not
get through it all. She read away for
several hours and then she had an
lllusion-an illusion that great opal
ine-tinted glass bell filled with tepid
glue was being slowly lowered over her.
She tainted. She was reused only
when Bill, the setter, came and poked
his nose damply into her face He had
chewed the covers from ''McFalls,"
sampled Pictorial Ripplings" and
made paw marks on the Ladies Home
Journal Companion" And now he
was wagging mis- tail for applause. See,
he seemed to say, I have slain the
enemy. A masculine animal at the
moment. the reviewer confesses, was
rather cheering.
Still, she feels that she read enough
to speak with certainty of the kind Of
story which prevails in these maya
zines. It calls to her mind remark
once made by don herold. He said, in
effect, that men are crazy about
women, but do not care much about
marriage and that women are crazy