HOUSEKEEPING
Beeton's Every-Day Cookery and Housekeeping Book: A Practical and Useful Guide for all Mistresses and Servants.London: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited.
Housekeeping should be taught to young girls, but in these days of science and high-pressure education there is but little time they can spare for homely tasks. In many cases, at least, it is not till they marry and have to take upon themselves the guidance and responsibility of a household, that they realise (lacking a previous training) how hard that burden may be.
Inolden days notable housekeepers were notable women. In managing their homes and servants, training their daughters in homely fashion to bake and stew, spin and embroider, or concoct the herbal remedies needed for the relief of their poorer neighbours as well as themselves, the worthy dames seem to have found sufficient distinction as well as employment. They were proud of their housewifely skill, of their cookery, of their fair white linen their own hands had woven, and of their medicines, salves, and confections. No need was there then for cookery books or instructions in housekeeping, recipes and discipline wee alike found home. In these times it is hardly possible to do as they did, yet they may well teach us a lesson in the training of our girls to a liking for housewifely tasks and the realization of the fact that there are few stronger influences upon us than those brought to bear in our early home life.
There is an innate love for housekeeping in most girls, and it might so easily be cultivated.
Look at the tiny maiden with her doll's house; what pleasure she seems to find in making the little beds, sweeping the floors, and arranging and re-arranging the furniture, while crowning delight of all, it is to her, to put some cookery of her own in its miniature saucepan over a real fire.
A happy home must be a well-managed one. It is impossible that where extravagance, disorder, or discomfort reign, there can be the same peace and content among the inmates as where a wisely-governing mind puts all her energies into making home comfortable and happy.
Remember young matrons, before you were married you sang, played or dressed to please the one who is now your husband. Try to please him in these ways still. Wear suitable clothes, and dress well within your means, but make yourself as well as your home attractive, for his sake even more than for that of your friends.
A good woman should be a good housekeeper, for the latter must posses one of the greatest of all virtues, namely, unselfishness. An utter abnegation of self is almost a necessity with the mistress of household, for with her rests the question of the health and comfort, if not the happiness, of its members.