392 THE SCHOOL HOARDS xv 



the elements of household work and of domestic 

 economy; in the first place for their own sakes, 

 and in the second for that of their future 

 employers. 



Every one who knows anything of the life of 

 the English poor is aware of the misery and waste 

 caused by their want of knowledge of domestic 

 economy, and by their lack of habits of frugality 

 and method. I suppose it is no exaggeration to 

 say that a poor Frenchwoman would make the 

 money which the wife of a poor Englishman 

 spends in food go twice as far, and at the same 

 time turn out twice as palatable a dinner. AVhy 

 Englishmen, who are so notoriously fond of good 

 living, should be so helplessly incompetent in the 

 art of cookery, is one of the great mysteries of 

 nature; but from the varied abominations of the 

 railway refreshment-rooms to the monotonous 

 dinners of the poor, English feeding is either 

 wasteful or nasty, or both. 



And as to domestic service, the groans of the 

 housewives of England ascend to heaven! In five 

 cases out of six the girl who takes a " place " has 

 to be trained by her mistress in the first rudiments 

 of decency and order; and it is a mercy if she does 

 not turn up her nose at anything like the mention 

 of an honest and proper economy. Thousands of 

 young girls are said to starve, or worse, yearly in. 

 London; and at the same time thousands of 

 mistresses of households are ready to pay high 



