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secretary, and which is free, except postage on the books, to all the women in 

 the State who are members of our organization. This library, which consists 

 of 120 volumes, is made up wholly of l)ooks relating to some phase of home 

 life. A club may take three or five books at one time and keep them three 

 months. An individual member of a club may take one and keep it two weeks. 



While peojile are talking a good deal about domestic science and thousands 

 of women are studying it, there are still many who think it is limited to the 

 mechanical work of cooking and sewing. If household science meant that only, 

 it would occui)y but a small ])art of the field which legitimately belongs to it. 

 In studying the sub.iect of cookery the object is not to learn to make fancy 

 desserts or new salads, but rather the chemistry of cooking and the application 

 of the proper degree of heat to various food substances. We try to have our 

 practice in cooking illustrate a principle, just as an experiment in the chemical 

 laboratory does, thus eliminating " luck," which has so long been responsible 

 for underdone bread, overdone steak, and poor coffee. 



In housework more than in any other occupation conservatism bars out new 

 discoveries, and it is said that less progress has been made in this industry in 

 the last two hundred years than in any other, but from present indications 

 ttat can not truthfully be said twenty-five years hence. 



Tradition has been carried from one generation to another, and it is still 

 believed by some that women have an intuitive knowledge of housekeeping and 

 the care of children, and this, too, in the face of many dismal failures and the 

 appalling mortality among children. Dr. Felix Oswald says that " In America 

 alone the little sparks of 100,000 lives are annually smothered out by the igno- 

 rance of their mothers." 



When our grandmothers were girls they were taught all the household arts 

 with which their mothers were familiar. Beginning with the raw material, 

 they made cloth, which they afterwards fashioned into garments; they spun 

 yarn, which they knit into mittens and wove into bedspreads — those same bed- 

 spreads which are now so highly prized by one who has fallen heir to this 

 sample of her grandmother's handiwork. They were taught to jireserve meats 

 for summer use, and fruit and vegetaldes for winter use, and even to dip or 

 mold the candles upon which they depended for light. 



And we need not arrogate to ourselves all the knowledge of scientific cooking. 

 Many of our mothers cooked as scientifically as do the teachers of to-day, but 

 they learned it by long and careful experiments. They learned when quick cook- 

 ing would give the best results and when slow cooking was iiecessary. They 

 knew the conditions necessary to make good bread, and they were adepts in the 

 art of seasoning. In these and many other ways they were taught to take 

 responsibility, which made them strong, capable women. 



With the change in social and economic conditions the industries that were 

 formerly carried on in the home have been gradually absorbed by factories 

 until it is not unconnnon to find housekeepers depending largely upon the manu- 

 facturer for food that can be served with only a minimum of labor and with 

 little reference to its nutritive value or relative cost. 



We need to ask ourselves the question why so few girls are in the home help- 

 ing their mothers, while an army can be mustered for service in store, otHce, or 

 factory. Probably there would be many answers, but it seems to me the one 

 lying nearest the truth would be found in the low valuation set upon housework 

 by the women of the present day. We are fond of saying that the home is the 

 bulwark of the nation, but the work necessary to the maintenance of the home 

 has, some way, fallen into disrepute. The iiendulum has swung to the extreme, 

 and any measure that will help to start it in the other direction should be wel- 

 comed by all right thinking men and women. 



