February, 1906 
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Instruction in Cutting and Fitting 
an afternoon tea, the way to serve refreshments to guests 
who do not sit at table, the proper manner of address of 
mistress by maid, and vice versa, the distinct purpose of 
each article included in the table furnishings, the proper 
individual portion of different articles of food, etc. In 
fine, it is a complete course in table manners and _ those 
things which every well bred person ought to know. 
The first five months of 
the second of the two years’ 
course in cooking open to 
public school girls takes up, 
for one thing, the cooking 
of beef, mutton, poultry, 
fish and shell fish. It is an 
amazing fact that the aver- 
age family in poor circum- 
stances knows less about this 
sort of cooking than the 
more well-to-do, amazing 
because the knowledge of 
cooking is so essential to 
securing the best results 
with inferior material. For 
this reason the public 
school instruction in this re- 
gard has had a most beneficial effect in 
families. 
In this part of the second year course pupils are also 
taught how to prepare jellies, cakes, ices, salads; how to 
can fruits and vegetables; the more delicate cooking for 
infants and invalids, further instruction in table service and 
dining-room customs, and the facts about the fittings and 
care of a sick-room that bear relation to the food that is 
served therein. The latter half of the second 
and concluding year of the course is devoted 
to the preparation of simple breakfasts, 
luncheons and dinners; learning the compara- 
tive value of foods; what constitutes a diet 
for persons whose digestion requires particular 
attention ; nursing, marketing, laundering and 
improved sanitation. At first thought several 
of the matters referred to seem to be without 
relation to cooking. Investigation, however, 
develops the prathithacin one way or another 
cooking concerns all of them, and instruction 
is given in just the particulars that bear on the 
relation of one to the other. 
Instruction in sewing for girls in the New 
York public schools begins in the first year of 
grammar school life and continues throughout 
the four years of the course. Five years ago 
very many 
Instruction in the Preparation of Salads 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 113 
all the sewing New York City public school 
children were taught was to make 
Cloth remnants To-day the 
pupils not only learn how to stitch, but how 
to cut, fit and sew and to make over gar- 
ments. In many families the older girls, 
advanced pupils in sewing, make all the 
clothing, outer and under, of their younger 
brothers and teach the 
dressmaking. The girls are per- 
mitted to do some of this home work as part 
of their regular lessons in the schools. 
Simple beginnings constitute the first year 
of the sewing course. Buttonhole looping 
is the principal feature of the first half of 
the course of the second year. In the third 
year braiding and sewing of seams form the 
principle features of instruction; that is for 
the first five months. ‘The second five months includes weay- 
ing and sewing and instruction on fibers and textiles. Next 
comes advanced stitches as applied to small garments and 
mending. Great pains is taken to teach the girls how to 
make plain sewing attractive; that is, they are made to see 
that it is just as easy, if only one learns how to do it, to so 
stitch a garment that the work will be really ornamental 
without greater labor than 
that required in the ordi- 
nary course of whatiscalled, 
the world over, plain sew- 
ing. Again, the difference 
between mending and re- 
pairing is taught. The girls 
learn how to practically re- 
make a garment when it is 
so worn that something of 
the sort must be done or 
the article consigned to the 
waste heap. Applied de- 
sign is next taken up, and 
then follows drafting and 
sewing and the cutting 
and making of small gar- 
ments. 
Highly important is the instruction in estimating the 
quantity of material necessary for a garment. The girl who 
learns to do this well has a knowledge that will be of great 
help to her if she seeks to earn her own living as a dressmaker 
or sewing woman. It is a faculty the public school teachers 
are constantly told is lacking among the girls who have not 
taken the public school sewing course, except in those rare 
instances where similar instruction is received at home. 
stitches. 
were used. 
sisters, and also 
mother 
ee SS 
Sinead 
How Plain Sewing is Taught 
