The Well-Ordered Household 



FROM THE STANDPOINT OF A PRACTICAL WOMAN 



CONDUCTED BY MARTHA VAN "RENSSELAETl 

 [Editor Cornell University Beading Course for Women.] 



THE EVERY-DAY EOUTINE 



IT is sometimes thought that anyone 

 knows how to cook whose cooked 

 products can be eaten ; that dishes are 

 well washed when they look clean. Yet 

 it is equal to 'a fine art to do either of 

 these household tasks well, and a woman 

 who knows how is greatly appreciated in 

 her own or in any other family. Girls 

 brought up in a home to be ignorant of 

 the practical things which make the home 

 are deprived of a blessing which is their 

 due. 



Pedagogy teaches that interest is the 

 necessary element in acquiring knowledge. 

 Terrors in housekeeping vanish, to some 

 extent, when interest asserts itself in do- 

 mestic life, while the future happiness 

 of all concerned depends upon the mental 

 attitude of the worker. Nothing con- 

 tributes so much toward securing this 

 quality as the lively desire to do work 

 in the best way to secure good results 

 and conserve time and strength. 



Do I hear you say, "With so much to 

 do, there is no time to try new methods; 

 the work must be hurried through any- 

 how"? The housewife is often an all- 

 round, intelligent worker who must per- 

 force crowd into her busy day work be- 

 longing to a dozen different professions. 

 The gracious lady who receives her guests 

 with a heartsome welcome is the capable 

 cook, the exquisite laundress, and so on 

 to the end of the chapter. 



The busiest kind of a life may be made 

 up of these details. The spoke of a wheel 

 is only one stick of wood, the hub a larger 

 chunk fashioned to receive the spokes, 

 the rim but an iron band to hold all in 



place. Without the spokes the wheel lacks 

 strength; without hub the very center is 

 lacking; without rim the wheel has no 

 stability. These domestic trifles are the 

 precursor of man's mightiest achieve- 

 ments, or are very possible elements in his 

 defeat. A soggy potato has weighted 

 many a man's ambition, and a complain- 

 ing word, a sour look, or bitter tone has 

 taken the heart out of men. Poor coffee 

 has dampened the ardor of many a po- 

 tential poet. A woman, therefore, cannot 

 reasonably say that housework is mere 

 drudgery, a round of soulless routine, and 

 void of pleasure. 



While the table must be set and the 

 dishes washed three times a day, and the 

 kitchen cleaned and dust removed from 

 the furniture only to leave a new surface 

 for more dust, there must still be some- 

 thing outside of routine to make these 

 duties endurable and in fact pleasant. As 

 much muscular energy is used in these 

 duties as in tennis or golf, but the state 

 of the mind is different. When a woman 

 introduces into her routine work an effort 

 for higher attainment in the art of prac- 

 tical housekeeping, or when it is relieved 

 by the enjoyment of pleasure in view — 

 the time to read, an entertainment, an 

 anticipated visit or music — she sinks the 

 heavy feeling of despair over never ac- 

 complished labor in the enjoyment of 

 happier things. Then while she must 

 labor on, may it not be well to sing a 

 song, laugh in the midst of difficulties, 

 enjoy the sunrise and the sunset, and smile 

 at the fortune which made her a house- 

 keeper ? 



