THE HOME COOK BOOK.
from four dollars to seven dollars a year for each stove,
whether for heating or cooking ; and its marvellous cheap-
ness can hardly fail to bring it into general use wherever
it can be had. Ordinary cook-stoves and ranges are
everywhere, through the gas regions, being converted into
gas-burners, by simply introducing a large perforated
iron pipe into the fire box, and in this shape they do
more effective culinary work with gas, than they did
originally with wood or coal.
May not progress in cookery be as rapid as in any
other direction, when wood and coal stoves are super-
seded by perfectly constructed gas stoves? And may
not natural gas be an important factor in the introduc-
tion of better cooked and more wholesome food to the
millions who are suffering from a badly prepared, im-
proper diet ?
Emma P. Ewing.
TABLE TALK.
In all attempts at refinement, one cardinal point
should be kept in view — that manners were made
for men, not men for manners. Most rules will be
found to serve convenience, and there is no good breed-
ing where etiquette is not observed for this end, the
order and comfort of all concerned, not for the sake of
defining one's social position. When any one begins to
study manners as a set of arbitrary rules, followed because
every other desirable acquaintance does the same, polite-
ness breeds a sort of pharisaism that the best bred per-
sons look down on as supremely vulgar. If any mistress
of a house looks here for rules that will aid her to affect
a trifle more of style than her neighbors she will only be
disappointed. If any woman wishes hints how to reduce
her household to regularity and make her children neat
and gentle in habits, it may be that she will not find this
chapter in vain.
Martinet regularity as to hours and minutes is no longer
held the saving virtue in a household. The rule in many
families keeps all the rest waiting for a meal if one is
tardy. Modern custom both for the family and for din-
(27)
28
THE HOME COOK BOOK.
ner parties takes the sensible course of sitting down to
table when the hour comes, and most of the company
has arrived. No guest should feel affronted, if he
is late, and finds the party at dinner, provided the
indispensable care has been shown to keep his portion
warm over dishes of hot water, by which they neither
grow cold or are dried up in the oven. Order the table
daily with the same care as for a dinner party. This is
the only way to insure success for hostess and servants
when one does come off, and gives mistress and waiter
the luxury of getting used to nice style, so that it is just
as easy as common ways, and no sudden visitor can put
them out. Home tables do not always compare to ad-
vantage with those at the restaurant or club, and the
housemother should see that a man finds as careful ser-
vice at home as he does anywhere else. Unlimited laun-
dry work should be one of the indulgences of one's own
house, and it should be of the utmost nicety. Why
should it be too much to provide clean napkins and table-
cloth daily at home as well as at a hotel They would
cost half an hour's extra work a day, and this is not too
much for the refinement it gives.
Page 11
Presented as published in 1896. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
from four dollars to seven dollars a year for each stove, whether for heating or cooking ; and its marvellous cheapness can hardly fail to bring it into general use wherever it can be had. Ordinary cook-stoves and ranges are everywhere, through the gas regions, being converted into gas-burners, by simply introducing a large perforated iron pipe into the fire box, and in this shape they do more effective culinary work with gas, than they did originally with wood or coal.
May not progress in cookery be as rapid as in any other direction, when wood and coal stoves are superseded by perfectly constructed gas stoves? And may not natural gas be an important factor in the introduction of better cooked and more wholesome food to the millions who are suffering from a badly prepared, improper diet ?
Emma P. Ewing.
TABLE TALK.
In all attempts at refinement, one cardinal point should be kept in view — that manners were made for men, not men for manners. Most rules will be found to serve convenience, and there is no good breeding where etiquette is not observed for this end, the order and comfort of all concerned, not for the sake of defining one's social position. When any one begins to study manners as a set of arbitrary rules, followed because every other desirable acquaintance does the same, politeness breeds a sort of pharisaism that the best bred persons look down on as supremely vulgar. If any mistress of a house looks here for rules that will aid her to affect a trifle more of style than her neighbors she will only be disappointed. If any woman wishes hints how to reduce her household to regularity and make her children neat and gentle in habits, it may be that she will not find this chapter in vain.
Martinet regularity as to hours and minutes is no longer held the saving virtue in a household. The rule in many families keeps all the rest waiting for a meal if one is tardy. Modern custom both for the family and for din- (27)
ner parties takes the sensible course of sitting down to table when the hour comes, and most of the company has arrived. No guest should feel affronted, if he is late, and finds the party at dinner, provided the indispensable care has been shown to keep his portion warm over dishes of hot water, by which they neither grow cold or are dried up in the oven. Order the table daily with the same care as for a dinner party. This is the only way to insure success for hostess and servants when one does come off, and gives mistress and waiter the luxury of getting used to nice style, so that it is just as easy as common ways, and no sudden visitor can put them out. Home tables do not always compare to advantage with those at the restaurant or club, and the housemother should see that a man finds as careful service at home as he does anywhere else. Unlimited laundry work should be one of the indulgences of one's own house, and it should be of the utmost nicety. Why should it be too much to provide clean napkins and tablecloth daily at home as well as at a hotel They would cost half an hour's extra work a day, and this is not too much for the refinement it gives.