Household hints

One of the first things she learns is that system is absolutely necessary — ^not the relentless system which decrees that Friday shall be sweeping day though the heavens should fall, but which considers calmly the whole business to be dispatched, portions out the work as wisely as possible, and then adheres to the plan as closely as may be. Of course, at first mistakes will be made, but this comforting assurance may be kept in mind, that housekeeping does not come by instinct to anybody. However easily some may seem to get along with it, they have acquired that ease by hard and varied experience. If one is intensely in earnest about becoming a good housekeeper, occasional failures will help on the work ; an ordinarily bright young woman will only once steam brown bread in an ungreased tin, or build a hot fire with a new oilcloth under the stove, and leave no ashes under the fire in the stove. "Some people have the knack of doing these things," said a lady the other day, " while I —well, it is with housekeeping as it used to be with arithmetic — I have no gift. You know there are people who can not do anything with figures." Of course there is a difference in people after due allowance has been made for education, but many would be surprised if they were told that the reason why they can not do certain things is because they have never really tried. Herein lies the secret of the poor performance of common duties that we frequently see ; the woman is content to leave the more serious matters in life as the girl left her arithmetic — with the poor consolationthat she is not elected to do anything with figures, and she is likely to regard those able to accomplish creditably the tasks set before them as having a certain mysterious knack — a "sleight of hand" way of getting along with them. It is wonderful to see how much ingenuity is displayed by some women who, with very little money, are always dressed in perfect taste, and, with no apparent effort, keep old furniture from looking shabby, old carpets and curtains fresh and bright, but these things are accomplished by much thought and a great deal of hard work. Nothing helps a person to do things like doing them ; and it is a fact that in time one who has an actual distaste for housework may come to regard her kitchen as a laboratory in which careful manipulations will produce exact results. One seeing only these results is not very much to blame for thinking them brought about in some magical way. It has sometimes seemed as if more hard brain-work was done INTRODUCTORY. during house-cleaning and spring sewing than would suffice to produce a tolerably good history of the State of New York. It would be easier to write a poem than to turn an old carpet so that every spot and worn place will come where it can be covered with a suitable piece of furniture, or to make a new coat for the boy out of the old soiled one of his father's. These efforts of genius will probably never be appreciated or estimated at their true value, but there is discipline to be had from them which, in the great economy of nature, will surely count for what it is worth. A source of trouble to one beginning to keep house is the fact that, after she has done the best she knows how, her housekeeping reminds her of the action of a scale ; when the front steps, parlor, and sitting-room are up, the back steps, kitchen, and pantry are down. It may be a comfort to her to know that in the best regulated families, where one woman does all the work, this sometimes occurs, but experience helps to remedy the matter somewhat.