Still worse to rally any person (especially a woman) on her
age, or to ask indirect questions with a view of discovering
what her age really is. If we continue to live, we must con-
tinue to grow old. We must either advance in age, or we must
die. Where, then, is the shame of surviving our youth? And
when youth departs, beauty goes along with it. At least as
much beauty as depends on complexion, hair, and teeth. In
arriving at middle age (or a little beyond it) a lady must com-
pound for the loss of either face or figure. About that period
she generally becomes thinner or fatter. If thin, her features
shrink and her skin shrivels and fades, even though she retains
a slender and perhaps girlish form. If she grows fat, her skin
may continue smooth and her complexion fine, and her neck
and arms may be rounder and handsomer than in girlhood;
but then symmetry of shape will cease, and she must reconcile
herself to the change a? best she can. But a woman with a
good mind, a good heart, and a good temper, can never, at any
age, grow ugly — for an intelligent and pleasant expression is in
itself beauty, and the best kind of beauty.
Sad, indeed, is the condition of women in the decline of life
ETIQUETTE.
79
when "no lights of age adorn them;" when, having neglected
in the spring and summer to lay up any stores for the winter thaJ
is sure to come, they find themselves left in the season of des-
olation with nothing to fall back upon but the idle gossip of
the day — striving painfully to look younger than they really
are; still haunting balls and parties, and enduring all the dis-
comforts of crowded watering-places, long after all pleasure in
such scenes must have passed away. But then they must lin-
ger in public because they are miserable at home, having no
resources within themselves, and few enduring friends to en-
liven them with their society.
The woman who knows how to grow old gracefully will
adapt her dress to her figure and her age, and wear colors
that suit her complexion.
^i^t''"
HOUSEHOLI).
The Kitchen. — One of the finest house-keepers in the United
States says: "If scrimping must be done, scrimp parlor and
sitting-room, but have the kitchen and bedrooms as comfort-
able as possible." Another writer observes: "The kitchen is
to the house what the stomach is to the body, and should be
the most spacious, best lighted, and best ventilated apartment
in the house." This remark, however, is aimed mainly at city
fiomes, where the kitchen is too often a mere little basement
cellar, badly lighted and illy supplied with pure air, from which
It is no wonder that the servants are continually rising to the
upper regions to "give warning." In the country the average
kitchen is far more decent, but still the erring house-keeper,
anxious to " have things like other people," is prone to pinch
the poor kitchen in order to furnish the parlor in gim-cracks.
Page 54
Presented as published in 1883. 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
Still worse to rally any person (especially a woman) on her age, or to ask indirect questions with a view of discovering what her age really is. If we continue to live, we must continue to grow old. We must either advance in age, or we must die. Where, then, is the shame of surviving our youth? And when youth departs, beauty goes along with it. At least as much beauty as depends on complexion, hair, and teeth. In arriving at middle age (or a little beyond it) a lady must compound for the loss of either face or figure. About that period she generally becomes thinner or fatter. If thin, her features shrink and her skin shrivels and fades, even though she retains a slender and perhaps girlish form. If she grows fat, her skin may continue smooth and her complexion fine, and her neck and arms may be rounder and handsomer than in girlhood; but then symmetry of shape will cease, and she must reconcile herself to the change a? best she can. But a woman with a good mind, a good heart, and a good temper, can never, at any age, grow ugly — for an intelligent and pleasant expression is in itself beauty, and the best kind of beauty.
Sad, indeed, is the condition of women in the decline of life
when "no lights of age adorn them;" when, having neglected in the spring and summer to lay up any stores for the winter thaJ is sure to come, they find themselves left in the season of desolation with nothing to fall back upon but the idle gossip of the day — striving painfully to look younger than they really are; still haunting balls and parties, and enduring all the discomforts of crowded watering-places, long after all pleasure in such scenes must have passed away. But then they must linger in public because they are miserable at home, having no resources within themselves, and few enduring friends to enliven them with their society.
The woman who knows how to grow old gracefully will adapt her dress to her figure and her age, and wear colors that suit her complexion.
^i^t''"
HOUSEHOLI).
The Kitchen. — One of the finest house-keepers in the United
States says: "If scrimping must be done, scrimp parlor and sitting-room, but have the kitchen and bedrooms as comfortable as possible." Another writer observes: "The kitchen is to the house what the stomach is to the body, and should be the most spacious, best lighted, and best ventilated apartment in the house." This remark, however, is aimed mainly at city fiomes, where the kitchen is too often a mere little basement cellar, badly lighted and illy supplied with pure air, from which It is no wonder that the servants are continually rising to the upper regions to "give warning." In the country the average kitchen is far more decent, but still the erring house-keeper, anxious to " have things like other people," is prone to pinch the poor kitchen in order to furnish the parlor in gim-cracks.