THE GLOBE. MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1879.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1821, 22 December 1879, Page 2

THE GLOBE. MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1879.

Public opinion is, as a rule, remarkably slow in vindicating itself. The inert social mass is prepared to jog along in the old groove apparently to the end of time, although it secs clearly many of the absurdities which render the system under which it works so peculiarly imperfect. For instance, converse with any reasonable man who is not possessed of a superfluity of wealth, and ask his views on the proper bringing up of his girls. He would probably say that, ho would wish their minds to bo improved to the utmost, but that, at the same time, he would wish them to bo so brought up that their education would servo them in carrying out properly the duties that might thereafter devolve on them as wives and mothers. Ho would probably bring to your remembrance instances of charming young ladies whose education had done nothing but give them a smattering of the “ ologios,” and taught them to “spank on the grand piannor,” as the American humorist has it, an accomplishment generally altogether dropped when the cares of a household begin to weigh on them. But, after all, what chances have girls at school of picking up useful information with regard to household duties. Apparently none at all. The perusal of a hand-book on domestic economy is supposed to sot them up at once in this branch ! What can they learn practically, for instance, about cooking ? Nothing whatsoever. With regard to this particular branch indeed the Board of Education at one time showed some slight signs of life. Miss Fidler arrived in the district, and she was to to deliver lectures, open the eyes of the educational authorities to their shortcomings and a new ora was to dawn. MissFidler has come and gone. She has played symphonies on saucepans and gridirons before admiring audiences, and those who were pretty well up in the subject gained a few wrinkles as to new dishes, and there it ended. As to any change towards making the teaching of our girls a little more practical where is it? Dr. Turnbull, at the time of the breaking up of the Girls’ High School did indeed refer to the matter, and we were glad to remark that he did so. But these sort of remarks have been made copiously by other people at other times and places, and nothing practical has eventuated. And yet much more than is genend'y supposed depends on a practical education in this direction. It is not only that dishes are made more wholesome and nutritious, but a habit of economy is inculcated which is of the utmost use throughout life. The extravagance and waste in an ordinary English household is something appalling. The French artisan lives twice as well as the English working man at half the cost, and that, too, remarks the “ British Medical Journal,” in a capital such as Paris, where bread, butter, milk, sugar, coffee, in fact, most of the necessaries of life are from 20 to 50 per cent, dearer than they are in London. English journals mourn over the recklessness of working men, but hardly recogmso the fact that half the waste is the natural consequence of the way in which their wives are brought up. In ordinal y households food is disgracef u 1 ly cooked, and the bread winner, after his comfortless and indigestible meal, drifts into a public-house for a solvent. Everlasting chops and potatoes affect his morale infinitely more than the utmost efforts of the Liberal Reform Association And yet what an endless variety of cheap food is within his reach if his wife was only equal to the occasion. “ All vegetables,” eays the paper above quoted, “beet root, radishes (which hardly ever appear at our dinner tables), celery (which we mostly eat in chips), raw chesnuts (which our cooks hardly know except roasted or boiled at desert), red beans, whit 3 beans, maize, rice, coarse fish, cold fish, scraps of meat, the previous day’s remnants of vegetables—these are among the elements out of which a reasonable and economical cook constructs a savory and nourishing diet-list, with a due proportion of meat chosen not always from the choice parts.” Again, to descend into particulars:—“ In the art of cooking potatoes and fish, when shall wo learn to fry fish, say, as the poor Jews in Whitechapel do P or potatoes as is done at the corner of every poor street in Paris? This mode of cooking is physiological; it is scientific; and, properly done, it is economical and delicious. English cooks use shallow fryingpans —in which it is impossible to fry properly—chiefly because they are too careless to strain or clarify the fat or olive oil which they have used once, and make it servo again and again, as all economical and reasonable cooks do—or should do. Olivo oil is the best material for frying either potatoes or fish, and if used carefully and strained, and from time to time cleansed, may be use over and over again,” Hundreds of small economies might be practised, aud the effect on the income of the laboring man would be astonishing. It will of course be granted that the changing of national customs is most difficult, that there are old prejudices to bo overcome and new habits of a subversive character to be formed. But lot our educational authorities see to it. The girls in our common schools should at least receive lessons in the first general principles of cooking and household economics. Those are the girls that will require the knowledge so attained more than those who attend the Girls’ High School, desirable as it may be for the latter also. The Board of Education should bestir themselves in the matter. Obstacles will of course have to bo overcome, but no desirable reform is ever to be accomplished without such being surmounted.