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CHAPTER VI
The Business of Being a Housekeeper

The following topics have been arranged in ten groups, but as many more may be added by dividing each main group into two, or even three or four. There may be readings at each meeting from the books given for reference, and discussion by club members.

I – INTRODUCTORY

The subject for the first meeting may be the Old Housekeeping and the New. One paper may take the comparison of housekeeping twenty years ago and more and that of to-day. Is there a real difference, or only a seeming one! Are rents, food, and clothing actually higher for the same things, or does life to-day demand that we add to what we then had? Assuming that prices have really gone up, and are to stay there, what can women do to adjust themselves to the fact?

The second paper should speak of the necessity of a woman's knowing exactly what she can have to spend; of knowledge of her husband's business; of an allowance; of the need of training in keeping within a fixed sum.

The third paper is to be on the budget. That is, on preparing a list of expenses, setting them down in a book, apportioning the income among the items, and then putting down each day and month the actual outgo, and so, year by year, altering and arranging the expenses to meet the income. The discussion should take the form of personal experiences in keeping household accounts.

II – SYSTEMATIC HOUSEKEEPING

The introductory paper on this subject may speak of the complex way in which our houses are furnished, and the superfluity of things in them. Also the fact that the day's work of caring for them is not always clearly defined and carried out.

The second paper may treat of the relief of a weekly schedule of work to be done.

The third paper may take the topic of the conservation of a woman's energy, and the carelessness with which she runs up and down stairs and does unnecessary and foolish things. Mention here the help to be found in vacuum cleaners, modern dusters, carpet sweepers, and other housekeeping helps.

Discuss the question: How shall we make our brains save our bodies?

III – ECONOMY IN FOOD

By way of opening the meeting a brief paper may be read on What Is True Economy? This will point out the fallacy of buying poor foods because they are cheap, wilted vegetables, stale cereals, inferior canned goods, and the like. This may be followed by one on the question of buying. Where shall a housekeeper buy – at a large market or a small one? How can one learn how to buy good and still cheap meats? How can one do with less meat? And is buying in large quantities a good plan?

The third paper may take up markets, their cleanliness; the housewives' leagues of certain cities and their work; what can country women do whose market is limited?

The last paper should speak of the necessity of personal supervision by the housekeeper; of the imprudence of ordering by telephone, and of the system of giving orders at the door to the grocer.

The discussion may turn on the question of paying cash for everything or charging.

IV – COOKING

A good beginning is a review of the cooking of our grandmothers, cooking in various parts of the country, and cooking in foreign lands.

Scientific cooking is, first, a knowledge of food values, but it also includes the art of cooking, and both may be presented. Show how an expert cook will use whatever materials she has at hand and will avoid the use of costly ingredients. A good topic here is, How shall we have variety without increasing the expense?

The kitchen as a workshop is the subject of the next paper. Make it plain that one needs a clean, sanitary room, with everything to work with; suggest new utensils, fireless cookers, and so on, and describe the ideal kitchen.

Close with a discussion on the point: How can a woman learn to be a good cook? Mention cooking schools, demonstrations and lectures, the study of magazine articles and the pamphlets sent out by the Department of Agriculture. Clubs might form cooking classes as an outcome of this meeting.

V – THE LAUNDRY

This topic may be arranged in two parts: the work done at home and the work sent out. Under the first speak of the former methods and how washing and ironing days were dreaded, and the old difficult ways of working. The second paper will take the new ideas, and mention running water, stationary tubs, washing machines, mangles, gas stoves, modern flat-irons, and other appliances for the laundry. Speak of the economy of buying soap, starch, and bluing at wholesale.

At this meeting members may bring in illustrations from catalogues of anything they have seen which promises to help in doing laundry work at home.

The other part of the program would naturally take up the larger aspects of the question. Have a paper on public laundries: Are they sanitary? Is it economical to have shirts done up there rather than at home? Describe the methods of some large laundry.

The last paper would deal with the washerwoman at one's own home, and at hers. Is it extravagant to hire a day's work when one could really do it one's self? Is it safe to send washing out to a home which may not be clean?

The discussion may be on the point: How shall we reduce the size of the family wash? Are there short cuts in laundry work?

VI – SERVICE

Service in the Home is the general theme for the sixth club meeting.

As in other meetings, it is well to begin with a paper on other days, perhaps from Colonial times down, and to speak of the difference in servants in their social position then and now, and the contrast in wages.

The second paper may mention the scarcity of servants to-day, and the reasons why there are so few; of the dissatisfaction with domestic service; the rise in wages for untrained service; of immigrants; the foreign servants in the West and the negro in the South.

The third paper may be on employment bureaus, references, and the relation of one employer to another; the relation of mistress and servant is most interesting. Speak of the question of the responsibility of a mistress for her maid's morals, for one, and the old and sick servant, for another.

The last paper may be on the servantless home and how to manage it. This will take up the division of work between parents and children, the possibility of entertaining, the advantages and disadvantages of doing one's own work, and a statement of the saving of money by the plan. Contrast the loss of other things, of time certainly, and possibly of social life and physical strength. Discuss: Is it an extravagance or an economy to hire the hard work of the family?

VII – CLOTHING

The first paper on this subject is to discuss the real and apparent difference in the cost of dressing a family a generation ago and now. Are materials more, or less, expensive? Is the cost in the making? Do we have too many clothes? Does not the trouble lie in the fact that we need so many different clothes, thus increasing the size of the wardrobe, rather than in the cost of each individual garment?

The following paper may be on shopping. It should be very practical and suggest that shopping out of season is economical; that too much shopping is extravagant in time and car fares; that a bargain counter is seldom a good place to buy anything; that good materials wear longer than poor ones.

The last paper may be on ready-made clothing. How is it made so cheaply? What of the conditions under which garments are made? What of ordering by mail? Is the material of any ready-made garment really as good as it looks at first? How does it wear as compared to that made elsewhere?

There should be an excellent discussion on this subject, covering such things as: Home dressmaking; does it pay? Is it an economy to take lessons in dressmaking and millinery? Is making-over always cheap? Does it pay to dye one's gowns? How can we systematize the making of our wardrobes so that sewing shall occupy us only a small part of our time?

VIII – WASTE

There may be at least three excellent papers on this subject; the first one may be on waste of food: Why is America thought by other peoples to be so wasteful? Compare the economies in the kitchen with those in France. The waste of not knowing how to cook is also a good topic, and the waste of unconscious extravagance. The patronage of the bakery and the delicatessen shop should also be mentioned, and the waste of money involved.

The waste of time may be the title of the next paper, illustrated especially in the kitchen in making fancy dishes or those which require hours of preparation; the waste of time in doing unnecessary fancy-work and elaborate sewing. Note how all this waste of time means to many women the loss of hours to read.

The waste of woman's strength in doing work too heavy for her – lifting, drawing water, and performing other tasks should be especially spoken of in the next paper, and the value of labor-saving devices, of rest and recreation, and of having some help in housework should be made clear.

The discussion should take up other wastes: waste of fuel in furnace and in range; waste of water, of gas, of kerosene; of the wastefulness of destroying a good gown by doing cooking in it; of little losses here and there in all departments of housekeeping.

IX – FALSE ECONOMIES

This meeting should present the subject of unintelligent doing-without. It should show how foolish it is to economize recklessly everywhere. One paper may be on the table, showing that unpalatable food is unwholesome; one may be on entertaining, expressing the need of having one's friends and one's children's friends in to meals; one may be on doing without comforts of all kinds, and making life merely hard and uninteresting. All these should be very brief and balanced by others expressing the thought that education is a necessity, and that so are some things to make life easy – a little service, a little time, and flowers and books or magazines.

Discuss the whole subject of economy in the home and get suggestions from each member as to what she considers the best place to cut one's expenses.

X – WHAT IS HOME FOR?

This is a fascinating subject and the first paper opens up a wide field; it is on Home as a Business Enterprise. This will show that a home may be merely a school of economics, with all the thought centered on that side of its life; or it may be merely a savings bank, with the idea of laying aside money back of everything. Or it may be an industrial institution with every one working all the time and no recreation or amusement permitted. Show the absurdity of these different positions.

The second paper may take up the trained housekeeper as manager of the home. This may make it plain that if a woman understands her business she should run her house easily, economically, cheerfully, socially. In other words, she will use her brains to make housekeeping intensely interesting and satisfactory.

The third paper should speak of comfort versus elegance in home life; of the rarity of finding the two combined; of furnishing a house simply yet artistically; of entertaining within one's means; of the appreciation of music and books as a necessary part of life; of the ideal family life.

The discussion may take such lines as these: What sacrifices to economy are worth while? What luxuries are necessities? Is benevolence compatible with a small income? Is education to be regarded as an investment? Are our children growing up thinking that money is the principal thing in the minds of their parents?

If the year's work on domestic economy is to be a success, it should have some practical outcome; perhaps a study class may be organized to develop the ideas of home efficiency, or there may be a reading club to present new ideas in books and magazines and discuss them, or, as has been suggested, there may be a cooking class formed.

Among the books to be consulted are: "Increasing Home Efficiency," by Martha B. Bruère and Robert W. Bruère (Macmillan); "The Modern Household," by Marion Talbot and S. P. Breckinridge (Whitcomb and Barrows); "How to Live on a Small Income," by Emma C. Hewitt (Jacobs); "Home Problems from a New Standpoint," by C. L. Hunt (Whitcomb and Barrows); "Living on a Little," by C. F. Benton (The Page Company); "The Making of a Housewife," by I. G. Curtis (Stokes); "A Handbook of Hospitality for Town and Country," by Florence Howe Hall (The Page Company).

CHAPTER VII
A Study of Songs

A charming study, not only for a musical club but also for any other, is that of songs. The field is practically limitless, but by careful selection of a program which covers only a part much may be learned and enjoyed. It is essential that the life and times of each composer should be studied, and some of his songs sung. Later on, various periods, or certain themes, may be illustrated by the songs of different composers. Perhaps for some of these records on a good phonograph may be used.

To introduce the subject have a paper on folk songs, which in every nation precede what are known as art songs. Many of these folk songs have come down from very early times, either just as they were or woven into art songs. Follow this with a second paper on the minnesingers and troubadours and their songs. A third paper may speak of an interesting theme which may be called the local color of songs. The Laplander has his reindeer songs; the Alpine peasant, his songs of the mountains, with the yodel; the Russian has songs of the steppes; the negro, his plantation melodies; the sailor, his chanty; the soldier, his songs of battle and prison. Hunting songs, love songs, funeral dirges, songs of nature, of childhood, of home, of country, all have a literature of their own.

One meeting may take up the subject of the first art songs – which originated about the time of the first operas and were part of them.

I – THE GREAT GERMANS

The lied, or lyric song, was practically invented in Germany, and by Schubert, the great master of lyric song, though Handel, Haydn, Gluck, Mozart, and Beethoven all wrote arias, or songs, of great beauty and importance. Illustrate by giving one or more songs from each.

The life of Schubert and his genius should have at least one meeting devoted to them. Read the chapter in Finck upon him. Notice what he accomplished in his thirty-one years. Beethoven said of him: "Truly Schubert has the divine spark." His hundreds of songs are sweet and tender, yet strong and noble. Sing "The Erl-King," written when he was only eighteen, "Hark, Hark, the Lark"; "Death and the Maiden"; "Who is Sylvia?" and "Margaret at the Spinning Wheel."

Mendelssohn's songs, long admired, are now considered rather mediocre with the exception of a few. "On the Wings of the Wind"; "The Volkslied"; "The Venetian Gondolier," and others, are distinctly bright and sunny, fresh and graceful.

Schumann, unlike Schubert and Mendelssohn, wrote songs often sad and even gloomy, but many of them, especially in his song cycles, are gems. Sing, "Du bist wie eine Blume"; and "Der Nussbaum."

II – FRANZ AND GRIEG

Robert Franz, though totally deaf from early in life, wrote songs which other musicians term immortal. His work is strikingly original, the accompaniment woven with the melody of the voice. The simple old folk songs often suggested them and his style, like that of Wagner, is often declamatory. Read his life, and sing "Leise zieht durch mein Gemueth"; "Bitte"; "Es ragt der alte Eborus," and, "Im Mai." Following the work of Franz take up Brahms, Jensen, Wagner, and Strauss, and the many other German song writers.

Grieg is called "the king of Scandinavian song writers." His work is often half wild, half melancholy, but always original. He followed the spirit of the folk songs of his country. He is sometimes spoken of as the Norwegian Chopin and is also compared with our own MacDowell. Sing, "The First Primrose"; "The Minstrel's Song," and others.

III – SLAVIC COMPOSERS

Hungary gave Liszt to the world, and his sixty songs are of exceeding value. His music closely represents the words of his songs, suggesting falling rain, or sighing winds, or even the hum of bees. Sing "Kennst du das Land?" "The Lorelei"; "King of Thule"; "Wanderer's Night Song."

Chopin, born in Poland, wrote fresh, charming little folk songs, dramatic lyrics and romantic melodies. The seventeen which we possess have an emotional range wider than that of any other composer's songs. "Poland's Dirge," one of his most famous works, is called the most funereal song in existence.

Paderewski, also a Pole, has only recently begun to write songs, but those he has done are charming – quaint, romantic and full of national color.

Rubinstein belongs both to Poland and Russia, but is chiefly identified with the latter country. He wrote many songs, not all of them works of genius, but many most beautiful and strong. See his cycle of "Persian Poems;" "The Earth at Rest;" "Good Night."

Tschaikowsky and Dvorak have also written Slavic music, rather sad, suggestive of folk songs and full of power. See the former's "None but a Lonely Heart," and, "The Czar's Drinking-House;" and the latter's "Gipsy Songs."

IV – FRANCE, ITALY AND ENGLAND

France, unlike Germany, has never had genuine art songs. Of chansons, romances and other light songs there is an abundance, but its serious work has been rather in the line of opera. Gounod, however, has many lovely things, some of them popular: "Oh, That We Two Were Maying;" "Maid of Athens," and others, are well known. Delibes shows a distinct German influence in his song-writing. "Nightingale," and "Regrets," have high merit. Godard has more than a hundred songs to his credit, many delightful: the "Arabian Song;" "Farewell;" "The Traveler," are among the best. A French woman song writer, Mdlle. Chaminade, is distinctly popular to-day, but her work is not considered by critics to be strikingly original.

Italy has never been interested in art song; indeed, except for the folk songs of the street, there are few, if any, except such as are found imbedded in operas and are distinctly a part of them. Tosti, to be sure, has written many songs and so have other Italian composers of our day, but nothing which stands among the great lyric songs of the world.

In England the ballad is the musical form of the song, and here this nation excels. The ballads are strong, sincere and beautiful. Clubs should have a number of meetings on the ballads of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Sullivan has written some lovely songs, and so have Goring Thomas, Stanford, and Cowen. There is a new English school of merit, with fresh and original ideas. Sing Thomas's "Spring Is Not Dead" and "A Summer Night." "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," by Stanford, is an excellent piece of work. Mackenzie has followed Brahms more or less; sing "Hope," his best song.

V – AMERICAN SONGS

Until recently we in America, like the English, have written but few lyric songs. But to-day we have a large number of such composers, and there are those in other nations who think that the best work of our time is being done in this country.

Prof. John K. Paine has written only a few songs. Among them are: "Moonlight," and "The Matin Song," both charming.

Arthur Foote has written forty songs – among them, "On the Way to Kew," and, "In Picardie" – and is sometimes compared with Franz. Clayton Johns has a hundred songs, his "Winter Journey" being suggestive of Russian music; "Were I a Prince Egyptian," is good. Reginald de Koven is called the most popular of America's song writers; his settings of verses by Eugene Field are familiar, and his best known song, "Oh, Promise Me," has had great popularity.

G. W. Chadwick, the director of the New England Conservatory, has written seventy-five songs, some of them most original. "Allah" is the best known and probably his strongest; but, "Before the Dawn;" "Bedouin Love Song;" and "Green Grows the Willow," are also fine.

Ethelbert Nevin is a well-known and admired writer of lyrical songs. Walter Damrosch, Horatio Parker, the late Gerrit Smith, Victor Herbert, and many others have been steadily turning out good work.

Edward MacDowell, however, is America's most distinguished song writer, and his early death was lamented as a national calamity among music lovers. Like Grieg in having a Scotch strain in his blood, his work also shows a certain resemblance to that of the Norwegian. His music is highly polished, always interesting and never imitative. Two lovely settings of old words are noticeable: "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon," and "Kennst Du das Land?" "The Pansy" and "The Mignonette," are the best of a group of six flower pieces; "Menie" is remarkable for its tender sadness and delicacy; but his most popular song is "Thy Beaming Eyes." Critics consider his most scholarly work to be his eight settings of verses by Howells, and "The Sea." See "National Music of America and Its Sources," by L. C. Elson (The Page Company), and "American Composers," by Rupert Hughes (The Page Company).

VI – INTERESTING SONGS

In addition to studying this great subject by countries, and by special treatment of the masters of song writing individually, clubs may be interested to look up and sing many of the old English songs suggested under such heads as these in H. K. Johnson's "Old Familiar Songs" (Henry Holt):

Memory: "Ben Bolt;" "I Remember, I Remember."

Home: "My Old Kentucky Home;" "The Suwanee River."

Exile: "Lochaber No More;" "My Heart's in the Highlands."

Sea: "A Life on the Ocean Wave;" "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep."

Nature: "The Ivy;" "The Brook."

Sentiment: "The Last Rose of Summer;" "Stars of the Summer Night."

Unhappy Love: "Kathleen Mavourneen;" "Bonnie Doon."

Happy Love: "Annie Laurie;" "Meet Me by Moonlight Alone."

Humor: "Comin' Through the Rye;" "Within a Mile of Edinboro' Town."

Convivial: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes;" "Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl."

Martial: "Scots Wha Hae;" "March of the Men of Harlech."

National: "Rule Britannia;" "Hail Columbia."

Books to consult: "Songs and Song Writers," Henry T. Finck (Chas. Scribner's Sons); "Makers of Song," Anna A. Chapin (Dodd, Mead & Co.); "Stories of Famous Songs," S. J. A. Fitzgerald (Lippincott).

Collections of all the songs mentioned here, and many more, may be found by writing to music publishers. Public libraries have also cyclopedias of music which will help in writing the biographies of musicians. See "Great Composers and Their Work," by L. C. Elson (The Page Company).