Caroline Benton - The Complete Club Book for Women

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.

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.

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).

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