INTRODUCTION.

But, in my opinion, a wife who manages her share in the household matters well, has as much influence as her husband on their prosperity. For, as a rule, it is the labor of the husband that brings in the money of the family, but the judgment of the wife that regulates the spending of most of it. And whilst houses in which these matters are well managed increase, those in which they are ill managed decrease in prosperity.-The Economist of Xenophon. (In Ruskin's Bibliotheca Pastorum.)

Americans are universally considered a prosperous people, and as a nation we pride ourselves upon the ease with which we acquire wealth. But the money we earn so easily we spend carelessly; prudent thrift is a rare quality, and the absence of it is often in no slight degree the cause of much of the financial trouble from which we suffer.

The fact that national prosperity is so largely dependent on domestic economy invests the subject with a national importance and claims for it the earnest consideration of those concerned in education. Within the last few years much public attention has been directed toward this matter and an increasing number of people now are urging the estab lishment of schools for practical industrial training. They demand that the curriculum of our public schools shall be so modified as to substitute, for some of those higher branches of literary education which they assert to be comparatively valueless in promoting the future welfare of the children, training in mechanics and practical science for boys and in domestie economy and cookery for girls.

They ask, Why teach our children branches of chemistry and physiology, for which they can have no practical use, and neglect to instruct them in the chemistry of food and in the physiology of nutrition? They affirm that the close relation existing between health and the food we consume daily is not sufficiently well understood; they point to the fact that a sense of repletion after eating is too often regarded as an evidence of nourishment, and declare that they have been slow to acknowledge the great truth that "food is force." Now, at least, the public has become aware of the fundamental importance of this fact, and there is a general demand for more intimate knowledge of its bearings upon our national health and prosperity and for some definite system of imparting that knowledge to the rising generation. The question of teaching children the virtues of thrift and temperance as they are taught the rudiments of literary education is now a paramount one.

With all our facilities for producing the luxuries of the world, as a nation we are ill fed, and in some localities half starved. The blame of this lamentable fact rests, it is affirmed, in no small manner with those

in charge of the education of our youth, which practically ignores the necessity for training girls in the principles of domestic economy and by its influence fosters the idea that the performance of domestic labor by the head of the household is degrading. Great honor should be accorded the institutions and teachers that endeavor to correct these pernicious tendencies, for the exigencies of life demand that the two educational systems, the intellectual and industrial, should each have due recognition. Already there are increasing evidences of the national recognition of this fact.

These ideas are by no means radical or novel. They were urged upon the English council of education in support of the request, recently granted, for money from the public educational fund to provide for special instruction in cookery in the English board schools.

The fact already cited, that such instruction necessarily involves some knowledge of chemistry and physiology, places it upon the plane of rational and scientific education, in which position it is held by its vital bearing upon public health, comfort, and general social economy. This view of the case is the accepted one in Europe. In America, individual efforts have demonstrated the possibility of combining in a practical and popular form of instruction certain chemical and physiological principles with the general exercise of the culinary art.

TRAINING SCHOOLS OF COOKERY.

In Europe, instruction in domestic economy forms a considerable part of a young lady's education. In Germany, the mechanic, the well-to-do tradesman, and the heads of wealthy and noble families provide for the home training of their daughters. Among the poor and middle classes what is known as the "exchange system" prevails to a great extent; families related to or acquainted with each other exchange their children for certain periods, having in view the specific object of training in some department of industry. The daughters of the wealthier families are placed in the households of their own class for similar instruction, for which a stated fee, varying from $200 to $250, is paid, together with all personal expenses. The young ladies, under the immediate supervision of the lady of the family, learn all branches of housework, taking part in the daily routine of marketing, cooking, and serving food, managing servants, and superintending household expenses; in fact, each pupil is fitted by practical experience to become a Hausfrau, while she is always addressed as "Miss" and is treated with deference and consideration by her instructors. The daughters of nobles receive similar training, save that it is given in a castle or palace. In England, the pupils of the London, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and other institutions belonging to the Northern Union of Schools of Cookery, come from all social grades, as do the scholars of the New York Cooking School.

NATIONAL TRAINING SCHOOL FOR COOKERY, AT SOUTH KENSINGTON. The reports of the National Training School for Cookery, at South Kensington, show that public interest in the question of instruction in domestic economy was first concentrated by the delivery of Mr. Buckmaster's lectures upon food, which were given at the invitation of Her Majesty's commissioners in connection with the food exhibit at the international exhibition at London in 1873-74. These lectures explained the chemistry of food to a certain extent and dealt clearly and practically with the subject of cookery; they were subsequently published in a popular form and convey many valuable scientific suggestions concerning food. The use of the building in which Mr. Buckmaster delivered these lectures was given by the commissioners in 1873 to the South Kensington National Training School for Cookery, under the superintendence of Lady Barker, then maintained by subscriptions, donations, and fees, but now chiefly self supporting. Its object is the training of teachers of cookery, as well as the diffusion of general in

formation on the subject. The lessons are now given by experienced cooks in accordance with the directions contained in the Official Handbook for the National Training School for Cookery, by Miss Rose O. Cole, the daughter of Sir Henry Cole, one of the most active of the founders and trustees. In 1874, the committee of the parliamentary council on education gave a portion of the general educational fund of 1,000,000l. sterling to the permanent foundation of the school. Lady Barker retired from the superintendence in 1875, and was succeeded by the present superintendent, Mrs. Edith Clarke.

The demonstration room of the school is fitted up with a platform, across the length of which runs a table, with a lecturer's desk at one end. Tiers of chairs for students face this table. The teacher stands behind it, facing the class; and at her back are dressers and ranges with closed and open grates. Several grills are let into the table, over gas jets, so that many of the dishes can be cooked there. A blackboard hangs at one side of the room, upon which is written the list of dishes to be cooked during the lesson; above it hangs a card requesting silence and attention among the audience, which is large and intelligent. The cook is a middle aged English woman who has been trained in the school and who specifies the exact quantity of each ingredient as it is added to the dishes. All the operations are scrupulously neat. When the lesson is ended the dishes are placed on sale; they are readily disposed of at about their cost for material. The first cooks employed in the training school were brought from France, and their pupils continue the instruction. Certificates of proficiency are given to such scholars as actually go through the course of instruction, and they are in high estimation.

The training school also provides teachers of cookery for other institutions at a stated fee.

The course begins with instruction in the cleaning of cooking utensils and the lighting and management of fires; training in the different methods of cookery follows, and finally the pupil participates in the actual cooking of the dishes comprising the lessons. The managers agree to recommend such as pass satisfactory examinations in the course, but they do not guarantee them employment. The full course comprises one month's daily work of four hours' time, except on Saturday and Sunday, in the scullery and demonstration classes; then, after submitting her note books and undergoing a theoretical examination, the pupil spends one month in learning and two weeks in teaching in the artisan practice kitchen. From there she goes into the middle class kitchen, where she gives one month to learning and two weeks to helping the teacher to demonstrate; the next month she becomes a demonstrator, working first two weeks in private and giving her final fortnight to public teaching, in accordance with the printed recipes of the school. The fee for this five months' training is about one hundred dollars