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Classic
Cook Books
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page 335
ought to be satisfied with any but the very best cooking, without which the most
wholesome food is unpalatable and distressing; and no considerations of economy
should ever induce her to place on the table bread with the slightest sour
tinge, cake or pudding in the least heavy or solid, or meat with the slightest
taint. Their use means disease and costly doctor's bills, to say nothing of her
own loss of repute as an accomplished housekeeper. If children and servants do
work improperly, she should quietly insist on its being done correctly, and in
self-defense they will soon do it correctly without supervision. Order and
system mean the stopping of waste, the practice of economy, and additional means
to expend for the table and for the luxuries and elegancies of life--things for
which money is well expended. It requires good food to make good muscle and good
brain, and the man or woman who habitually sits down to badly cooked or scanty
dinners, fights the battle of life at a great disadvantage.
THE PARLOR.
The sweeping and dusting of a parlor seems simple enough, but is best done
systematically. "Dusters," made of old prints, with which to cover books,
statuettes, and such articles as are difficult to dust, and larger ones to cover
beds, are indispensable in sweeping and dusting. "Carpet sweepers" are only fit
for daily use, when thorough work is not required, a thorough sweeping once or
twice a week sufficing even the tidiest of housekeepers. Before sweeping open
the blinds and let in the light, and open the windows if it is not storming or
too windy. Look on the ceiling for cobwebs, and sprinkle the carpet over with
moistened bran, salt, damp coffee-grounds, or tea-leaves. Clean the corners and
edges with a sharp-pointed stick and stiff whisk-broom. Brush down with the
feather-duster all picture-cords, frames, and curtains, and remove all cobwebs;
then clear one corner of furniture and begin sweeping toward the center with a
short, light stroke, going slowly and carefully so as to raise no dust, and
drawing, not pushing, the broom. The second time over, increase the length and
force of the stroke, and the third, brush with long and vigorous strokes, using
care as the dirt at the center of the room is approached. In this way it will
take twenty minutes to sweep a large room, but it will be clean, and the carpet
will wear, bright and fresh, much longer than if the dirt were allowed to grind
out the fabric. After the sweeping remove the "dusters" carefully, carrying them
out of doors to shake, and rub, not simply wipe, off the furniture and other
articles with a clean, soft, cotton cloth or an old silk handkerchief, or better
a soft dusting-towel with fleecy surface which is sold expressly for this
purpose, folding the dust in as it soils the cloth, and when it is filled with
dust, shake thoroughly out of doors. Managed in this way, curtains, furniture
and carpets will never be loaded with dust, but will remain bright, clean and
fresh from one year's house-cleaning to another's. If any
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