Caroline French Benton

“ ALUMNI LUNCHEON
Lay the table prettily with the usual doilies, bonbon dishes of almonds, radishes, candies, and crystallised fruits. Garden asters are now in full bloom and come in great variety of colour, and these will make a beautiful centrepiece, massed in a large bowl. The combination of crimson and pink, of pink and white, or of white and purple is better than the use of one shade alone. ”

“ They cannot make a fire grow hot quickly, or make it cooler if it is too hot; they do not know how to get what the cook-books call a 'moderate oven.' 'We never could understand about drafts and things,' they say, but the real truth of the matter is that they are too lazy to try and learn, I'm afraid, because it is so very simple that even a little girl can learn about it in ten minutes. The only way to be a good housekeeper is to understand all about a fire and how to keep a kitchen range in a good temper. ”

“ When Margaret had looked at everything, she set out in a row the big bowl and the middle-sized bowl and the little wee bowl, and put the scalloped patty-pans round them, and the real egg-beater in front of all, just like a picture, and then she read a page in her cookery-book, and began to believe it was all true. ”

“ Now, of course, every single person who uses a bathtub ought to wipe it out afterward; but men don't take the trouble, and women sometimes forget; little girls never do, of course! So the tub has to be washed and wiped out every morning."
"Every single morning?" Margaret asked, grumblingly. "It seems as if that would be too often; it must wear the nice enamel off to wash it so much."
"Not at all," said her aunt; "it is good for it! Get the nice white cloth and a cake of soap,—not the sapolio, because that would scratch it,—and roll up your sleeves. ”

“ It will be found that, on the whole, it is seldom best for a club to choose a miscellaneous program for an entire year's work. Too often such a choice means a grotesque range from Life in Early Egypt to the Waverley Novels, and from the Panama Canal to Spring Flowers. When one wishes to have a year of work with a different subject for each meeting it is at least possible to choose those which have some relation, and vary the program by having musical meetings also. ”

“ Of course a woman of unlimited means may expend a vast sum on a basket of orchids or some other fashionable flowers for her table, but while it is desirable to have a pretty effect, all undue gorgeousness is out of harmony with the presumably informal meal. A woman who plans her table decorations herself will probably evolve something more original and more pleasing than the hackneyed result a florist would attain, should she summon him to her aid. A quantity of roses lightly grouped in a bowl or arranged in a basket has a grace which is not found in a merely conventional arrangement. ”

“ One day a messenger boy went around to the kitchen door with a telegram for Norah, telling her that her sister had broken her arm and she must come at once and take care of the children; as there were nine of them, including a tiny baby, Norah felt she must take the very first train, and so in only an hour she was off, and the Blairs' kitchen was empty.
"However, it isn't as though we didn't know how to cook," said Brownie, when she came home from school and found out what had happened. "Every single one of us can cook—even Jack." ”

“ A president, above all her other duties, should see to it that the atmosphere of [Pg 5] the club is warm and friendly. If in other ways it is successful, if the study gives intellectual stimulus, and practical work is carried on effectively, still it is a failure if the members are either snobbish or unsympathetic. All the members of a club must be in harmony and work together in a spirit of comradeship if it is ever to reach its highest possibilities.
Last of all, should not a club extend its membership to as many as possible, rather than have a waiting list? ”

“ As she finished her mother came into the kitchen with her Other Aunt, and said they meant to help get the dinner.
The mother looked around her. "Everything is very nice," she said. "The sink is clean, and so is the pantry, and so are all the dishes. The range is bright; the dish-towels are washed; the dining-room is in order. I noticed as I came through the other rooms that the bedrooms, bathroom, and parlors have all been looked after to-day, too. Margaret, I do believe you are as good a housekeeper as I am already." ”

“ Mildred and Brownie were on the candy committee, and, of course, they were much excited. They had to have so much candy for a whole town of people that they did not know where it was to come from.
"We could go around and ask for contributions," said Mildred to her mother; "but the trouble is that everybody in the school is doing that very thing, asking and asking and asking!"
"You might make a good deal of candy yourselves, and perhaps other people who would not care to buy quantities to give you, would make some too. Home-made candy always sells well." ”

“ There is no limit to the number of courses a hostess may offer if she really sets out to show what she can do if she tries; every year gastronomic possibilities increase, and an ambitious woman may pile patés on croquettes, and salads on sherbets, and creams on top of everything else ad libitum, if she so wishes. But a luncheon should be a luncheon, not a cooking-school display. ”

“ There has never been an opportunity for community work like that offered to-day, offered especially to those women who have been made capable by their training in their own little study clubs to cope with questions of hygiene, of tenement house wrongs and immigrants' problems; they have the widest scope for their energies. If they are wise, they will accept the opportunity of using the woman's club and make it a center of social service. ”

“ The most important thing of all is knowing what you have learned to-day—to quietly go through the work, taking one thing after another, each in its turn, and to do all [Pg 170] well, without hurry or worry. To be able to do this is to make housework pleasant."
"Well," said Margaret, earnestly, "I like to keep house. When I am a woman I mean to have the nicest, cleanest house in all the world!" ”

“ But they could not think of anything new that seemed exactly what they wanted; so the next day they went in to see Miss Betty after school and asked her about it.
"Why, a chafing-dish party, of course," she said. "That's exactly the thing to have. You make a lot of indigestible things to eat and then you go to sleep and dream of ghosts and goblins, and hear shivery noises and groans and such things—just what you want, on Hallowe'en! I can think of a lot of awfully good things to have, things warranted to give you nightmares."
Jack said that suited him exactly, but Mildred was not so sure. ”

“ One of the charming things about Christmas Day is the now customary late luncheon for the members of the family and the intimate friends who are afterwards expected to prolong their stay until the lighting of the tree at early candle-light. Men as well as women are invited to this holiday celebration, and the occasion is one of the happiest of the happy season. ”

“ One meeting should be on women's colleges, taking them in the order of their establishment, and showing how they have developed. Have descriptions of each and tell of its special aims. Discuss the value of a college training for women, and its faults. Speak of coeducational colleges and State Universities; have they advantages over the rest? Does a college woman lose interest in her home? Does she marry early, or does she drift into a career?
Have some college woman address the club on work done in the line of higher education of women, and its results. ”

“ Mildred said decidedly. "What shall we have for the supper?"
"Oh, have cheese dreams!" Jack begged. "The fellows think they're great. I'll make 'em myself, if you will. I learned how at the Dwights when I was there last week."
"You did!" teased his mother. "But I thought boys didn't cook!" Jack's face grew decidedly red.
"Of course boys cook with a chafing-dish," he explained; "so do men, too. In college, lots of them make Welsh-rabbit and oysters and things like that for spreads, you know. And you can make the same things in a frying-pan on the stove just as well. ”

“ Coal must always go on before this point, but not too much, which would be wasteful. A bright, low fire was always best.
"Now leave the drafts all open just a moment," said her mother, "to let the coal gas burn away, and then you can shut the fire up and it will keep just right for hours. And one thing more—never let the coal come up near the covers of the stove, or the great heat will warp these and spoil them; they will always have cracks around their edges, and the heat will be wasted."
"Bridget never lets her fire go out at night," said Margaret, as she shut the fire all up. ”

“ But nothing is ever prettier than the old-fashioned wax candle in white or colour, in silver candlesticks, with or without shades. Nothing gives such reflections on the dishes, the silver and glass, and the mirror-like surface of polished wood as their flickering lights. If one owns several of these, she has the foundation for endless variety. ”

“ Study the singular mingling of the races which has produced an entirely new type of nationality and patriotism.
The subject of ranches and the life there may be the topic of one paper; another may take up the life in the capital, Buenos Ayres, with its contrasts between great poverty and greater wealth, for the ports are filled with steamers from all parts of the world, and the docks crowded with the very poorest Italian immigrants. The wide boulevards, theaters, opera house, clubs, newspaper offices, and public buildings are on a scale of unusual magnificence. ”

“ Shine it a little every day in the week, and once in every few days give it a good thorough blacking and polishing when the fire is out, and you will make the stove wear a long time and keep it in good working order as well. A clean range, one that is really clean and well cared for inside and out, is always good-natured and happy, and does the very best it knows how for you when you try and cook, but one that is full of ashes and clinkers, with a face all grimy and dusty and gray, gets sullen and cross, and will not try and please anybody. ”

“ Lay the table very much as for the New Year's day luncheon, with red flowers, candles, and other decoration, and if you wish to emphasise the national colours of Germany, Mozart's home, have red and chocolate bonbons on the table and give each guest a little knot of red and white carnations tied with black ribbons. For cards, go to the printer and have him strike off small cuts of Mozart's head on squares of cardboard; all printers have cuts of distinguished people, and they can be reproduced for about a dollar a dozen. ”

“ Brownie was delighted with it.
"But, Norah, we won't want muffins," she said. "I remember when I was five, I couldn't have even one for breakfast—not till I was about seven, I guess it was. And Mother says Mrs. Lane is just as partickler as can be about Helen."
"I know something you can make in 'em," nodded Norah. "Not muffins. You just wait. You make it out of rice, and rice is awful good for children."
So Brownie ran into her mother's room to tell her what they had found and plan the meal with her.
"Suppose you have a really nice luncheon for both the dolls and the girls," she said. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Have ready a hot, greased frying-pan; pour in the batter from a small pitcher.
"Sometimes I have these instead of bread to eat with meat, and then we have gravy on them. Then sometimes we have maple-syrup, and call them dessert."
"Syrup for me!" said Jack, struggling to turn his fish-cakes without breaking them. "But I didn't know you were so much of a cook, Father."
"Jack, while we are eating, I'll tell you a true story, one of the dark secrets of my eventful [Pg 131] life; that will explain to you why I believe a man should know how to cook." ”

“ As to favours, they are in no way essential; they are suggested here merely because they afford some opportunity for originality, and serve to break the ice at the very beginning of a meal. They are not for the older woman, who will doubtless despise them, but for the girl-hostess who is gay enough still to care for whatever raises a laugh. They should depend for their worth not on any intrinsic value, for they should have none, but on their cleverness, their appropriateness; those mentioned are only "suggestions;" every hostess should from these go on to others which have more to them. ”

“ Most people cannot have a new cloth on every night, but no one need ever have on a cloth that is not clean; a good housekeeper never does, so of [Pg 49] course you never will." Margaret said she certainly never would.
"One reason why we use doilies or a lunch-cloth for breakfast and luncheon and supper is because if these get soiled it is easy to wash them out at once; it makes housework simpler in the end to have them instead of using table-cloths three times a day, which are large and very troublesome to wash. People who once learn to use them never go back to the old-fashioned way of doing. ”

“ The club to which they wish to belong must offer them an opportunity for self-development, one in which they will obtain the culture which comes from the study of art and music and literature; one where their hungry minds will be fed. [Pg 2]
But the group of young women,—perhaps college graduates,—have no sympathy with this desire; they have had enough of books! They demand that all the energies of the club shall be devoted to the good of the community, to the "larger housekeeping," to preparation for citizenship. Who can stop to write dull papers on Italian Art in this day of efficiency? ”

“ With March comes a lull in the social world. Lent holds sway, whether one professes to observe it or not. Dinners, receptions, dances, are all postponed for a time, and quiet teas and luncheons are the accepted forms of entertaining. A Lenten luncheon gives opportunity for a meal without meat, one which may be a pleasant change from the usual menu, and still will not suggest a fast. ”

“ Eat while warm; do not cut, but break into pieces.
"Now I could have cooked this just as I could have cooked the beans, without the oven. I could have put it in the frying-pan in a bed of hot ashes and covered it and put ashes on top and let it cook till done; but it's better to cook it this way if you can, because it's lighter and browner. When you want regular biscuits, all you do is to make the dough into little balls, and be sure you put flour on your hands before you try it, Jack, or you'll get into an awful mess. And then you put them in the pan and just bake them till they are done." ”

“ You do not take off the crumbs at breakfast because it is such an informal meal, but you must watch and see if any tumbler needs refilling, or if anybody needs a second butter ball, and supply it without being asked. The meat platter, the dish of potatoes, and the muffins or toast should also be offered twice to every one. Your mother, however, will ask if any one wants a second cup of coffee, and then you bring her the cup, and after she has rinsed it out by pouring in hot water from her little pitcher, she will fill it and you can carry it back and set it down again. ”

“ Among the many topics which will suggest themselves for discussion are these: What can be said of education in Latin America? What is the percentage of those who can read and write, and why is it so low? What of higher education? What is the relation between church and state and what has the church done for education? What can be said of the morals of the Latin Americans? What is the position of woman? How is she educated and trained? What is her home efficiency? Compare South American cities with those of France, England and America and point out the great differences. ”