A WOMAN'S SKIRTS

Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.

Yesterday I began what will be a little series of articles and essays from a 19th century cookbook. I neglected to name it.  The Every-Day Cook-Book, Encyclopedia of Practical Recipes, by Miss E. Neil, deemed on the title page as "Economical, Reliable and Excellent," and published by Regan Printing House, Chicago, Illinois. No date is printed.

I chose today to show part of a section on dressmaking. It begins by explaining the use of ready-made patterns, how to lay out such, pinning, cutting, buttonholes placement and so on. The bit here, on women's skirts, was contributed by "Macmillan's Magazine."
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   Observe the extra fatigue which is insured to every woman in merely carrying a tray upstairs, from the skirts of the dress. Ask any young women who are studying to pass examinations whether they do not find loose clothes a  sine qua non while pouring (sic) over their books, and then realize the harm we are doing ourselves and the race by habitually lowering our powers of life and energy in such a manner. As a matter of fact it is doubtful whether any persons have ever found who would say that their stays were at all tight; and, indeed, by a muscular contraction they can apparently prove that they are not so by moving them about on themselves, and thus probably believe what they say. That they are in error all the same they can easily assure themselves by first measuring round the waist outside the stays; then take them off, let them measure while they take a deep breath, with the tape merely laid on the body as if measuring for the quantity of braid to go round a dress, and mark the result. The injury done by stays is so entirely internal that it is not strange that the maladies caused by wearing them should be attributed to every reason under the sun except the true one, which is, briefly, that all the internal organs being by them displaced, are doing their work imperfectly and under the least advantageous conditions; and are, therefore, exactly in the state most favorable to the development of disease, whether hereditary or otherwise.
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   Tomorrow I shall tell you all about kitchen work. But here is a handy hint in anticipation of it. How to make polish for bright stoves and steel articles: One tablespoonful of turpentine; one tablespoonful of sweet oil; emery powder. Mix the turpentine and sweet oil together, stirring in sufficient emery powder to make the mixture of the thickness of cream. Put it on the article with a piece of soft flannel, rub off quickly with another piece, then polish with a little emery powder and clean leather.

11/17/13