THE FABIAN SOCIETY.

Evening Star, Issue 10900, 7 April 1899, Page 1

THE FABIAN SOCIETY.

This society's autumn Mj)sinha were opened by last at which the Hon. WTii. Bolt presided > and Mr W. Hutchison read a paper on ' The Sehool and the Cottage.' The paper argued the necessity of the daughters of the poor being educated, so that they might become good housewives. Few reforms were more necessary;-said Mr Hutchison, than that which would be effected when our wives generally were found duly qualified to make their little homes pleasant, to .prize a fow flowers, and to prepare a savory meal. In the rural districts, where there were oatmeal and milk, it was hardly possible to mismanage food—the fresh air , and exercise carried all before them ; bub in towns the preparation of a meal should be a work of care—not' in any epiourean sense. He 8poko : of cookery purely and entirely as a matter of<shealth. Look at a workman's breakfast. Was not the tea too often (nfused until all the tannin was in the liquid; the coffee not a liquid,but a muddy soup? The bread was generally new, and consequently indigestible; the milk frequently poor, and little of it; and the batter was hardly to be named without a shudder. The cups were cracked and- unmatched, the spoons were yellow, and there: was rarely a flower or a pretty thing to please the eye. He knew what a hideous thing poverty was; but they would observe that he had not been speaking of things., that cost much money—only of things that took a little time, and little care, and some taste. Even to boil an egg rightly required more attention than many women bestowed upon it. To make porridge nicely was a rare gift. This dish was now very wisely used almost everywhere, but the staff seen at hotels was wonderful. It was his belief that only those who knew the shorter catechism couldinake porridge or bake oatmeal cakes, properly. The modern fiends were indigestion, heartburn, and dyspepsia, each of them, with a oat-a'-cine-tails, lashing poor Tern to f the dram shop. Every undigested meal, eveiy airless room, made the man more inclined to drink, and less capable of work. Temperance reformers ought to realise that their movement meant many things oyer and above prohibition, and our good people of all sorts should lecture less on the vices 6t the proletariat and do a great deal more in the way of educating the young in all knowledge, even a knowledge of common thirge, and in a faith which alone made knowledge operative towards benign and useful results. The paper was disoußsed freely and in a friendly spirit. Mr W. Hoed, contended that the whole tendency of the age was to get women as far away from domestic drudgery as poeeible. The greater part of a working .woman's time was wasted over the wash-tub—and the frying-pan. He was under the impression that there was no necessity for washing clothes at all. We should wear clothes that did not require washing. The question of cooking was a very serious question. An eminent doctor had declared that the frying-pan had killed more men than the, sword, and he btlieved it was true. We should train women to say : " I am not going to Use the frying-pan nnless.no better appliance for cooking can be procured." Mr plark pointed out that owing t> our present industrial conditions women were so j badly paid that many"of them could spare nothing from their earnings to adorn their houses. •■'...., ,-. •Mr R. Wilson did not agree the view women should become mote domesticated. He thougbt the fdture there would be a system of CD-ojierativerhpuse-holds, and women would not qopk ilisjprivate houses. Tbe cooking would be done in large quantities, and it would be done much cheaper than in private hpuses. The Chairman-poJnteft out that the factory system had fanv%, but it was no use- endeayoring:lj»: perpetuate the old system in our. We would have to look loj?wa^a#|e(irgaMßing; the family to suit new iniwsjpjlal ,oonditi,o»B* During the cvenfefe piano solo, and Miss Wm^Wm^ .*•»* Miss Ada Matheson sanjg #At my window and '0 Divine .Redeeroerv's ;•'■' " ii i _ '•'•' \ "'"V" "'■■• . The annual cost of Wamtainjng the poof in the workhouses: of lKJH?on;alqne is about <e250;000, whUe%e*6ujaoc*< rehef: anriunts to ' something over «W» annum,