DOMESTIC EVOLUTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11189, 10 February 1897, Page 2

DOMESTIC EVOLUTION.

{St James's Budget.) A school of housewifery should he established in every county in England. At present most of those who are bent on acquiring the arts which are most purely feminine have to go, for their teaching abroad. As far back as 1883 such a school was started at Vienna, with the very best results. The promoters toot the raw' material and imparted good technical training in cooking, sewing, washing and house-cleaning, and they made it pay by starting a restaurant under the same roof as the Housewifery School, though quite apart. The building is sufficiently capacious for the girls in training to live there if they like, but it is not compulsory. Those who can afford it, pay a certain sum of moderate proportions ; those who cannot, receive their instruction free. Each girl takes up one special department—that is, they become either cooks, laundresses, housemaids, nurses, parlourmaids, or sewing-maids, while some are prepared for lady’s-maid's w'ork, and whatever is taught is taught thoroughly. The cooks, whether learning or proficient, carry out the necessary work in the restaurant —the ignorant being, of course, under special tuition; and a good deal of money is secured for the institution by the waitresses, who are sent out for special entertainments under a head, which enables the young people to get practice. This has been so successful that quite an army of women are now earning a satisfactory wage; for those who have been trained in the school are eagerly sought for, whatever department they have chosen, and many gentlewomen who are housekeepers go there for a month or so to be instructed also. This is only one of many such foreign schools, and the sooner they find a place more generally in England the better.

One of the social changes in domestic matters is the introduction of a parlourmaid into many houses of a social, grade where, a few years ago, men-servants were deemed essentially necessary. This has greatly raised the wages of the womcnservants as well as enlarged their sphere of usefulness. They now take the place of the first, second, and third footmen—not only in London, but in large houses in the country given to hospitality. The plate is quite as well kept, if not better, as under the old regime, and the waiting is quite as good. The dress of the parlour-maid is considered an important matter. It must be of the simplest, and her whole appearance severely neat. Long flowing ends to caps are unheard of ; the head-covering must be close and small, the bibbed apron wide and long in the skirt, the dress black.

But in some houses they adopt a species of livery—brown woollen dresses and open bodices, with yellow waistcoats buttoned close to the throat, or black dresses with white vests.