Household linens must include, too, the 6 barred-linen kitchen towels at
10, 12, or 15 cents a yard, for drying silver and glass; and 6 heavier
towels, either barred or crash, for china and other ware, at the same
price, with 3 roller towels at 10 cents per yard; while last, but by no
means least, come the dozen neatly hemmed cheesecloth dusters at 5 cents
a yard, for men must work and women must sweep--and dust!




CHAPTER VI

THE KITCHEN

The old condition of "Queen-Anne-in-the-front-and-Mary-Ann-in-the-back"
in the home furnishing, when the largest outlay of money and taste was
put into the "front room" and the kitchen took the hindermost, has
gradually given way before the fact that a woman is known, not by the
drawing-room, but by the kitchen, she keeps. Given the requisite
qualifications for the proper furnishing, care, and ordering of her
kitchen, and it can usually be said of her with truth that she is
mistress of the entire home-making and home-keeping situation. If any
one room in the home was conceived solely for the relief of man's
estate, that room is the kitchen, and it has supplied the energy which
has sent forth many a one to fight a winning battle with the world, the
flesh, and the devil; and while it is, alas, too true that it is the
rock upon which many a domestic ship has gone to pieces, it is the true
foundation of the home and, therefore, of the nation. Wherefore let us
first look well to our kitchens and then live up to them.