James E. Seaver - "A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison"

P. G. Wodehouse - "A Man of Means"

John Lothrop Motley - "History of the United Netherlands, 1585"

George Gissing - "Our Friend the Charlatan"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: The American Woman\'s Home

C >> Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe >> The American Woman\'s Home




_THE CHRISTIAN NEIGHBORHOOD._

Spirit of Christian Missions--Present organizations under church
direction too mechanical--Christian family influence the true instrument
of Gospel propagation--Practical suggestions for gathering a Christian
family in neglected neighborhoods--Plan of church, school-house, and
family-dwelling in one building--Mode of use for various
purposes--Nucleus and gathering of a family--Christian work for
Christian women--Children--Orphans--Servants--Neglected ones--Household
training--Roman Catholic Nuns--The South--The West--The neglected
interior of older States--Power of such examples--Rapid spread of their
influence--Anticipation of the glorious consummation to be hoped
for--Prophecy in the Scriptures--Cowper's noble vision of the millennial
glory.

APPEAL TO AMERICAN WOMEN.

GLOSSARY OF WORDS AND REFERENCES




INTRODUCTION.


The authors of this volume, while they sympathize with every honest
effort to relieve the disabilities and sufferings of their sex, are
confident that the chief cause of these evils is the fact that the
honor and duties of the family state are not duly appreciated, that
women are not trained for these duties as men are trained for their
trades and professions, and that, as the consequence, family labor is
poorly done, poorly paid, and regarded as menial and disgraceful.

To be the nurse of young children, a cook, or a housemaid, is regarded
as the lowest and last resort of poverty, and one which no woman of
culture and position can assume without loss of caste and
respectability.

It is the aim of this volume to elevate both the honor and the
remuneration of all the employments that sustain the many difficult
and sacred duties of the family state, and thus to render each
department of woman's true profession as much desired and respected
as are the most honored professions of men.

When the other sex are to be instructed in law, medicine, or divinity,
they are favored with numerous institutions richly endowed, with
teachers of the highest talents and acquirements, with extensive
libraries, and abundant and costly apparatus. With such advantages
they devote nearly ten of the best years of life to preparing themselves
for their profession; and to secure the public from unqualified members
of these professions, none can enter them until examined by a competent
body, who certify to their due preparation for their duties.

Woman's profession embraces the care and nursing of the body in the
critical periods of infancy and sickness, the training of the human
mind in the most impressible period of childhood, the instruction and
control of servants, and most of the government and economies of the
family state. These duties of woman are as sacred and important as any
ordained to man; and yet no such advantages for preparation have been
accorded to her, nor is there any qualified body to certify the public
that a woman is duly prepared to give proper instruction in her
profession.

This unfortunate want, and also the questions frequently asked
concerning the domestic qualifications of both the authors of this
work, who have formerly written upon such topics, make it needful to
give some account of the advantages they have enjoyed in preparation
for the important office assumed as teachers of woman's domestic duties.

The sister whose name is subscribed is the eldest of nine children by
her own mother, and of four by her step-mother; and having a natural
love for children, she found it a pleasure as well as a duty to aid
in the care of infancy and childhood. At sixteen, she was deprived of
a mother, who was remarkable not only for intelligence and culture,
but for a natural taste and skill in domestic handicraft. Her place
was awhile filled by an aunt remarkable for her habits of neatness and
order, and especially for her economy. She was, in the course of time,
replaced by a stepmother, who had been accustomed to a superior style
of housekeeping, and was an expert in all departments of domestic
administration.

Under these successive housekeepers, the writer learned not only to
perform in the most approved manner all the manual employments of
domestic life, but to honor and enjoy these duties.

At twenty-three, she commenced the institution which ever since has
flourished as "The Hartford Female Seminary," where, at the age of
twelve, the sister now united with her in the authorship of this work
became her pupil, and, after a few years, her associate. The removal
of the family to the West, and failure of health, ended a connection
with the Hartford Seminary, and originated a similar one in Cincinnati,
of which the younger authoress of this work was associate principal
till her marriage.

At this time, the work on _Domestic Economy_, of which this volume
may be called an enlarged edition, although a great portion of it is
entirely new, embodying the latest results of science, was prepared
by the writer as a part of the _Massachusetts School Library_,
and has since been extensively introduced as a text-book into public
schools and higher female seminaries. It was followed by its sequel,
_The Domestic Receipt-Book_, widely circulated by the Harpers in
every State of the Union.

These two works have been entirely remodeled, former topics rewritten,
and many new ones introduced, so as to include all that is properly
embraced in a complete Encyclopedia of Domestic Economy.

In addition to the opportunities mentioned, the elder sister, for many
years, has been studying the causes and the remedies for the decay of
constitution and loss of health so increasingly prevalent among American
women, aiming to promote the establishment of _endowed_ institutions, in
which women shall be properly trained for their profession, as both
housekeepers and health-keepers. What advantages have thus been received
and the results thus obtained will appear in succeeding pages.

During the upward progress of the age, and the advance of a more
enlightened Christianity, the writers of this volume have gained more
elevated views of the true mission of woman--of the dignity and
importance of her distinctive duties, and of the true happiness which
will be the reward of a right appreciation of this mission, and a
proper performance of these duties.

There is at the present time an increasing agitation of the public
mind, evolving many theories and some crude speculations as to woman's
rights and duties. That there is a great social and moral power in her
keeping, which is now seeking expression by organization, is manifest,
and that resulting plans and efforts will involve some mistakes, some
collisions, and some failures, all must expect.

But to intelligent, reflecting, and benevolent women--whose faith rests
on the character and teachings of Jesus Christ--there are great
principles revealed by Him, which in the end will secure the grand
result which He taught and suffered to achieve. It is hoped that in
the following pages these principles will be so exhibited and
illustrated as to aid in securing those rights and advantages which
Christ's religion aims to provide for all, and especially for the most
weak and defenseless of His children.

CATHARINE E. BEECHER.

[Illustration]





CHAPTER I.

THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY.


It is the aim of this volume to elevate both the honor and the
remuneration of all employments that sustain the many difficult and
varied duties of the family state, and thus to render each department
of woman's profession as much desired and respected as are the most
honored professions of men.

What, then, is the end designed by the family state which Jesus Christ
came into this world to secure?

It is to provide for the training of our race to the highest possible
intelligence, virtue, and happiness, by means of the self-sacrificing
labors of the wise and good, and this with chief reference to a future
immortal existence. The distinctive feature of the family is
self-sacrificing labor of the stronger and wiser members to raise the
weaker and more ignorant to equal advantages. The father undergoes
toil and self-denial to provide a home, and then the mother becomes
a self-sacrificing laborer to train its inmates. The useless,
troublesome infant is served in the humblest offices; while both parents
unite in training it to an equality with themselves in every advantage.
Soon the older children become helpers to raise the younger to a level
with their own. When any are sick, those who are well become
self-sacrificing ministers. When the parents are old and useless, the
children become their self-sacrificing servants.

Thus the discipline of the family state is one of daily self-devotion
of the stronger and wiser to elevate and support the weaker members.
Nothing could be more contrary to its first principles than for the
older and more capable children to combine to secure to themselves the
highest advantages, enforcing the drudgeries on the younger, at the
sacrifice of their equal culture.

Jesus Christ came to teach the fatherhood of God and consequent
brotherhood of man. He came as the "first-born Son" of God and the
Elder Brother of man, to teach by example the self-sacrifice by which
the great family of man is to be raised to equality of advantages as
children of God. For this end, he "humbled himself" from the highest
to the lowest place. He chose for his birthplace the most despised
village; for his parents the lowest in rank; for his trade, to labor
with his hands as a carpenter, being "subject to his parents" thirty
years. And, what is very significant, his trade was that which prepares
the family home, as if he would teach that the great duty of man is
labor--to provide for and train weak and ignorant creatures. Jesus
Christ worked with his hands nearly thirty years, and preached less
than three. And he taught that his kingdom is exactly opposite to that
of the world, where all are striving for the highest positions. "Whoso
will be great shall be your minister, and whoso will be chiefest shall
be servant of all."

The family state then, is the aptest earthly illustration of the
heavenly kingdom, and in it woman is its chief minister. Her great
mission is self-denial, in training its members to self-sacrificing
labors for the ignorant and weak: if not her own children, then the
neglected children of her Father in heaven. She is to rear all under
her care to lay up treasures, not on earth, but in heaven. All the
pleasures of this life end here; but those who train immortal minds
are to reap the fruit of their labor through eternal ages.

To man is appointed the out-door labor--to till the earth, dig the
mines, toil in the foundries, traverse the ocean, transport merchandise,
labor in manufactories, construct houses, conduct civil, municipal,
and state affairs, and all the heavy work, which, most of the day,
excludes him from the comforts of a home. But the great stimulus to
all these toils, implanted in the heart of every true man, is the
desire for a home of his own, and the hopes of paternity. Every man
who truly lives for immortality responds to the beatitude, "Children
are a heritage from the Lord: blessed is the man that hath his quiver
full of them!" The more a father and mother live under the influence
of that "immortality which Christ hath brought to light," the more is
the blessedness of rearing a family understood and appreciated. Every
child trained aright is to dwell forever in exalted bliss with those
that gave it life and trained it for heaven.

The blessed privileges of the family state are not confined to those
who rear children of their own. Any woman who can earn a livelihood,
as every woman should be trained to do, can take a properly qualified
female associate, and institute a family of her own, receiving to its
heavenly influences the orphan, the sick, the homeless, and the sinful,
and by motherly devotion train them to follow the self-denying example
of Christ, in educating his earthly children for true happiness in
this life and for his eternal home.

And such is the blessedness of aiding to sustain a truly Christian
home, that no one comes so near the pattern of the All-perfect One as
those who might hold what men call a higher place, and yet humble
themselves to the lowest in order to aid in training the young, "not
as men-pleasers, but as servants to Christ, with good-will doing service
as to the Lord, and not to men." Such are preparing for high places
in the kingdom of heaven. "Whosoever will be chiefest among you, let
him be your servant."

It is often the case that the true humility of Christ is not understood.
It was not in having a low opinion of his own character and claims,
but it was in taking a low place in order to raise others to a higher.
The worldling seeks to raise himself and family to an equality with
others, or, if possible, a superiority to them. The true follower of
Christ comes down in order to elevate others.

The maxims and institutions of this world have ever been antagonistic
to the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. Men toil for wealth,
honor, and power, not as means for raising others to an equality with
themselves, but mainly for earthly, selfish advantages. Although the
experience of this life shows that children brought up to labor have
the fairest chance for a virtuous and prosperous life, and for hope
of future eternal blessedness, yet it is the aim of most parents who
can do so, to lay up wealth that their children need not labor with
the hands as Christ did. And although exhorted by our Lord not to lay
up treasure on earth, but rather the imperishable riches which are
gained in toiling to train the ignorant and reform the sinful, as yet
a large portion of the professed followers of Christ, like his first
disciples, are "slow of heart to believe."

Not less have the sacred ministries of the family state been undervalued
and warred upon in other directions; for example, the Romish Church
has made celibacy a prime virtue, and given its highest honors to those
who forsake the family state as ordained by God. Thus came great
communities of monks and nuns, shut out from the love and labors of
a Christian home; thus, also, came the monkish systems of education,
collecting the young in great establishments away from the watch and
care of parents, and the healthful and self-sacrificing labors of a
home. Thus both religion and education have conspired to degrade the
family state.

Still more have civil laws and social customs been opposed to the
principles of Jesus Christ. It has ever been assumed that the learned,
the rich, and the powerful are not to labor with the hands, as Christ
did, and as Paul did when he would "not eat any man's bread for naught,
but wrought with labor, not because we have not power "[to live
without hand-work,]" but to make ourselves an example."(2 Thess. 3.)

Instead of this, manual labor has been made dishonorable and unrefined
by being forced on the ignorant and poor. Especially has the most
important of all hand-labor, that which sustains the family, been thus
disgraced; so that to nurse young children, and provide the food of
a family by labor, is deemed the lowest of all positions in honor and
profit, and the last resort of poverty. And so our Lord, who himself
took the form of a servant, teaches, "How hardly shall they that have
riches enter the kingdom of heaven!"--that kingdom in which all are
toiling to raise the weak, ignorant, and sinful to such equality with
themselves as the children of a loving family enjoy. One mode in
which riches have led to antagonism with the true end of the family state
is in the style of living, by which the hand-labor, most important to
health, comfort, and beauty, is confined to the most ignorant and
neglected members of society, without any effort being made to raise
them to equal advantages with the wise and cultivated.

And, the higher civilization has advanced, the more have children been
trained to feel that to labor, as did Christ and Paul, is disgraceful,
and to be made the portion of a degraded class. Children, of the rich
grow up with the feeling that servants are to work for them, and they
themselves are not to work. To the minds of most children and servants,
"to be a lady," is almost synonymous with "to be waited on, and do no
work," It is the earnest desire of the authors of this volume to make
plain the falsity of this growing popular feeling, and to show how
much happier and more efficient family life will become when it is
strengthened, sustained, and adorned by family work.




II.

A CHRISTIAN HOUSE.


In the Divine Word it is written, "The wise woman buildeth her house."
To be "wise," is "to choose the best means for accomplishing the best
end." It has been shown that the best end for a woman to seek is the
training of God's children for their eternal home, by guiding them to
intelligence, virtue, and true happiness. When, therefore, the wise
woman seeks a home in which to exercise this ministry, she will aim
to secure a house so planned that it will provide in the best manner
for health, industry, and economy, those cardinal requisites of domestic
enjoyment and success. To aid in this, is the object of the following
drawings and descriptions, which will illustrate a style of living
more conformed to the great design for which the family is instituted
than that which ordinarily prevails among those classes which take the
lead in forming the customs of society. The aim will be to exhibit
modes of economizing labor, time, and expenses, so as to secure health,
thrift, and domestic happiness to persons of limited means, in a measure
rarely attained even by those who possess wealth.

At the head of this chapter is a sketch of what may be properly called
a Christian house; that is, a house contrived for the express purpose
of enabling every member of a family to labor with the hands for the
common good, and by modes at once healthful, economical, and tasteful.
Of course, much of the instruction conveyed in the following pages is
chiefly applicable to the wants and habits of those living either in
the country or in such suburban vicinities as give space of ground for
healthful outdoor occupation in the family service, although the general
principles of house-building and house-keeping are of necessity
universal in their application--as true in the busy confines of the
city as in the freer and purer quietude of the country. So far as
circumstances can be made to yield the opportunity, it will be assumed
that the family state demands some outdoor labor for all. The
cultivation of flowers to ornament the table and house, of fruits and
vegetables for food, of silk and cotton for clothing, and the care of
horse, cow, and dairy, can be so divided that each and all of the
family, some part of the day, can take exercise in the pure air, under
the magnetic and healthful rays of the sun. Every head of a family
should seek a soil and climate which will afford such opportunities.
Railroads, enabling men toiling in cities to rear families in the
country, are on this account a special blessing. So, also, is the
opening of the South to free labor, where, in the pure and mild climate
of the uplands, open-air labor can proceed most of the year, and women
and children labor out of doors as well as within.

In the following drawings are presented modes of economizing time,
labor, and expense by the close packing of conveniences. By such
methods, small and economical houses can be made to secure most of the
comforts and many of the refinements of large and expensive ones. The
cottage at the head of this chapter is projected on a plan which can
be adapted to a warm or cold climate with little change. By adding
another story, it would serve a large family.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.]

Fig. 1 shows the ground-plan of the first floor. On the inside it is
forty-three feet long and twenty-five wide, excluding conservatories
and front and back projections. Its inside height from floor to ceiling
is ten feet. The piazzas each side of the front projection have
sliding-windows to the floor, and can, by glazed sashes, be made
green-houses in winter. In a warm climate, piazzas can be made at the
back side also.

In the description and arrangement, the leading aim is to show how
time, labor, and expense are saved, not only in the building but in
furniture and its arrangement. With this aim, the ground-floor and its
furniture will first be shown, then the second story and its furniture,
and then the basement and its conveniences. The conservatories are
appendages not necessary to housekeeping, but useful in many ways
pointed out more at large in other chapters.

[Illustration: Fig. 2]

The entry has arched recesses behind the front doors, (Fig. 2,)
furnished with hooks for over-clothes in both--a box for over-shoes
in one, and a stand for umbrellas in the other. The roof of the recess
is for statuettes, busts, or flowers. The stairs turn twice with broad
steps, making a recess at the lower landing, whore a table is set with
a vase of flowers, (Fig. 3.) On one side of the recess is a closet,
arched to correspond with the arch over the stairs. A bracket over the
first broad stair, with flowers or statuettes, is visible from the
entrance, and pictures can be hung as in the illustration.

The large room on the left can be made to serve the purpose of several
rooms by means of a _movable screen_. By shifting this rolling screen
from one part of the room to another, two apartments are always
available, of any desired size within the limits of the large room.
One side of the screen fronts what may be used as the parlor or
sitting-room; the other side is arranged for bedroom conveniences. Of
this, Fig. 4 shows the front side;--covered first with strong canvas,
stretched and nailed on. Over this is pasted panel-paper, and the
upper part is made to resemble an ornamental cornice by fresco-paper.
Pictures can be hung in the panels, or be pasted on and varnished with
white varnish. To prevent the absorption of the varnish, a wash of gum
isinglass (fish-glue) must be applied twice.

[Illustration: Fig. 4. CLOSET, RECESS, STAIR LANDING.]

[Illustration: Fig 5.]

Fig. 5 shows the back or inside of the movable screen toward the part
of the room used as the bedroom. On one side, and at the top and bottom,
it has shelves with _shelf-boxes_, which are cheaper and better than
drawers, and much preferred by those using them. Handles are cut in the
front and back side, as seen in Fig. 6. Half an inch space must be
between the box and the shelf over it, and as much each side, so that it
can be taken out and put in easily. The central part of the screen's
interior is a wardrobe.

[Image: Panel screens]

This screen must be so high as nearly to reach the ceiling, in order
to prevent it from overturning. It is to fill the width of the room,
except two feet on each side. A projecting cleat or strip, reaching
nearly to the top of the screen, three inches wide, is to be screwed
to the front sides, on which light frame doors are to be hung, covered
with canvas and panel-paper like the front of the screen. The inside
of these doors is furnished with hooks for clothing, for which the
projection makes room. The whole screen is to be eighteen inches deep
at the top and two feet deep at the base, giving a solid foundation.
It is moved on four wooden rollers, one foot long and four inches in
diameter. The pivots of the rollers and the parts where there is
friction must be rubbed with hard soap, and then a child can move the
whole easily.

A curtain is to be hung across the whole interior of the screen by
rings, on a strong wire. The curtain should be in three parts, with
lead or large nails in the hems to keep it in place. The wood-work
must be put together with screws, as the screen is too large to pass
through a, door.

[Illustration: Fig. 6.]
[Illustration: Fig. 7.]
[Illustration: Fig. 8.]

At the end of the room, behind the screen, are two couches, to be run
one under the other, as in Fig. 7. The upper one is made with four
posts, each three feet high and three inches square, set on casters
two inches high. The frame is to be fourteen inches from the floor,
seven feet long, two feet four inches wide, and three inches in
thickness. At the head, and at the foot, is to be screwed a notched
two-inch board, three inches wide, as in Fig. 8. The mortises are to
be one inch wide and deep, and one inch apart, to revive slats made
of ash, oak, or spruce, one inch square, placed lengthwise of the
couch. The slats being small, and so near together, and running
lengthwise, make a better spring frame than wire coils. If they warp,
they can be turned. They must not be fastened at the ends, except by
insertion in the notches. Across the posts, and of equal height with
them, are to be screwed head and foot-boards.

The under couch is like the upper, except these dimensions: posts,
nine inches high, including castors; frame, six feet two inches long,
two feet four inches wide. The frame should be as near the floor as
possible, resting on the casters.