Economical Victorian Housekeeping by Kristin Holt

 

 

by Kristin Holt, USA Today Bestselling Author

of Sweet Romance set in the Victorian-era American West

Victorian Woman's Sphere

During the nineteenth century, the United States held specific ideas about what constituted a "Woman's Sphere." Home was her domain, her responsibility, and her realm of influence. Because society held these home-centered ideals, girls were trained from an early age to fulfill this role. Not only did girls work alongside their mothers to learn every housekeeping nuance, but Victorian media (newspapers, cook books, books of housekeeping wisdom) emphasized a wide spectrum of housekeeping knowledge and importance. Book publishers and institutions (such as the Boston Cooking School) capitalized on filling the gap between home-instruction and this most highly valued profession: wife and mother.

Housekeeping: More than Housework

Housekeeping included far more than scrubbing floors, cleaning the wallpaper, and laundering clothes and linens. Women were charged with creating the best possible living from allotted household funds. Household spending covered everything from heating and cooking fuel to groceries to clothing.

 

There are women to whom small economies, little improved ways of caring for things, never occur, but who gladly avail themselves of any knowledge they might gain. Such a woman will rejoice to know that her carpet sweeper will last much longer and will work more satisfactorily if the wheels are oiled occasionally ; that her wringer, if the screws are loosened when it is put away, will also take on a new lease of life ; that in the course of a year she may save several dollars if she drives a nail on which the stove hook may hang, and see that it is hung there, and is not left on the stove, where the handle is sure to burn and drop off.

~ The Burlington Free Press of Burlington, Vermont. September 12, 1881.

Economy in Victorian Housekeeping

Women's work was nothing if not repetitious and sometimes backbreaking.  Note that the following article, "Young Housekeepers Should Always Follow These Rules," includes a "regular day for washing and one for ironing." Last among this list of Rules: "Allow no waste of any sort."

Economy in the Victorian Kitchen

In an era of rampant dyspepsia, housekeepers were indoctrinated in the importance of sanitary and healthful cookery. Women learned kitchen science from their mothers, schools, and cookbooks. They also learned the essential Victorian value: waste not, want not. "If you do not waste anything, you will always have enough. ~source"

Note the high attitude in the following 1879 article. If a wasteful American housekeeper didn't realize her follies before, this set-down would bring all sorts of crimes to her attention.

 

WASTE IN HOUSE KEEPING.

Americans are an industrious, money making people, but they are not economical. Our housekeeping is proverbially wasteful, allowing leakage at every point, sufficient in the aggregate, in many households, to support a European family. Some writer (we know not to whom to give credit,) has made the following extensive, but by no means complete enumeration :

Much waste is allowed in cooking meats. Unless watched, thee cook will throw out water in which meat has been boiled, without letting it cool to take off the fat; or she will empty the dripping-pan into the swill-pail. The grease is useful in many ways.

Again, bits of meat are thrown out, which a French cook would convert into excellent hash.

Flour is sifted in a wasteful manner, or the bread-pan is left with the dough sticking to it.

Pie-crust is left over, and laid by to sour, instead of making a few tarts for tea.

Vegetables are thrown away which would be nice if warmed over for breakfast.

Cream is allowed to mould [sic] and spoil, mustard to dry in the pot, and vinegar to corrode the castor.

Good knives are used for cooking in the kitchen, silver spoons are used to scrape kettles, and forks for toasting bread.

Tea, roasted coffee, pepper and spices, are allowed to stand open and lose their strength.

Dried fruits not cared for in season become wormy, and sweet meats are opened and forgotten.

Vinegar is drawn in a basin, and permitted to stand until both strength and basin are spoiled.

Soap is left in water to dissolve, or more used than is necessary, and the scrub-brush is left in the water.

Barrels and tubs are left in the sun to dry and fall apart ; tins put away without being properly dried are rusted.

Molasses stands open and flies take possession.

Pork spoils for want of salt, and beef because the brine wants scalding.

Ashes are thrown out carelessly, endangering the premises, and being wasted.

Clothes are being whipped to pieces by the wind on the lines ; fine cambrics [sic] are rubbed on the wash-board ; and laces are torn in starching.

Table linen is thrown carelessly down and nibbled by mice ; is put away damp and mildews ; or the fruit stains are forgotten and the stains washed in or "set."

Table napkins are used to wipe dishes, and tea-pots are melted on the stove.

Lard is not well dried out, and becomes tainted, and rats destroy the "soap grease."

Bones are burned that might be broken and thrown into the compost heap.

Old shoes, woollen [sic] rags, and such accumulations are permitted to lie round loose instead of being composted for your favorite grape vines.

Sugar is spilled around the barrel, coffee from the sack, and tea from the chest.

Wooden boxes are used to take up ashes, then the box is pushed aside and forgotten. Many a family has been houseless [sic] and homeless in a night by such an inadvertance [sic].

Each of the above items is a trifle in itself--and yet the house where all these trifles are "happening"--just imagine what a place it would be! In these and many other ways a careless and inexperienced housekeeper will waste without heeding--nay, even without even knowing that she wastes. On the contrary, because she entertains but little company, buys no fine clothes, makes her own dresses, and cooks plainly, she may imagine that she is an exceedingly economical woman and a very excellent housekeeper.

~ Yorkville Enquirer of York, South Carolina, May 1, 1879

 

Despite the criticisms herein heaped upon the heads of wasteful housekeepers, many vintage sources support the idea that many women were excellent housekeepers--with surprising economy.

The next article (1891) focuses on economy in cooking, sharing not only affordable recipes for "plain cooking" but also the strategy of "saving every scrap (of food) and utilizing it." In the Victorian-era United States, "cheap" meant affordable and economical.

As a frame of reference, note that the "a man's food can be obtained at the cost of twelve cents a day" approximation, adjusted for inflation, is $4 (in 2020). Sumptuous living at 45 cents (1891) is about $13 (in 2020). 

Wow... do you eat sumptuously on thirteen dollars a day?

Quality advice, isn't it? Even for modern times?

 

Invitation

What do you think?

Is it possible to eat sumptuously on $13 daily, in today's world?

Did you garner useful concepts to put to work in today's kitchen?

Please scroll down and comment. Discussion is the best part!

Related Articles

Copyright © 2021 Kristin Holt LC

Victorian Courship Advice (1883)

 

by Kristin Holt
USA Today Bestselling Author of Sweet Romance
Set in the Victorian-era American West

 

Victorians fancied the idea of marrying for love. This revolutionary idea overturned established traditions of marriage based on economics, family connections, and societal expectations. Marrying for love meant courtship before and after marriage. Abundant advice to those matrimonial inclined came from myriad sources including books on etiquette, newspaper editorials, and religious sermons.

Oh So Victorian Courtship Advice

 

The following transcription comes from an editorial published in The Madison News of Madison, Kansas, dated November 16, 1883.

 

COURTSHIP.

 

Courtship, like most other matters relating to love and matrimony, may be said to present abundant scope for eccentric and original developments. It is a course of proceeding which is regulated by no fixed principles or general formulæ [sic]. The symptoms are as variable as the weather, and neither precepts nor examples are of much avail, because the policy which may in one case prove eminently successful may in another result in the most lamentable failure. There is no definite rule, even on such a fundamental point as whether the initiative and active negotiations shall devolve upon the lady or the gentleman. There are fortunate individuals of both sexes whose fate, we confess, fill us with envy.

 

According to popular tradition, it is the special prerogative of the fair sex to be wooed and won; but this is not by any means an invariable rule. It has many exceptions; and some who profess to speak from personal experience, as well as extensive observation, go so far as to declare that in the majority of instances it is really the ladies who do the courting, though the initiative and other formal steps may ostensibly lie with the enamored swain. A good deal might, no doubt, be said in support of this theory. Women have far more tact in the management of such affairs than men, who invariably evince a remarkable propensity for “putting their foot in it.” The subject, moreover, is one in which the ladies are supposed to be more nearly concerned. As Byron says:

“Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart, ‘Tis woman’s whole existence.”

While a man may have a hundred different objects and ambitions in life, and may leave his matrimonial fate in great part to chance, there is seldom any object which bulks so largely in a girl’s prospects as that of being well matched, and, as the phrase goes, “comfortably settled” as partner in a good matrimonial firm. It need, therefore, be no matter of surprise that our fair sisters should so often be found angling in the waters of the social world for what their luck may bring them in the shape of a husband; and there is considerable common sense, as well as piquant humor, in what the heroine of a popular new comedy has to say to her girl friend as to the responsibility which devolves on a dutiful young lady of paving the way and “leading up” to a declaration and proposal.

 

We remember listening to a remarkable address on this subject by an oratorical Quakeress, who seemed strongly disposed to assign to man the place of the wooed, rather than that of the wooer. “My friends,” she observed, “there are three things I very much wonder at. The first is, that children should be so foolish as to throw up stones, clubs and brickbats into fruit-trees, to knock down fruit; if they would let it alone, it would fall itself. The second is, that men should be so foolish, and even so wicked, as to go to war and kill each other; if let alone they would die of themselves. And the third and last thing I wonder at is that young men should be so unwise as to go after the young women; if they would stay at home the young women would run after them.”

 

Not withstanding this lucid train of reasoning, it is to be hoped young men will not do anything so ungallant [sic] and unmanly as to stay at home and neglect what has all along been their peculiar privilege. A man may be so highly favored by fortune that his rank, wealth, genius or personal qualities enable him to outshine all rivals, and to regard wooing and winning as for him almost synonymous terms; but to allow any such considerations to influence his conduct in a matter of this kind would not only be an evidence of the worst possible taste, but would be a flagrant outrage on all the laws of chivalry. On the other hand, a man may be so bashful and awkward in the matter as to require so much encouragement that all the courting may be fairly be said to come from the other side. But in both cases—apart from psychological subtleties and too curious matter-of-fact observations—the man’s proper and natural place, our view at all events, is that of a humble and respectful suppliant at the shrine of beauty, grace and virtue.

 

The inauguration of a courtship may occur in a thousand different ways. In some instances it can be traced back to the innocent companionship and confidences of early childhood; in others it springs from the sudden inspiration of what is called “love at first sight.” We have before us a curious, old-fashioned “Letter-writer,” which seems to supply epistolary prescriptions for almost every exigency of human life. A section of the work is devoted to showing how letters ought to be written on matters relating to love, courtship and marriage. One of the most interesting specimens—especially as showing how a courtship might have been initiated in the less conventional days of our grandfathers—purports to be “from a young man suddenly captivated at the play-house.” “The charms of your person”—says the “young man suddenly captivated”—“which appeared to such advantage last night at the play-house in Convent Garden have totally deprived me of my heart. I flatter myself my glances were not altogether disagreeable, as I did not perceive any token of disdain. I am therefore encouraged, though a stranger, to make this humble acknowledgment of my love; and, if you will honor me with an interview, in the presence of any relation, will satisfy you, and those whom it may concern, with respect to my parentage, connections, profession and all other matters that should be known previous to an allowed familiarity. Presuming, unless a fatal pre-engagement prevents, that you will comply with my request, seeing that my designs are apparently honorable, I remain, waiting with the utmost impatience for an answer,” etc.

 

To this epistle the young lady’s papa replies, the prescribed form of his answer being so far favorable as to arrange for an interview. All this is delightful; but it is hardly considered quite proper nowadays for a young lady at the play to treat the “glances” of strange young men with anything else than “disdain,” or, at all events, apparently unconsciousness; and the chances are ninety-nine to a hundred that such an epistle would now be instantly consigned to the fire or wastebasket. The illustration, however, recalls the story of a certain celebrated actress who on one occasion received the following original declaration, which, one may safely presume, was not copied from a “letter-writer:” “MADEMOISELLE—I am only a poor worker, but I love you like a millionaire. While waiting to become one, I send you this simple bunch of violets. If my letter gives you a wish to know me, and to answer to the sentiments of my soul, when you are on the stage to-night, lift your eyes to the gallery; my legs will hang over.”

 

The compiler of the “letter-writer” above referred to displays a singular amount of ignorance with regard to the attitude generally assumed on such occasions by the “stern parient [sic],” who, even in the “good old times,” very seldom met the advances of those who, though utter strangers, presumed so to seek his daughter’s hand with such agreeable courtesy. The difficulty of securing the consent of the young lady’s parents has always been one of the greatest obstacles in the course of true love. In order to overcome that difficulty, or to find opportunities to carry on the courtship in spite of it, many a singular device has been resorted to. Here are two rather entertaining illustrations:

 

A young gentleman fell in love with the daughter of his employer; but the different social status of the pair seemed to preclude all hope of a successful issue, the young lady’s papa sternly forbidding any further progress in the matter, and denying the young man the privilege of continuing to visit at his house. The situation appeared almost hopeless; but feminine ingenuity rose to the occasion. The old gentleman was in the habit of wearing a cloak, and the young couple made him the unconscious bearer of their correspondence. The young lady would pin a letter inside the lining of her father’s cloak, and when the old gentleman threw off the garment in the counting-house, her lover would take the earliest opportunity to secure the valued missive and send back his reply in the same manner. Love and ingenuity were finally successful. The other case was that of an American young lady whose friends refused to ratify her choice and approve her betrothal. The expedient she hit upon was simple but effective. She just went to bed, declaring her determination to remain there till her parents gave their consent, which occurred in less than a fortnight. It was found by that time to be less expensive and more agreeable to call in the lover than the doctor.

 

So much for what may be called the parental difficulty; but what about the success of the lover in finding favor in the eyes of his adored? The pleasures of courtship are no doubt very great, but they will become as ashes to the palate if they end in final rejection. As a trans-atlantic [sic] poet pathetically remarks:

“Tis sweet to love; but, ah! how bitter

To love a gal and then not git her!”

 

It is often extremely difficult to know exactly how to achieve success in love. We cannot all be great, or beautiful, or even supremely good; but next to realizing all these conditions in one’s-self, it is important to believe, or, at all events, to make the young lady believe, not only that she herself is beautiful and good, but that she possesses those qualities in sufficient plentitude [sic] to make up for your manifold deficiencies. Even in this direction, however, there is danger; and the lover will do well to bear in mind the experience of an abandoned suitor, who, when asked why he had been rejected, replied: “Alas, I flattered her till she became too proud to speak to me.”

 

Touching this same subject of flattery, a lady was asked on one occasion why plain girls often get married sooner than handsome ones; to which she replied that it was owing mainly to the tact of the plain girls, and the vanity and want of tact on the part of the men. “How do you make that out,” asked a gentleman. “In this way,” answered the lady. “The plain girls flatter the men, and so please their vanity; while the handsome ones wait to be flattered by the men, who haven’t the tact to do it.” There have been cases, however, in which the situation presented here as been reversed, and plain, even ugly men have succeeded in making themselves so agreeable to young ladies as to become their accepted suitors. Here is a case in point. When Sheridan first met his second wife, who was then a Miss Ogle, years of dissipation had sadly disfigured his once handsome features, and only his brilliant eyes were left to redeem a nose and cheeks too purple in hue for beauty. “What a fright!” exclaimed Miss ogle, loud enough for him to hear. Instead of being annoyed at the remark, Sheridan at once engaged her in conversation, put forth all his powers of fascination, and resolved to make her not only reverse her opinion, but actually fall in love with him. At their second meeting she thought him ugly, but certainly fascinating. A week or two afterwards he had so far succeeded in his design that she declared she could not live without him. Her father refused his consent unless Sheridan could settle fifteen thousand pounds upon her; and, in his usual miraculous way, he found the money.

 

Those who have read George Eliot’s “Felix Holt” will remember how Felix, though himself a rough, unpolished workman, gained the love of a refined and delicately reared young lady, not by flattering, or even attempting to please and gratify her, but by chiding, depreciating and almost despising her because she read Byron and knew nothing of the heavy mental pabulum on which he was wont to feed. She at first was dreadfully vexed and offended; but by-and-by she came to believe that Felix had a grand moral ideal, beside which her own was frivolous and insignificant; and striving to emulate his exalted motives and views of life she made him her beau ideal, with, of course, the usual result. In theory, or in a novel, this is no doubt all very fine; but in everyday life the mode of procedure adopted by Felix Holt would be, to say the least, decidedly risky, and would very probably end disastrously. It is always safer to risk a little flattery.

“Happy is the wooing

That is not long a doing,”

says the old couplet; but a modern counselor thinks it necessary to qualify the adage by the advice: “Never marry a girl unless you have known her three days, and at a picnic.” In this, as in other matters, it is always desirable to hit the happy medium. Marrying in haste is certainly worse than a too protracted courtship; though the latter has its dangers, too, for something may occur at any time to break off the affair altogether, and prevent what might have been a happy union. It may always be concluded there is a screw loose somewhere if Matilda is overheard to say to her Theodore, as they steam up the river with the excursion: “Don’t sit too far away from me, dear, and turn your back on me so; people will think we’re married.”

 

A friend of Robert Hall, the famous English preacher, once asked him regarding a lady of their acquaintance: “Will she make a good wife for me?” “Well,” replied Mr. Hall, “I can hardly say—I never lived with her!” Here Mr. Hall touched on the real test of happiness in married life. It is one thing to see ladies on “dress” occasions and when every effort is being made to please them; it is quite another thing to see them amidst the varied and often conflicting circumstances of household life.—Chambers Journal.

Related Articles

 

 

More Articles: Everything Victorian America

 

 

Copyright © 2021 Kristin Holt LC

Keep Her From Crying Off (1880) by Kristin Holt

by Kristin Holt

USA Today Bestselling Author

Why are my posts so frequently focused on Victorian Courtship? 

(I’m chuckling.) Perhaps I have nineteenth century courting on the brain because all of my titles are Victorian Courtships. I’d wager the vast majority of American Historical Romances (and Victorian Romances, too) are, in the barest of terms, about a Victorian courtship of one kind or another.

I can’t wait to share with you this splendid example of Victorian advice regarding courtship, love, and marriage. With beautiful humor, this nineteenth century newspaperman dispenses winning advice ("Keep Her From Crying Off") in a typical late-nineteenth century manner: storytelling. 

Original source: The Richmond Democrat of Richmond, Missouri, January 29, 1880.

Without further ado:

 

This vintage example is too overblown to be an accurate recipe for success, yet it is a valuable “slice of life” image. Much truth lies beneath this fictionalized storytelling-styled advice.

Frankly, today's women would never put up with this "Chicago Man" and his "I'm in love with Cora" nonsense. I imagine no woman in Victorian America was quite so ignorant either. After all, girls were bombarded on every side about the critical nature of choosing a life partner.

I’ve explored and shared true-to-history about elements mentioned in this article:

 

Victorian Storytelling Convey Values

Includes How to Safely End a Victorian Engagement

"I'll sue you for Breach of Promise"

Gifts in Courtship (Etiquette and Manners)

Tiny Waists were ESSENTIAL to Victorian Beauty

Diamond Earrings in 1880?

The Marshal's Surrender (hero named August)

Links to ALL my posts about 19th Century Courtship

Who Makes the BEST Victorian Wives?

August is Romance Awareness Month

Thank you for reading and exploring how to “Keep Her From Crying Off” 1880-style with me. Your thoughts are welcome! Please leave a comment.

Are you interested in much more about the Victorian-era United States, particularly the Old West? You’re invited to explore my ever-growing cache of articles for fiction readers who find the historical settings and backgrounds to be fascinating.

 

Copyright © 2019 Kristin Holt LC