HYGIENE.

When I questioned an Italian woman, who regularly swept the dust from the floor into a cupboard, about her sweeping in the old country, she replied:

At home I take a pail of water and a broom and wash and sweep everything out of doors, because the floor is stone. But here the inspector will not let me sweep into the hall, and when I used a pail of water it ran through into the flat below; so I sweep into the cupboard.

It never occurred to her to take the dust up in a dustpan. Many women who are clean about their homes are not clean about their persons, and in this connection the educator frequently finds herself confronted with superstition. For example, Ruthenians will not wash the top of a child's head at birth nor until after the second birthday, and a pregnant mother will not take a bath. It is difficult to get her to wash more than her face and hands, and all this because of a fear of being bewitched. Some believe they have been bewitched, and in fear of death they refuse to clean or comb their hair. Personal service on the part of the educator is necessary to demonstrate the methods of personal cleanliness. The hot, weary mother of a large family was won for all time when the educator donned an apron and bathed the young children, instructing the mother in every detail of the bath and in the care of the hair and that of the nails. Many times a week the educator finds that a bath for the baby is the introduction to further instruction in household matters. The immigrant girls are urged to seek the beauty of perfect cleanliness and to shun the rouge pot. As the educator becomes more closely acquainted with the family and wins the confidence of the mother she finds opportunities to teach sex hygiene and to urge mothers to teach their young daughters. The importance of privacy in their homes is emphasized to induce modesty and high standards of morality. This may mean fewer boarders and less money saved, perhaps, but a daughter's purity preserved counterbalances the financial loss. I think we never sufficiently realize what the lack of privacy is answerable for.

FOODS.

Among the many difficulties presenting themselves to immigrant mothers, none is greater than that of food. Bread and coffee three times a day and soup once a day is the standard diet of the average immigrant. The women are quite ignorant of the many foods they see displayed in stores, and they hate to acknowledge their ignorance. This, coupled with their fear of spending more than is necessary, is probably accountable for the meager diet. After learning the income of the family, the educator advises about the proportion

which should be set aside each week for rent, fuel, clothing, food, etc. When the amount available for food is determined, the woman is advised as to the best meals she can provide for that amount. It is necessary to impress upon her that economy is not getting the cheapest, but getting the best results for the least money. Women are often taken in groups to the markets and taught how and what to buy. The educator teaches food principles in a simple way.

HOME NURSING.

I think all agree that no girl, no matter what her nationality, ought to marry without some knowledge of simple home nursing and emergency work, for emergencies arise which must be dealt with before the arrival of a physician. Simple home nursing must be included in domestic education. I have made an entry into many homes by going home with a child found crying in the street with a cut on the leg, arm, or face, or a badly bruised thumb or toe. Cleansing and bandaging the injured member offers an excellent opportunity for suggesting to the mother how much trouble is saved by keeping on hand and in one place strips of old, clean linen, a small bottle of peroxide, and a jar of simple ointment. They should be taught also how to administer an emetic and the antidotes for the poisons, especially potash, which they commonly have in their homes.

The prospective mother is usually very ignorant as to how to care for herself, and to no one is the domestic educator more welcome than the woman looking forward to confinement in a land with strange customs. If the woman can be persuaded to allow the district nurse to visit her, the educator leaves all instructions to the nurse, but it is seldom that the immigrant woman will allow the nurse to take charge of her case, because of her dread of male physicians. In some homes a male physician in attendance at childbirth would mean terrible trouble. The ordinary midwife gives little or no prenatal instruction; so the educator must do it. As before stated, it is often difficult to overcome superstition and prejudices. The midwife's services are ended when the baby is 3 or 4 days old, and there is a very easy access to the woman's heart at this time, through baby welfare work.

SEWING.

Most immigrant women know how to sew a little, but they do not know how to select materials, nor how to cut to the best advantage. I have found many women who can make a very presentable garment, but provide no means of fastening, merely using pins. Upon inquiry, I have discovered that buttonholes are "only for rich folks, and hooks and eyes get rusty." The educator impresses upon the women economy in buying; she tries to get them to plan garments 16563°-13--2

that are both durable and attractive, and not to purchase tawdry finery.

CONCLUSION.

I have been asked many times if this work is not much the same as district nursing. It is not. I was district nurse for four years in a district composed entirely of immigrants of all races, and during those years I saw daily the need of this instruction in domestic education. Time and time again I wished to teach a woman how to sew, bake, clean, and buy; and to advise her how to adapt herself to conditions surrounding her, but I could not. There is no time in the busy day of a visiting nurse to do these things, however strong her desire.

Diplomacy must be used to get into homes; a thorough knowledge of conditions must be gained; dignity must be maintained which allows no familiarity and yet is absolutely friendly. These things are essential to the domestic educator, and so is a knowledge of nursing, of symptoms, of foods, and of sewing, and an ability to make substitutes for things necessary from what is at hand; and last, but not least, there must be the desire and power to give personal service, to do things, and not to instruct only.

TEACHING IMMIGRANT MOTHERS PROPER FOOD.

MISS WINIFRED GIBBS,

New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor.

The New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor has, among its other educational activities, built up a department for teaching home economy, with special attention to proper food. The work is not confined to immigrants, but much of interest has developed in working among the foreign born, particularly Italians. The working basis of all the teaching is the actual income of the family. The mother, whether native or immigrant, is taught first to face her problem squarely, and then to work out the best solution. With the immigrant mothers this teaching involves instruction in adapting themselves to new conditions. The women are taught the principles of good housekeeping, what it means to maintain a high standard of living in a home, and then are led gradually to the point of doing their best to maintain this high standard. Response is eager, and results during the six years have been most satisfactory. The following case is cited as an illustration. The home-economy teacher visited a family very recently arrived in this country and found that the 2-year-old child was suffering from rickets and had never walked. Inquiry as to its food brought forth the information that the baby was fed precisely as were the adult

members of the family, the chief food being macaroni. A course of lessons was immediately begun, and as no member of the family could speak English the work was done by demonstration and through an interpreter. Before the teacher left, the child was beginning to step. Six months after her visits had been discontinued the father met the district visitor, and the following conversation ensued: Man: "My God, you should see my baby." Visitor: "What is the matter with the baby?" Man: "He run, he jump, he strong, he fat." Visitor: "Do you know what brought this about?" Man: "Sure; the cook."

All of this work is done in accordance with the principles of sound relief-giving. Great care is taken to realize the family as a whole and never to let the needs of an individual interfere with the family welfare.

As the work is planned for the future, the department will include teachers in diet and cooking, teachers in sewing, and a staff of practical demonstrators of cleanliness, the association's visiting housewives. It is believed that this work has a distinct place side by side with many other activities that are planned to bring about social betterment.

THE TRAINING OF THE DOMESTIC EDUCATOR.

I. By Miss HELEN KINNE,

Teachers College, New York City.

The work of the domestic educator is still in its pioneer stage, and it seems impossible to state definitely just what the training for such work should include. At this time the success of the work is due. to the native power and efficiency of the women engaged in it. When we pass the pioneer stage in any educational movement and propose a formal system of training we are confronted by the danger of becoming academic. While I can indicate in a general way a scheme for a possible course of study, I feel that this is an opinion that is not altogether scientific. It is evident that any system of training must be directed to meet the needs of the immigrant women. It is equally obvious that this training is not by any means entirely on the material side. We have to create ideals, to give a standard of living, to introduce the woman to the society in which she lives, and to make her a better woman.

The field of work for the domestic educator in training seems to divide itself naturally into three parts. First, the training in practical lines. Miss Gibbs is giving at Teachers College a course in economic cookery well adapted for the purpose under discussion. To this might be added other courses of a similar nature in housewifery, sanitation, mending, etc. There might be other work in

making even a small home beautiful, and possibly some work in gardening for those immigrants where a small plat of land is available. Equally important is a second group of studies to be classed under social science. This would include a study of the whole immigrant problem and our own civic conditions. Too often young women in social work attempt to introduce the newcomer to conditions with which she herself is not familiar. Most important of all, perhaps, is the third section-actual work in the field as an apprentice under the direction of one of the able women already working in immigrant homes. This field work can not be stressed too much.

Before any definite system of training can be developed we need a thoroughgoing and scientific investigation of this very question. This is the burden of my message to-day. No better service could be rendered at present in studying this matter than the appointment of an able woman, trained in investigation, in sympathy with the work and in touch with the best in educational methods, who would have at least a year's study of this problem in the field. She should collect and organize facts in regard to work of this type all over the country. Her investigation would also include a study of what Columbia University, the School of Philanthropy, and other institutions offer to the intending domestic educator. Such a report would form a basis for planning a well-organized and effective system of training for the domestic educator.

II. By Miss MABEL H. KITTREDGE,

Association of Practical Home-Making Centers, New York City.

No one has ever achieved anything without a model. The artist who later may do original work begins by copying; the musician first becomes saturated with others' music and then composes music of his own. We forget to give our immigrants a home to copy. The work of going into their homes and explaining how to sweep and how to use the sink is necessary, but they should have in their minds a picture of an American home-a model home in an apartment house. I should like to have such a home on Ellis Island. I should like to have the painted walls, the bare floors, the simple furnishings, the black kitchen stove, the open plumbing, the order. I should like this to be the first impression our immigrants receive.

I should like another model home to be in the neighborhood of every immigrant-a place where lessons in cooking, cleaning, care of the baby are given all day and all the evening-a place where the sink is studied, where the American stove is taken apart and studied, and where girls cook a dinner in an orderly kitchen, all the time learning food values.