Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/256

 instruction or surround herself with some unusual environment before she can attract the attention of matrons for whom the ordinary cooking-class has lost its charm. In one fashionable suburban town, a clever graduate, who had sent out circulars in vain, deserted the kitchen of her mother, where she had expected to teach, and rented a quaint, old-fashioned cottage, furnishing living-room, dining-room and kitchen with the last remnant of her inheritance. The living-room was for afternoon tea, the dining-room for luncheons, and the kitchen, furnished in Delft effects, was for lectures and demonstrations. In her tea and lunch-rooms she offered such dainty refreshments and such odd food combinations that pupils flocked to her lectures. She admits that had she sought to establish herself by ordinary methods she might have failed.

Another lecturer on domestic science has acquired great popularity in various States because of her apparent enthusiasm for the dishes for which each community is famous. In reality she is simply tactful and diplomatic. While she taught Northern cookery to Southern women, and vice versa, she left the impression that, after all, the specialties of each city or community were far superior to anything she had to offer. While she praised chicken gumbo in New Orleans, she did not pretend to teach her