Miss Leslie's Lady's House-Book: A Manual of Domestic Economy Containing Approved Directions for Washing, Dress-Making (Classic Reprint)

The design of the following work is to impart to novices in bouse-keej)ing some information on a subject which is, or ought obe, important to every American female, so that they may be enabled, to instruct unpractised domestics, or, in case of jmergency, to assist personally in forwarding the indispensable work of the family. More than nine-tenths of these receipts are entirely original; all are expressly adapted to the meridian of our own country; and though they generally refer to the condition of families in what is termed genteel life, a large number of them may be found useful in houses where close economy is expedient. It has Sfeen the design of the author to make her directions as plain and intelligible as possible, and therefore she has thought it best to explain every particular with unusual minuteness, as if addressed to persons who were totally ignorant of the subjects in question. In this, as in herC ookery Book, she has not scrupled, when necessary, to sacrifice the sound to the sense; repeating the same words when no others could be found to express the purport so clearly; and being always more anxious to convey the meaning in such terms as could not be mistaken, than to risk obscuring it by attempts at refined phraseology or well-rounded periods. Complaints are incessantly heard of the deterioration of servants; but may not one source of this growing evil be traced to the deterioration of mistresses in the knowledge and practice of all that is necessary to a well-ordered household. A great change has certainly taken place since the days when, during the ptesidency of her husband, Mrs. Washington, followed by a servant-man with a basket, went daily toP hiladelphia market ;and when the all-accomplished daughters of Mr. .T efferson made pastry and confectionary in a room fitted up for that purpose in their fathers mansion atM
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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