she merit the reputation that she otherwise
might, by using culinary herbs.

This doleful condition may be prevented and the cook enjoy an enviable
esteem by the judicious use of herbs, singly or in combination. It is
greatly to be regretted that the uses of these humble plants, which seem
to fall lower than the dignity of the title "vegetable," should be so
little understood by intelligent American housewives.

In the flavoring of prepared dishes we Americans--people, as the French
say, "of one sauce"--might well learn a lesson from the example of the
English matron who usually considers her kitchen incomplete without a
dozen or more sweet herbs, either powdered, or in decoction, or
preserved in both ways. A glance into a French or a German culinary
department would probably show more than a score; but a careful search
in an American kitchen would rarely reveal as many as half a dozen, and
in the great majority probably only parsley and sage would be brought to
light. Yet these humble plants possess the power of rendering even
unpalatable and insipid dishes piquant and appetizing, and this, too, at
a surprisingly low cost. Indeed, most of them may be grown in an
out-of-the-way corner of the garden, or if no garden be available, in a
box of soil upon a sunny windowsill--a method adopted by many foreigners
living in tenement houses in New York and Jersey City. Certainly they
may be made to add to the pleasure of living and, as Solomon declares,
"better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox with
contention."

It is to be regretted that the moving picture show and the soda water
fountain have such an influence in breaking up old-fashioned family
evenings at home when everyone gathered around the evening lamp to enjoy
homemade dainties. In those good old days the young man was expected to
become acquainted with the young woman in the home. The girl took pride
in serving solid and liquid culinary goodies of her own construction.
Her mother, her all-sufficient guide, mapped out the sure, safe, and
orthodox highway to a man's heart and saw to it that she learned how to
play her cards with skill and precision. Those were the days when a
larger proportion "lived happy ever after" than in modern times, when
recreation and refreshment are sought more frequently outside than
inside the walls of home.

But it is not too late to learn the good old ways over again and enjoy
the good old culinary dainties. Whoever r