What moved me, in the first instance, to attempt a work like this, was the discomfort and suffering which I had seen brought upon men and women by household mismanagement. I have always thought that there is no more fruitful source of family discontent than a housewife's badly-cooked dinners and untidy ways.

Frugality and economy are virtues without which no household can prosper. Whatever the income, waste of all kinds should be most sternly repressed ... Economy and frugality must never, however, be allowed to degenerate into meanness.

Dining is the privilege of civilization. . . . The nation which knows how to dine has learnt the leading lesson of progress.

there should be a place for everything, and everything in its place.

Dine we must and we may as well dine elegantly as well as wholesomely.

I have always thought that there is no more fruitful source of family discontent than a housewife's badly cooked dinners and untidy ways.

Spring is the usual period for house-cleaning and removing the dust and dirt which, notwithstanding all precautions, will accumulate during the winter months from dust, smoke, gas, etc.