"The culinary art forms a part of the education of women in Germany. The well-to-do tradesman, like the mechanic, takes pride in seeing his daughters good housekeepers. -- To effect this, the girl on leaving school, which she does when about fourteen years of age, goes through the ceremony of confirmation, and then is placed by her parents with a country gentleman, or in a large family where she remains one or two years, filling what may also be termed the post of a servant and doing the work of one. This is looked upon as an apprenticeship to domestic economy. She differs from a servant, however, in this: she receives no wages; on the contrary, her parents often pay for the car of her as well as her clothing. This is the first step in her education as a housekeeper. She next passes, on the same conditions, into the kitchen of a rich, private family, or into that of a hotel of good repute. There she has the control of the expenditures and of the servants employed in it, and assists personally in the cooking, but is always addressed as 'fraulein,' or Miss, and is treated by the family with deference and consideration. Many daughters of rich families receive the same training, with this difference, however, that they receive it in a princely mansion or a royal residence. -- There is a reigning Queen in Germany at this moment who was trained in this way. Consequently the women in Germany are perfect models of economy."


Date: July 18, 1867
Location: Massachusetts
Paper: Pittsfield Sun
Source: genealogybank.com