CHAPTER XXXV.
HOMELY, BUT IMPORTANT.
The French woman dresses herself with a view to pleasing the cultivated eye.

She consults her complexion, height, figure and carriage, in color, make and trimming.

Her apparel partakes of her individuality.
The American woman wears her clothes, as clothing, and has them made up of certain materials and in various ways, because dressmakers and fashion-plates prescribe what are this season's "styles." Dissimilarities as marked prevail in the cookery of the two nations.
Daintiness and flavor take the rank of other considerations with the French cook; with the American,--_fillingness_! I can use no substitute for the word that will convey the right idea.
The human machine (of American manufacture) must be greased regularly and plied with fuel or it will not go.

And "go" is the genius of American institutions.

Cookery with us is means to an end; therefore, as much a matter of economy of time and toil as building a road.
Almost every cottage has specimens of fine art on the walls in the shape of pictures "done" by Jane or Eliza, or embroidery upon lambrequin, _portiere_, or tidy.