Germany in War Time: What an American Girl Saw and HeardMcAuley, Mary Ethel
History
Germany in War Time: What an American Girl Saw and Heard
McAuley, Mary Ethel
World War, 1914-1918 -- Germany
The women will be divided into two classes for their army year--the
first class being the higher and more educated German girls, and the
second class being the poorer girls who must earn their own living.
Naturally, the rich girl who stays at home would not be taught the same
branches as a poor girl.
The better class girls will pay for their year of service. Buildings
would have to be built for them, complete in every equipment, where
they could live during that year. The other girls would be taught in
the public schools, and their training would be free, the State paying
for everything--clothes, food and training.
The most important thing for the women to learn in their year would
be housekeeping. Not merely the keeping of the house in order, such
as sweeping, dusting and scrubbing and all the branches that go with
housekeeping. They must learn cooking, not only cooking for strong
healthy people, but things that sick people can eat. They must learn
to prepare food for infants. They must learn to do washing and ironing,
and they must learn to make a bed properly.
They must learn to do scientific marketing, so that they will know what
to buy without wasting, for _Sparsamkeit_, i. e., economy, is one of
the fundamental things to learn. They will be taught what to do when
there is no fat to be had, and they will be given different menus for
times when certain foods are scarce.
Then the German women will be taught how to make a garden, when to
plant different seeds and what grows best in certain seasons. Chicken
raising will be taught to the girls who care to know about it, and
for the country girls there will be training in the making of dairy
products.
[Illustration: _Society Women Learning to Cook._]
After housekeeping the next important thing is nursing. The women must
learn to take care of the sick, how to make bandages, and perhaps some
knowledge of medicine. If this branch is distasteful to any of the
women they will not be compelled to pursue it very far, but for those
who like the branch they can continue it until they become graduate
nurses.
The second branch of nursing which every girl must learn thoroughly
is taking care of infants. They must be taught the proper dressing for
young babies, what babies must eat and when they must sleep. Also they
must know what to do in cases of light infants' diseases and what to do
for fussy babies and for teething babies.
Then they must learn something of social settlement work, and how to
entertain sick and crippled children. They must help in the care of
orphans and be able to make things for them. They must know something
of kindergartening and know stories and games for children. Many German
women who have lost their husbands in the war will be glad to have a
place to send their children, and the army girls can take care of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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