Art and Handcraft in the Woman's Building
of the World's Columbian Exposition

42 ART AND HANDICRAFT of the Illinois Ladies’ Board, is really doing- a missionary work. Mrs. Rorer maintains that educated cooking is as much a science as chemistry, and she thoroughly believes in the saying that “ the inventor of a new and wholesome dish is of greater value to his fellow-creatures than the discoverer of a new planet.” Of all the pleasant features of our building, I have found nothing more inter- esting than these sessions with Mrs. Rorer. To hear the mysteries of baking, roasting, and boiling intelligently explained, and to watch at the same time the skillful preparation of a dainty dish, is a pleasant and instructive occupation. The infinite variety of forms into which the Indian corn can be transmuted by an intelligent cook was a revelation to most of Mrs. Rorer’s hearers. Another pleasant educational exhibit of a similar nature is to be found in the garden café, where Mrs. Riley, a graduate of the Boston Cooking School, provides home cooking of the most appetiz- ing description for the hungry sight-seer, but opens her kitchen for public inspection every afternoon for an hour. The restaurant serves a double purpose—it feeds the hungry visitor and educates the inquiring mind of the housekeeper. The . contrast between this well-ordered establishment, where the dishes are properly prepared and neatly served, and some of the other restaurants of the Fail is very striking-. Nowhere is the tired man or woman so well treated and fed as in our model lunch-room. The Committee of Congresses, of which Mrs. James P. Eagle is chairman, has prepared a feast of reason, in which the public is invited to participate. Either in the morning or the afternoon of each day the Assembly Room in the Woman’s Building will furnish an amusement or lecture, which, like all the other matters connected with our building, is given to the public gratis. Music lias an honored place in our temple. One afternoon of every week Mr. Theodore Thomas and his well-trained orchestra give a concert of popular classical music; it may be imagined that there is little room to spare in the Assembly Hall on these occasions. Once in every two weeks concerts are given by amateur musicians from different parts of the country. The method pursued in securing- the per- formers is extremely good. The candidates first pass an examin- ation in their own State, and then a second at Chicago before a jury of experts appointed by Mr. Thomas. A diploma will be aw circled to the musicians who take part in these amateur concerts. In this way tlie higli standard of talent desired lias been attained. omen s musical clubs have been invited to participate, and, thanks to the eneigy of Mrs. Francis B. Clarke, chairman of the