Categories
1900-1949 Marriage Advice Women

Judge’s Advice to Wives and Husbands, 1925

What would you imagine a Judge’s marital advice, which takes the topic of women’s emancipation into consideration, in 1925, to consist of?

Probably much the same as I imagined when I found this article and read the headline. And yet, all credit to Judge Joseph Sabath, his advice is far ahead of its time. In fact, it’s probably a bit too forward-thinking for a few judges even now.

Dundee Courier, 5th January 1925
Dundee Courier, 5th January 1925

 

Judge’s Advice to Wives and Husbands

The increase in divorce is viewed as a sign of progress by Judge Joseph Sabath, of Chicago, who has presided over the hearing of 10,000 divorce cases, but who refuses to grant a legal separation unless all efforts at conciliation have failed.

“The large number of divorces is rather a manifestation of progress than of retrogression,” he declares.

“It is one of the natural incidents attending the emancipation of womanhood. The wife no longer is a chattel, but a free human being, living and acting on terms of equality with her husband.

“It is natural and right that she should seek relief by dissolution when the equal partnership becomes impossible.”

Judge Sabath’s advice to husbands draws from his experience in the Divorce Courts, is as follows:-

“Make your wife a real partner, and discuss business problems with her. Give her your confidence. Avoid the interference of relatives. Supply your wife with enough money to maintain the household without skimping. Have children or adopt some. Work together, play together, and grow up together.”

His advice to wives is this:-

“Assert enough independence to make your husband notice it. Do not be afraid to soil your hands. Make your husband assume more responsibility for the home life than merely financing it.

“Never flirt even to tease your husband, he wants to be the one man in your life more than anything else, and to flirt is to stir a fire that may consume both of you.”

Categories
1900-1949 Food & Drink

Vintage Recipe – The Savoy’s Christmas Pudding, 1925

If you fancy making a Christmas Pudding with a real vintage pedigree, here it is, a recipe from the Savoy in 1925. It might be too late to make a proper Christmas Cake, but it’s never too late to make a pudding – as long as you have 10 hours boiling time to spare.

Good luck finding both the specified large and small raisins.

27th November 1925, Ballymena Observer
27th November 1925, Ballymena Observer

A Christmas Pudding Recipe

The Chef of the Savoy Restaurant has been persuaded to reveal another of his famous recipes.

Although not quite so elaborate as that of the puddings he makes himself, it is of a fine, rich flavour, and simple to make.

He was kind enough to write it out for me, and here it is. It is a recipe for a seven-pound pudding.

Twelve ounces of large raisins, twelve ounces of small raisins, twelve ounces of currants, twelve ounces of crystalized peel, four ounces of chopped apple, one ounce of orange peel, one ounce of citron peel, two ounces of crystalized ginger, twelve ounces of suet, nine ounces of flour, ten ounces of bread crumbs, eight ounces of brown sugar, one teaspoonful of salt, six eggs, half a pint of milk, quarter of a pint of brandy or sherry.

All the dry ingredients should be mixed together. A little extra mixing well repays the trouble, he says. Beat the eggs and add them to the milk and brandy, then pour over the dry ingredients and again thoroughly mix. Pack into greased moulds and boil for six hours at the time of making. The puddings should be boiled for a further four hours when wanted for use. The best sauce is white, custard or brandy sauce.

Categories
1900-1949 2000 onwards Space

My Favourite Photographs – 1891, 1925, 1949 and 2014

After writing my recent post about The Edge of the Universe, I was thinking about one of my heroes, Edwin Hubble. He’s (kind of) responsible for two of my all-time favourite photographs.

Firstly, the lad himself. Hubble, looking every inch the gentleman scientist, pipe in mouth, looking through the 48″ Schmidt Telescope at Palomar Observatory, 1949. This photo feels to me like the past and the future colliding.

Edwin Hubble
Edwin Hubble

And then there’s this, the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field image, produced by the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s not exactly a photo, but an image put together from a lot of pieces of information. It was created from data gathered in 2003-04, but was released most recently in June 2014 – the new image including the full range of ultraviolet to near-infrared light for the first time. It’s as mind-bending as it’s possible for a picture to be. This is only a small area of space, and yet it contains about 10,000 galaxies. And the light from the galaxies stretches all the way back 13 billion years – some of these came into existence not that long after the Big Bang. The telescope was named after Hubble, and this image is an incredibly appropriate tribute to him, as the first man to realise that there were galaxies separate to our own and that what we thought was the whole universe was just our little Milky Way.

Hubble Ultra-Deep Field
Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

On a completely different vibe, here’s my favourite photo from my blog so far. A woman letting the darning fend for itself while she loses herself in a book – from The Mother’s Companion, 1891.

What is there to prevent a woman from enjoying a good book?

The Mother's Companion, 1891
The Mother’s Companion, 1891

And finally there’s this photo of Buster Keaton’s beautiful face, taken from Go West in 1925. What a unique talent this man had. If you haven’t seen his film Sherlock, Jnr, I would recommend it very highly. It’s hilarious, astounding and a beautiful piece of work, and it’s also my joint favourite film ever, along with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Back to the photo – his eyeliner, dark silent-film lips, the unsettlingly sinister look giving a slightly different take on his usual stone-face expression….it’s just perfect. We did have this picture up in the kitchen until my small son complained that it “freaked him out”.

Buster Keaton, Go West, 1925
Buster Keaton, Go West, 1925

History, comedy, space and reading – I think these pics pretty much sum me up.

Tell me or show me yours! Or send me a link and I’ll put them in a new post for you.