Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1869-04-29
The servant-GirI Question.

pTOVeHleDtS Oh hOlu-IaSnl0ncQ lnc0nVenlenceS
labor-saving machinery, with all the new
| scientific adaptations TO the wants of com
mon life have failed to keep pace with the
growth of luxury, the love of elaboration
| and display, which now absorbs the time
| money. and strength Of American women.
"What shall we do?' is the cry from
every household. We want help, and we
get hindrance; we want knowledge of work
to be performed, and we get only the most
lamentable ignorance. 1t is servants who
are the plaques and nuisances of our lives.
Let us mend the servants, or make new
ones.
Now, it is undoubtedly true that good
deal of the trouble in families is caused by
the ignorance and waste of servants; but
whose fault IS ii? Is it theirs, or that OF
the mistress who yields to them the manage
ment of her domestic affairs while she is
dressing, visiting, receiving calls, or acting
as directress of fashionable benevolent So
cieties?
"Wc have five servants" said u gentle
man, the other day; some to every member
of the family, and the house is moi as clean,
nor am as well attended to, as when we
kept but one, my wife assisted in doing the
work herself"
That "assisted in doing the work herself
told the whole story. What all houses need,
is the aid and constant supervision of a
competent mistress.
We are unfortunate in this country in
having no class of girls who are willing
to be put in training for servants Amer
lean girls will wash, scrub, and bake
at home, but they consider it terrible de-
gradation to do this for money; and the
idea is fostered in them by the kind of labor
that is employed, and the scorn with which
women Of every degree, especially in the
large cities, treat the proposition that they
should understand household duties, or, in
common parlance, "know how to do their
own work."
Foreign labor might be trained, and insti-
tutes have been planned for that purpose /;
but that is not what it comes here for. II
comes here to earn good deal of money,
and send at least part of ii home and
anything that would interfere with that
praiseworthy object, or that would offer the
suggestion of incompetency, would be treat
ed with indignation and contempt. The
Irish element, as we get it, does not value
training, and it is not likely that it should,
when, in its present low and utterly inetfi-
clent state,it is able to command three times
the wages it receives ut home.
Cooperative household schemes, or SER
wants training schools, are not either of
them what we Mt present most want. Now,
and for some time to come, women will gen.
orally do as they have done in the past
marry become wives and mothers, respon-
sible for the comfort and Happiness Of the
homes over which they preside and, to
properly fulfil these duties, they require
thorough and careful initiation into every
department of household labor. Instead Of
training-schools for servants, we should
have training. schools for mistresses or,
rather, every public and normal school
should have its department Of domestic in
struction; and il it could not be made COM
pletely practical, 1t could, at any rate, be
theoretical and suggestive, and the practice
could be recommended and required at
home.
An immense amount of money is spent
on the education of children. Why not de-
vote small portion Of it to teaching or in
culcating that which is of more importance
to girls than all besides ?
Apart from this making it department
of public instruction would give domestic
work responsibility. 1t is disgracelul to
American women that IL is scorned and
sneercd at all. Tho labor that beauties our
homes, that makes them attractive, and pre-
pares the food which is essential to life and
health, should not be considered degrading;
on the contrary, it should be looked upon
as honorable as the labor and profession
from which the household derives its
support.
Cleanliness, system, accuracy, good iudg-
ment, and fine taste, are all required in
cook to produce perfect results; and these
qualities can hardly be expected in ignorant
persons Of the most ordinary parentage.
They are the growth of culture, and if ex-
emplilied in the habits of mistresses, and in
the customs and rules which regulate their
households, would constitute course of
training superior to that of any educational
institute.
Every housekeeper knows that, when the
kitchen is left to servants, order and system
for the most part. are at an end-napkins
are used for wiping-towels, towels are taken
for dish-clOths, pots and pans are left un-
secured, shelves and windows uncleaned
spoons, forks, and knives lose their handles,
and are found in the dust-heaps, and every
thing acquires a dingy, dilapidated appear
ance, which greves the very soul of a neat
housewife.
There is great beauty and pleasure in
clean, well-ordered kitchen, and in cooking,
if one knows how to do it and do it well.
1t is the almost universal dirt and disorder
found in this department that makes it dis
tasteful. / never go into my own kitchen
lHub L uO uOl WISH Wltil I'LL lily heart anu
soul that | could do all the work of il my
self; and l envy those women who have
their clean, fragrant, sweet smelling closets
entirely under their own control-who can
keep their porcelain sauce-pans for their
uses, and their new tins from being burnt
up, and the brightness of their ranges from
being burnt out.
Servants will tear the fire ont, they will
let il go down 10 its last gasp, and then
hurry it up with wood and powerful
draughts. They will cook dinner in one
hour, instead of three-crisping meat to a
cinder on the outside, leaving it raw within;
and boiling soup Or chickens, as the case
may be, on stiff gallop, that makes ones
blood run cold to hear They will soil every
dish at once, fill every pan with potato-skins
and refuse, and reduce the entire kitchen
machinery to chaotic heap before they
commence ''cleaning up" They will not
understand that cooking can be better done,
and with infinitely less trouble, upon d
clean, clear range-with the hampers closed,
the fire solid, and such as will need no re-
plenishing until the various processes are
completed
They will not understand, when left to
their own devices, that cleaning-up" can
be done as one goes along-that cooking a
dinner does not involve necessarily confu-
sion and chaos; and they have no opportu-
nifty to learn all this; for, in addition to
other evils, their right to reign in the kithcn
has been admitted as supreme by the abdi-
cation of the natural sovereigns. Servants
are mistresses, and resent with fierceness
any interference in their department, while
the owner and nominal proprietor is in
slavery so abject to their caprices as to hard
ly dare venture an opinion, or assert right
to thought or idea of her own.
Schools for servants, however, will not
change this state of things; the more they
know, the more absolute will be their
authority, unless their mistresses know
something too. What households need,
therefore, are women competent to preside
over them, and able to command, by their
absolute knowledge Of every branch Of do
mestic work, the respect and subordination
Of those in their employ.
If the ladies of household regularly per
formed a part of its duties such labor would
no longer be considered degrading, and a
much better class of girls and women could
be obtained for domestic service. More
over, less number of servants would be
required; in cases where there are two or
three daughters, none at ALL or, at most,
only one to do the drudgery of the house.
In this way the work would be better per-
formed, and families kept at half the ey-