The Portland daily press., 1871-06-21

If there is anything am tired of it is my
MISTRESS another" Fifty times day. al
least, she throws that woman at my head
"This is the way my mother always did; or,
"My mother never allowed such and such a
thing done." Now, I'd like to know what
that all is to me, Bridget Stone? l suppose
her mother was some disagreeable, old fash
ioned, economical poke, who was always fit
ting through the kitchen to see what became
Of bits of bread and bones of meat, aud bot
ties of ale and wine and such. No servant
of any spirit nowadays will put up with
that Oid fOey non.ense. / say the kitchen is
my kingdom; end when / take possession of
it, don't want no lady to come spying ronnd
after me. In fact, ladies never does. / al
ways know lady by that token. She just
dresses herself pretty and stays up stairs, and
asks no questions. If anything is lost, or
mislaid, or broken, or not - be accounted fc-
don't she understand, without making row
about it, that 1t is the cat? And if had
cousin or two, policemen or what not, and
step into the area 10 speak to them, does Ia
dies preach long sermons on followers" and
"cold suppers?" Not bit. 1t is only your
common trash of married ladies who lives so
close to the wind IS all that. A "real LADY,
naturally expects us to have our perquisites.-
How could we gel along else, with whole fam
lilies dependent en- us for their brt ad and
n eat? Do you think in the house where
there's plenuy, we are going to see them
starve? And il they are short for under
clothes, where's the harm, I'd like to know,
borro,oing some for a week or more, the like
OF few pairs OF stockings, or shirts, or petit
coats? We should be heather indeed, to see
them in want light before our eyes and not
do il, for or flesh and blood, too.
And when Mrs. Jabez, the washerwoms- :,
comes in of Monday. to relp do the wash
ing-where's the harm I'd like to know, in
her bringing her OVID husbands soiled things,
and her child ems too, and doing them, con
venient like, altogether, where soap and
ST. -ch and coal are plenty. Besides, in that
way she gets we ,es for two days work in
stead OF one, s1d sr-e no "real lady" would
make frss about that, or b poking her
nose into the wssh-tub - see what was
there.
Her "mOth ii" LESS so.
don't want any OF my mistresss mothers
round where be. II there's cup Of white
sugar tucked away in the cupboard, or halt
pound of tea or coffee, that old we@an will
be sure to noe it out. And they are always
opening the spice. xes 20 see if the starcl,
hasn't been put in them, and measuring tho
tea and coffee, and all such mean tricks that
no servant would ever think of putting up
with. The other day my sister Nora dropped
into the kitchen to see me, while L was cook
'rg the dinner. Nora is nurse-maid in "a
family up own, and she had the baby with
her; and very pretty it looked, in its Lice
dress, all trimmed with real lace, and its
white satin bonnet. Wnen down came my
mistress's "mother," and told her that q
smoky kitchen wss ro place for baby who
had been sent out get the fresh air, and
thai she insisted it = t..ken out Immediately.
Did you ever hear in. 1dencc like that? And
when we went out in the area to have our
toll nut ach. har ha epOkR
again to Nora, and said she'd send word to
the baby's mother where her child spent its
afternoons when she thought it was out in
the fresh air. Oh! bother the meddling
mothers, say. Well there's one comfort
real mothers never care where their babies
goes, so that they are out of their way; ard
so Nora said when she went off.-Fanny
EoNa,