Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-09-08
YANKEE GIRLS.
New England by the Back Door,
as Looked into by u South
erner.

- N1aN 80 ~
port, have l seen a hired
cook. My landlady, in Cornwall.
did all the cooking herself; here in
Lebanon the lady of the house is as.
sisted by her daughter of fourteen; SO
it is wherever the girls are old enough
to render efficient aid. At one of the
farm houses in which | stayed, the
mistress, being old, had hired help
in the person of a pretty girl Of ten.
As a rule in the farming towns of the
country proper, the cooking, and very
often the washing, too, is done by the
wives not only of the farmers, but also
Of merchants and professional men
men abundantly able to employ a cook
and washerwoman. But it is the habit
Of the country not to hire anybody at
all, if the work in and about the
house can be done by the husband and
wife, assisted by the children, when
they get old enough. | talked
with Mr.. A on the subject. my
wife and l." said he, having no chill
dren, needed no help, and we never
had any, except when we lived in the
country and | was engaged in large
farming operations. My neighbor.
B., does a mercantile business in
addition to his farming, and he needs
help; but at the boarding house, Just
as soon as the boarders leave, the
help will all be dismissed. Look,
lit was Sunday afternoon there goes
the help to the next house. How
nicely and in what taste she is dressed.
You would mover take her to be q
cook or chambermaid, would your"
mo, indeed" | replied, II thought
she was one of the ladies from NeW
York or Brooklyn"
Il don't know it to be a fact" he
continued, but | think it quite likely
that she takes one or two magazines.
She is a Massachusetts, girl, | think,
and has been employed by that family
for a number Of years"
Putting crucial questions, will you
demand to know exactly how these
house. cleaning, clothes. washing wo-
men look and act, and what impress
sion they made upon me? | answer
that if coming to England | had been
actuated by base motives, and had,
prying into bachelors, seer anything
which if set down in print would have
wounded and grieved the people thus
taken unawares, my course would not
have been clear. Bound to tell the
truth, If | tell anything at all, | would
have been compelled either to bring
my letters to an abrupt close or else
to give such oifense as would have
placed me outside the pale, not merely
of gentility, but Of human nature.
Happily | am in no such quandary.
There is nothing Objectionable to re
port. In my mind are six women, all
of slender build and apparently physi-
cally incapable Of cooking, much less
Of washing, and one Of them old
enough to be a grandmother. OF
these only one came from the kitchen
to the table with hair a little disor-
dered and a dress not absolutely fresh.
One, | remember, appeared at every
meal, morning, noon and night, always
pale and tranquil, never worried, or
cross, or overheated by the stove, her
hair and her whole attire thoroughly
cared for. Her tea and coffee and
her dessert she left in the kitchen to
be kept warm. As each cup needed
filing she rose, took the cup TO the
kitchen. filed it aud resumed her
place at table, composed in feature,
untaxed in strength. And so with
the dessert. As soon as We finished
our meat and vegetables she changed
our plates and helped each in sue
cession from the hot dishes on the
stove, without furry or impotence.
Yet she was seemingly the most deli
cate of the six. She, however, had no
washing to do.
In Litch6eld the landlords son-in-
law told me that his wife made all the
pastry with her own hands. Now
when you learn that every day we
had five different kinds Of pies, be-
sides a pudding Of some sort, and that
there were never less than twenty
five and often nearer forty people at
the table, you may form some idea Of
the work she had TO do. Yet, when
she took her seat at the table, or with
the guests, you could not have dis
tinguished her from the city ladies
who sat near hear. And | will de
her and her sister IA widow
lady, who helped her in housekeeping
the justice to say that they had trim
mer figures, and walked more grace
fully than any ladies [ saw in Litch-
field. Mere than that, this same pie
maker had been the leading spirit in
a successful movement TO get up q
town library of some 1900 well Sc
lected volumes, and on the days when
it was opened to the public assisted
her niece in discharging the duties of
librarian. The lady who SO TRANQUILITY
went back and forth between the din
ing-room and the kitchen, though not
herself literary, was the sister Of an
authoress of some distinction in the
north. Half dozen or more of her
books, in prose and verse, we're on the
shelves Of the etangere in the parlor.
And even the lady who did the fam.
lily washing complained, while play
ing on the organ, that on Monday
nights her fingers were always stiff.
and that she never felt in the humnr
for singing. She has an uncommonly
good voice, which has been fairly well
trained. Her house is full Of pictures,
her porches and windows are adorned
by a great variety Of pretty flowers,
and she has an aviary of twenty
or more canarios, besides an
aquarium.