Morning journal and courier., 1882-08-09
Partisan Style i'm Servaats-How They
s.stand I'M With the Grocer and Butch
(From the Cincinnati COMMERCIAL

[From the Cincinnati COMMERCIAL
The other day, in conversation with lead
ing business man in this city, the subject of
dishonest servants came up. ''Do you know"
he asked, show it is that some of the servant
girls are able to dress we'll, even better
than their mistresses ?'' A negative reply
having been given, the gentleman proceeded
as follows:
81 do not care how well people dress,
whatever their station in life, provided they
can afford it; but how my cook, receiving
only So so per week, could manage to have
nearly as fine an assortment of dresses as
my wife, with jewelry, etc. to correspond,
puzzle until one time we changed
cooks, and new one revealed to my wife
the secret. She had been sent out to a GER
tain grocery to do some marketing, and,
while gone, was accosted by another grocer,
and offered by him silk dress if she would
give him my trade. Being honest she came
straight home and told of it. That set my
wife to thinking, and she asked the girl if
that was a common practice. On yes. she
replied but never would beat my mistress
that the servant girls, especially the cooks,
who do most of the marketing, stand in
with the grocers and meat men, and carry
their custom where they can make the best
commissions. When lived in the city did
my own marketing, but when l moved out
L w
ply me, and took pass book. Igave this to the
cook, with directions to always buy the best
of everything at that place. The Same was
done with butcher. Soon the tea and cof-
fee became unfit to drink, the butter was
bad and the meat, from the place where
had always got the best, was tough and
almost unfit for use. My wife complained
and the girl told her that that grocer and
that meat man cheated her, or did not keep
first class articles, but she knew where she
could get the very best of everything. we
accordingly withdrew our patronage from
our old places and the change was immedl-
ately apparent, for everything appeared on
the table in first-class condition. How did L
account for it Why, simply this way: The
girl had been hired by the other grocer and
butcher, by percentage of what she pur-
chased to spoil the tea and coffee from the
old grocer, and to get inferior meat from the
butcher, as pretext for leaving them, and
she carried out the terms of the contract.
We came to notice that whenever we chang
ed cooks we likewise changed grocers and
butchers, until we employed the honest one
who put on to it.. -"
'But how doss the new grocer and butcher
get even ?''
'Well, you know everything is intrusted
to the cooks, and as they carry the book it is
very easy to cheat in weight, prices, &c. Ny
bills are invariably larger than when I did
my own marketing, though we consume no
MORE
''Is the same thing done in other trades ?''
81 have no doubt it is often with coal deal
ers and others. 1t is an imposition, and
ought to be exposed Still, don't know as,
morally, it is any worse than the brokerage
system generally In all trades, now, the
consumer has to pay brokerage on everything,
even to -four, meat and all the necessaries
of life. On wheat the farmer gets his
profit, the miller his, the Wholesale dealer his
the retail dealer his, and last the servant girl
hers. But with her the case is different, for
the broker does his business openly, and de-
ponds upon it for his living, while the girl is
paid by her employer, and resorts to this
method of increasing her gains by connivance
with the retailers to absolutely cheat their
customers
''Can it be prevented ?"
~ don't know how, unless every man or
own marketing or unless they discharge
their servants the moment they begin to lay
their rop=s for playing that game"