The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1883-07-05
Mistress and Maid.

wien you Degln 10 talk of household
help you awaken the interest of every
body who keeps house, and is in any
way dependent upon the assistance Of
domestics. These are troublesome
TIMES: That we are all in the same boat
IS d rather chilly comfort, and that
American matrons are worse served,
while, as rule, they pay higher wages
for service than domestics equally i'm.
perfect can obtain in other lands, is q
conclusion somewhat inortifying to our
pride.
Why are we so much at the mercy of
women who accept subordinate positions
in our Kitchens, and straightway assume
semi-regal and awful stateliness of
mien it we attempt to assert our author
ity? 1t is not that we cannot
make bread, and broil steak
and beat tip omeletts, and
cook breakfasts and dinners With the
taclie grace of our reverend grandmoth-
ers. Begging your pardon dear sir and
madam, we can. We have gone to
cooking schools, armed with teaspoons
and napkins; we have studied the art
scientifically; we have provisioned our
homes in the intervals between Kate
and Bridget, Dinah and NOrah, and the
long line Of entering and departing
'"girls." We have the advantage OF the
higher education on our side, and let
who may dispute it. Latin and calculus
do come in advantageously in making
,R9,af putt paste or boiling potato:
The. trouble Is most of us are only half
we'll, when we are not wholly i'll. We
are submerged Under multitude, not
to say chaos; OF duties; What with the
children, the church, the poor,
the intempetate, the absent friends, the
mending, the patching, the reading, the
contriving, and the rest of it, life has no
margin; and we suffer from irritable
nerves, and distracting headaches, from
overwork, in brief.
So We are dependent upon unframed
and stupid domestics, who resent our
lack OF patience, who are not far wrong
in supposing themselves objects of in
difference, if not our dislike, and who
are boutid to us by only the amount of
theft monthly wages. Can we help OUR
selves or them? Are there any excep-
tl0ns? In the general distress is there
here and there home which is harmon
ious from kitchen up--neither attic, nor
parlor, nor my ladys chamber, resonant
with reproaches on the one hand nor
shalned by impertinence on the other?
Yea, verify! Some homes are bits of
Eden, even here.
Only the mistress can find the way out
Of the thicket. 1t is her place to lead
the maid, and if the one class knows
how to lead, the other will learn how to
follow.
in house keeping, success means sys-
TEN. Hapl'azard work means tangles
and confusion. They who manage af-
fairs in an orderly way will have far less
friction in their houses than they who
never have found out that time and
place must be well and wisely chosen
for everything. The mistress must con-
troll, gently, fear]essly, and constantly
control, the person who works for her.
This does not mean that she shall tyran-
ize, or be Arbitrary, or. unkind. Far
from 1t. Decision, however, is neces-
sary IN the governing power, and in
every home both children and servants
are happier Under strong government,
which can afford to be elastic, than un-
der weak government, which is often
despotic and always spasmodic, aud
aware of its feebleness.
The mistress should strive to treat her
maid, white or black, as a Christian sis
ter, for whose well-being the former is
to some degree responsible to God. The
servants pleasures, her recreations, her
church-going. should not be outside the
thoughts of her employer. We are
bound in the same bundle. Volumes
might be written on the theme, yet be-
lieve me, the Golden Rule is at once the
problem and the solution. But to take
the raw material as 1t comes to our
shores from the peasantty, ofcrowded ma
tionalities over the sea, and to evolve from
it the trusted, capable, and honest SER
want, who becomes the friend of the
family, the strong staff on which her
mistress leans. and the faithful retainer
who is as careful of Ithe home interests
as the mistress herself-to do this, is to
have earned the plaudit well done,"
and some women there are who have
heard it from the lips of the Master. 1t
is Christian work. It is missionary work.
1t is here within our gates.-Mrs. NJ. f.
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