The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1884-03-27
HOUSEHOLD HELP.
The Skeleton of the Kitchen Closet.

The servent girl; how to find her in
her perfection or her imperfection. or
how to do without heri This is the per-
| petual spectre that haunts our house
holds, which brings premature gray
ness and wrinkles to our wives and
mothers and sends many man in des-
| peraton to cheap restaurant
| The fact is plain that the supply of
! domestlcs competent to do the duties
| OF the average respectable family kitch-
en- is unequal to the demand, and will
be increasingly less as more families
attain to the ability to support SER
want
And as it is in every other depart
| ment of labor so here, the higher the
order of service required the more
nearly impossible it is to procure the
skilled worker. The first-class cook is
very apt to make her own terms, with
| only now and then show of resistance
to the tyrant by some valiant econo-
mist. and to change her place with
facility which leaves the domain of the
Kitchen In perpetual state of semi
anarchy.
The question what the housekeepers
are going to do about it is unlikely to
receive any complete answer just vet,
but there are two directions in which
the American women may turn as of
fering some promise of the solution of
the problem.
One OF these is more earnest effort
to educate girls who are willing but TO-
norant into fitness tor good service.
While there is an increasing reluctance
on the part OF young women, native or
foreign, to become domestics so long
as any other possible occupation is
open, there is yet pretty large num-
Der OF unskilled servants capable of do
ing only the drudgery of the house who
are not too unintelligent to be trafaess
to something higher, and ms- s. 5
whom do succeed, after sop, wears Of Of
rGugn experiences Ia fsecoming toIer-
@oiy oApest as pin cooks, but not
$50 epee--D 1T may be, for the prepa-
t@t.oa %. elaborate dinners, but equal
w Jaking the bread and roasting the
/ meat. When it is considered how ut
terly void of acquaintance with the de-
mands of a well ordered household
many of the girls are who are set in
! charge of our kitchens-fresh landed
| immigrants, who, likely enough, were
| field hands in their native lands, guile
less of any cookery more elaborate than
the boiling of a potato, to be eaten
with salt-it is high compliment to
their readiness to learn to say that they
| often become most trustworthy and
| satisfactory servants, upon whom the
mistress throws responsibilities which
she herself would shrink from assum-
ing. Why should there not be schools
for cooking and for housework, in
which all such inexperienced girls
| should be able to serve an apprentice
ship, such as would fit them to be, at
| least, second-class servants, and in
which, now and then, woman with a
| genius for her business might develop
with that rare culture-unrealized Wis
| ions of whose coming fit before many
! housewives mind-a frst-rate cook?
| In no trade requiring so much intelli-
| gence, and so many virtues, are there
| 50 few opportunities for learning the
business before actively engaging in it
as that OF domestic, and in none is
the call so loud and desperate for ex-
| perienced laborers. The wise women
| of America would do well to consider
if the domestic training school does not
offer some CLEAN of light upon their
present darkened souls.
Another source of relief is the possi-
| bility of some device for dispensing al
| together with the delusion and snare,
| the inexperienced cook. American res
idents in Paris have frequently had oc-
casion to accept the services of those
| trained caterers who, at not extrava-
CANT price, will provide families with a
varied bill of fare, brought to the house
| promptly at the meal hour, and in a
thoroughly palatable state of heat or
| cold, as the nature of the dish requires.
There is no reason why every moder-
| ate sized city should not support such
a caterer, who could feed his patrons
better than the average family is now
fed, and at cost little, If any, above
that which is now incurred, while all
the worry of marketing, and all the
anxiety about the cooks temper or
| skill would be done away with. Un-
doubtediy some of our precious family
| traditions would have to be laid aside
under this experiment.