Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-03-28
SERVANTS IN EUROPE.
Of Various Nationals.
ftes-The Dun Routine OF an English
HOusehOld-Befier Trained Servants
Elsewhere than i'm This Country.


Observation-Disclosures Trained Servants
Elsewhere than I'm This Country.
Robert Laird Collier in the Chicago News
All in all French servants are the very best
anywhere to be found in Europe. In short,
they have all the characteristics of ideal SER
wants. They are capable, willing, industrious
honest. facile, amabe and handy. They are
never servile. They never cringe and never
humiliate you by huInilating themselves
They have picturesque tongues, but remember
that the tongue of the master is as romantic as
that of the valet. Everybody in France lies in
a poetic way. and nobody means anything by
| 1t. Usually social lying is courtesy of inter-
course; 1T Is done in the interest of good feeling
You never expect a French servant to tell you
the truth. and little does it matter. The French
servant tells YOU lie graciously and in terms
| of high breeding or, even. of ceremonious
deierence, and the Very lying puts you on good
imaginative tongue has the most prosaic and
mathematic fingers. He never steals Then
ne can turn his hand to anything, and takes
delight IN the variety of his occupations He
| Is at home in the kitchen, can serve as raIet de
chanaore, will sweep, make beds, serve at table
as a comrade or as deferential as a courtier He
| Is n free man and citizen and so he is your
| equal. But when he hires himself out as your
servant ne accepts the place with good heart
and uses the manners and the speech OF servi-
tude, and addresses you always in the third
| person. All in all, / say the French are the
| best servants in the world
| An English household runs two servants 1t
Is commonly overrun with servants An Eng
| 1sn family OF the same means and style of liV-
Ing Will Keep twice as many servants as an
American family and three times as many as
| herman family. The prime reason of this fact
is that the English live in their homes more
| than Americans and Germans, and they enter
tam more in their homes. They have little so
| cial life. almost no social recreations and so go
10 their homes and 10 each others homes for
all their entertainments. English servants are
trained. They walk one straight path, and to
/ hat hoy
get befogged and confused if they step aside to
make other paths for their feet. A cook is
COOK, and a housemaid is a hOusemaid. \ foot
| man is nodded by his duties into footman.
And nodded he is. A footman and coachman
have the credit or discredit for this universal
automatic life. English people are taught by
| their national religion "tO be content in that
/ station in life whereuntO they are called"
| Let us take an upper-middle class family in
London, or say in Leicester. in the heart of the
midlands, as representative family. This
family viii have an income of from S3. 900 to
$4,000 This family will keep one or more
horses and one or more male servants. Such
family Will live in q hOuSe-usually owned by
the family-situated some distance from the
center of the city, and standing on its own
trees and plantations well-kept lawns and
foWer-beds The house will be plain outside
and in. If a horse be kept there will be only
one man perhaps, though often an indoor man.
servant and a boy. The boy is inestimable
prize. He is worth his ght in gold. In the
cleans all the silver and the knives and forks;
he assists in laying the breakfast table, he takes
hot water to the dressing-rooms; he may act as
.chore boy for cook and man and maid. He
tends the door He tides up to wait
ana even may do marketing aud shopping.
He is as neat as new ribbon. to serve 5 O'Clock
tea, and then in his bright buttons and white
tie ne assists in waiting at dinner. Indeed, he
may lay the cloth and serve the dinner for half
dozen guests beside the family. i paid such
buttons just f12, or $50 a year. He was as
Il aS
faithful as the sunrise, and necessary to the
house as fire in winter or fresh air in summer.
he quilted my service when | removed from
England. His ambition lies along the life of an
under-butler, butler, marriage with a lady's
1lilu saving t5OO buying out Il country tavern
or roadside inn, and of bringing up a family of
children to be content with following in the
footsteps of their industrious and worthy father.
These facts mark the limitations of his horizon.
w mere ignorance is bliss It's folly to be wise
Perhaps, after all, this ambitious program may
not be an ignorant one but may embody the
very essence of human wisd om
English cooking lacks in many ways, but
upon the whole, 1t is more wholesome than
either the French or German. The French is
rich and the German is greasy. The English
cook is an autocrat in her way. She is as I'M
varying as the laws of nature, and there is no
such thing as bending her. She learns in a
straight development. The mistress must not
give out too much wisdom at time, for the
SMALLEST mod1cum OF 1t will be appropriated.
She can roast a joint cook on earth except
an English cook can roast joint. She can spoil
all her vegetables because the English always
have spoiled their egetableS from time imme-
mortal. She can make tart and cook game
I'm short, is what most English advertise for,
When they have occasion to do So "a good, plain
cook. She does nothing but cook, unless il is
agreed upon that she shall, in small family,
assist the hOuSemaid with the chamber work
A good, plain cook is paid from $50 to 500 q
year.
The work of English servants never over
laps. 1t is rigidly defined and strictly ad-
hered to- 1t Is annoyance in an English
household that this is true, for often certain
work goes undOne for the reason there
is no one whose place 1t is do it. In Ger
many, France and this country servants will
turn their hands to almost anything, but not SO
another's work, and one gets accustomed to
hear, 1T is not my work and the work goes un-
put a blacksmith to mend one watch. and per-
haps maid of all work is good at none. Eng
i1sh servants as a rule do well what they under
take to do.
The relation between master and man between
mistress aud maid, would be to an American
confess it Away was to me-irksome. 1t is an
unnatural, restrained and fOrbidding relation.
The servants are held at arms length, and their
servility is universal. Sir and mann are used
with every breath, and the raising the hand to
the head by the man-servant, and the half.
accomplished courtesy of the maid-servant are
so mechanical and as done by machinery that
1t is offensive 1t is very seldom that there is any
love lost between the family and the servants,
any more than between employers and en-
ployes in England. The relation is purely a
commercial One-so much work for SO much
pay In case of a servant falling i'll he or she is
almost instantly sent off TO the hospital, re-
TO duty. In France or in America the family
would feel under natural and humane obliga-
ton, as well as restrained by sympathy and
affection, to care for the servant while sick
AS compared with America trained servants
are as hundred to one There is practically
no difficulty whatever in hiring most capable
and most worthy servants. Their ways are not
as our ways and their thoughts are not as our
thoughts. They are not pliable and manage
able and will Ill suit American domestic ar
rangements and habits Our familiarity with
servants our inquiry into their family and per-
sonal affairs, our calling upon them at all hours
and on all occasions to do any service required
would all be resented and would lead to an
archy in the household. They can do, each one
thing well. They will take their places and
keep their places. but they have no genius
whatever for diversity of employment. In any
country the very best remedy for a bad servant
Is good master or mistress Remember that
servants are human; that in this country they
are educated and ambitious. Give them the
respect and consideration due them and above
all teach servants that labor Is honorable and
that any work we'll and faithfully done re-
ceives recognition and a suitable and sure re-
ward"