Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-09-27
FAULTS OF THE MISTRESS.

rather tudh lHdl Ol inc servant, Is the
subject of an article in the Forum by
Anna B. McMahan. Grant all that NAV
be said of the ignorance, dullness, in
difference, insolence, Incidence, extrava-
gance of the present body of domestic
workers, she writes, still it is true that
the pressing need at present is good
mistresses. She does not mean to say
that every young woman who applies
for work can be made into a good serv-
ant, but she does affirm that with rea-
sonable amount of care and Judgment
in selection, the making depends rather
on the mistress than on the maid.
A good mistress is a woman whose
domestic business is well managed in
all its departments, just as a good mer-
chant is a man whose mercantile affairs
are well conducted. And it requires
more skill, it is better housekeeping, to
get some one else to do the work of the
house well than it is to do it yourself,
Just as it is a higher qualification for o
merchant to see to it that bookkeepers,
statesmen and cash-boy are all efficient
in their places, than it is to do his own
errands or sweep out his own store.
Nor is there any more need of an sim
tolerable tyranny over woman in her
home than there is of a like tyranny
over man in his business.
People never cease to wonder that
poor girls choose labor in factories, be-
hind counters, and at sewing machines,
rather than the better paid, the better
fed, the better housed, and less fatiguing
work in families. They assume that
this is lowing to an absurd prejudice
that they lower their position and for
felt all independence in doing what
they call mental work. but it is far
more owing to the fact that they forfeit
their liberty. Freedom is sweet to every
human being; and in store and factory
the worker, during some hours of the
twenty-four, belongs to herself and has
no one to question her movements or in
trude on her privacy.
But housemaid can make no plans
which are not likely TO be upset by the
plans, or even by the caprices or
thoughtlessness of her EMPLOYERS. The
average mistress, instead of trying to
Tighten the consciousness of the yoke, is
far more likely to emphasize it, and, in
addition, to assume dictation over the
tastes and leisure of those who serve
her. When there is a general, though
tacit recognition among mstresses of
the perfect compatibility of domestic
service with due independence in per-
sonal matters, this kind of labor will
not be held in such low esteem, better
class of workers will not shrink from
taking part in it.
But not only is there lack of respect
for the workers among mistresses, but
also lack of respect for the work.
There are hundreds of little ways in
which mistress with a genuine respect
for the work can make this respect felt
and use it as an incentive to improve
ment. do thus and so because it is
my way" says the average woman
while engaged in the difficult and
arduous process known as breaking
inn new girl. When the back is turn
ed, instantly the girl does it another,
and probably poorer way, because it is
her way. But if my way" we're shown
to be the best one, and for what rea-
sons, and if it were seen that the lady
herself found it no less fitting and beau
tiful to practice the best way in the
work of the kitchen than in her other
affairs, then the work would seem no
longer mental, but dignified.
Many good servant is spoiled by in
cessant interference OF dictation. Even
very dull person may be taught in q
few weeks just what work is expected Of
her and how it is to be done, and in
general she will do it better and take
far more interest, if the responsibility of
planning and executing be vested in
herself That housekeeper of half q
century ago whom Colonel Hamilton
had in mind when he described the first
dish at the American dinner party as
1.-The roasted mistress of tine house." was
probably one of those women who make
it a daily practice to say just when the
bread shall go into the oven or the roast
shall come out.
The points that the writer makes are,
that employers are more responsible for
their own troubles than they are wont
to imagine; that housekeeping being the
woman's half (and it is full half of
the business in which two people engage
when they marry, it rests with her TO
deal with this large problem in a prac-
teal way; that until she does so we
shall continue to have men writing
''sorrowful or splenetic or passionate, !"
but one-sided articles, while housekeep-
ers remain as far as ever from peace
and order and quiet in their homes. -
Good Housekeeping.