Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-08-14
GERMAN SERVANT GIRLS.
vszx9 They Are Exasperating and What
Makes Them Admirable.


Makes Thorn Admirable.
The German servant girl has no
bangs, nor bangles. nor fur-lined
<Bezks, nor four button kid gloves. She
10 sQuare-shouldered, heavy-fcatured.
ard. large-limbed. She is neither quick,
clean, nor intelligent, but she can work.
Size has the strength of an OK. and is
always willing to use it.
Most servant girls in German cities
are peasants. Daughters of the poorer
sCwn-bred families usually become fac
sHy hands. shop girls, or mattresses.
The conservative peasants however,
with their old prejudices in favor Of
escry thing feudal prefer domestic SER
uacs for their children to any employ
Msnt
rs soon as the peasants daughter is
fourteen or fifteen years old she learns
lSow to split wood. hoe potatoes and
slant cabbages. She milks the cow
Sefore breakfast, bitches her to a pillow
liter breakfast. and often turns burrows
lsA the morning under the direction of
her father, who in the mean while
smokes a pipe and rests. She mows
hay and digs water trenches During
tie harvest she carries great basketfuls
osvegetables from the fields to the barn
On her back.
When her younger sister becomes old
enough to help her parents work the
EstIe farm, however, the eldest daugh-
ter loses her grip on her fathers heart.
She is regarded by him as an encum-
the eyes of German peasant than
grown daughter who does not earn her
living. Therefore if no Hans or Fritz
wishes her to be his helpmate in raising
essbbages and potatoes she must go into
domestic service in the city.
Like almost all novices in an occupa-
ton on the Continent she serves an
apprenticeship. For several months she
receives no wages, nor does she deserve
amy. for her stupidity is phenomenal.
She has never walked on a carpet be-
fare, and doesn't know a napkin from
d5sh-cloth or a coal bucket from ket-
Ae- She smashes crockery right and
left. She blacks the Herr's patent
Jaather shoes and oils his rubber boots.
She puts the table spread on the floor
and the rug on the table. In fact, she
is as strange to most of the furniture
and customs in a comfortable house as
aPersian or Indian. She learns slowly
sad laboriously, but she never forgets.
When her apprenticeship is up her
wages rise slowly from $40 and $25 a
year to $50, $50 and $40. The girl who
gets the maximum wages is expected
to- do an enormous amount of work.
She Is often the only servant in a
family of seven or eight. She rises at
five o'clock and blacks the boots of all
the members of the family. She pre-
uares the light breakfast and serves it.
She polishes all the brass and bronze
front steps, and the walks before the
bause on her hands and knees. She
carries big hods of coal from the. base
msnt to the third and fourth stories.
She sweeps the rooms, makes all the
beds, and washes and scrubs every pot,
fsscts her stolid face. She goes to
market with her mistress and a big
aasket, and returns loaded down like
rgule with vegetables, meat and
sxxthen ware. She does Grants all
over the city, gratuitiously for the
family and for a couple of cents for it's
guests. She frequently sleeps in a
roorn smaller than an American ward
robe and without means of ventilation.
In fact, so many abuses in lodging SER
wants prevailed in Berlin that city
ordinances were passed some time ago
prescribing the minimum size of
apartments in which servants could be
4zartered.
The servant girl in German family
OF the middle class does not pretend
I'd cock; her mistress does that Nor
does she wash and iron. as laundress
and washerwOman are called in semi
HHonthly for these purposes She does
Try to be a chambermaid of some
merit, and fails. She washes the floor
and dusts bric-a-brac with the same
cloth She never tucks in the clothes
sxx the foot of the bed, and never shakes
Up the big bag Of feathers which she
gives you for coverlet. She puts your
slippers on the table and throws your
clean shirts into the wash. She invar-
ixbly mistakes an ash receiver for a
Gsrrnan cuspador, fills it with sand, and
rests it on the floor. She streaks up
ygur books by busting them with wet
cloths, and throws all loose papers,
ssEardless of their value, into the stove
According to American ideas, she does
ss<ry thing wrong and by main
asssugth- She is SO willing to work.
Homexer. and to learn every thing that
anyone will teach her, that American
BeuseAeepers abroad regard her, des-
vdse her elumsiness. as a rough dia-
E1ond.-N Z. Sun.