The Indianapolis journal., 1889-06-02
THE GERMAN DOMESTIC.
Exasperating and Stupid, but a Worker from
Away Back.


New York Sun.
The German servant girl has no bangs,
nor bangles, nor fur-lined clOaks nor four
buttoned kid gloves. She is square shoul-
dered, heavy featured, and large limbed.
She is neither quick, clean, nor intelligent.
but she can work. She has the strength of
an OK and is always willing to use 1T. Most
servant girls in German cities are peasants.
Daughters of the poorer town bred families
usually become factory hands. shop girls.
or mattresses. The conservative peasants,
however, with their old prejudices in favor
of everything feudal, prefer domestic serv-
Ice for their children to any employment
Like almost all nOvices in an occupation
on the continent. she serves an apprentice
ship. For several months she receives no
wages nor does she deserve any, for her
stupidity Is phenomenal She has never
walked on a carpet before, and doesn't know
a napkin from dish-cloth, or coal bucket
from kettle. She smashes crOckery right
and left. She blacks the Herr's patent
leather 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 of
She learns slowly and laboriously, but she
never fOrgets.
When her apprenticeship is up her wages
rise slowly from $40 and $25 year to $50,
$50 and $40. The girl who gets the maxi
mum wages is expected to do an enormous
amount of work. She is often the only
servant in family of seven or eight. She
rises at o'clock and blacks the boots of
all the members of the family. She pre-
pares the light breakfast and serves it. She
polshes all the brass and bronze in the
house, scrubs the corridors, the front steps
and the walks before the house on her
hands and knees. She carries big hods of
coal from the basement to the third and
fourth stories. She sweeps the rooms,
makes all the beds, and washes and scrubs
every pot, kettle and pan in the kitchen till
it reflects her stolid face. She goes to mar
ket with her mistress and big basket, and
returns. loaded down like a mule, with
vegetables, meat and earthenware. She does
errands all over the city, gratuitously for
the family. and for a couple of cents for its
guests. She frequently sleeps in a room
smaller than an American wardrobe, and
without means of ventilation.
When German family of the middle
class makes picnic excursion all the food
crOckery and linen are packed in "a three
bushel basket, which the maid servant car
ries on her back to the railway station or
picnic grounds. She also carries heavy
satchels and bundles to and from the train
to save the family the four extra cents
which a German cabby charges for taking
small packages upin front. Altogether. the
average German servant girl does not get
more than an hour or SO of leisure daily.
A servant girl in German family of the
middle class does not pretend to cook: her
mistress does that. Nor does she wash and
iron. as laundress and washerwoman are
called in semi mi-monthly for these purposes.
She does try to be chambermaid of some
merit, and fails. She washes the floor and
dusts bric-a-b brac with the same cloth She
never tucks in the clothes at the foot of the
bed. and never shakes MP the big bag of
feathers which she gives you for a coverlet.
She puts your slippers on the table, and
throws your clean shirt into the wash. She
invariably mistakes your ash receiver for a
German cuspidore. fills it with sand and
y ON ha he o<,.x l.
books by busting them with wet cloths.
and throws all loose papers, regardless of
their value, into the stove. According TO
American ideas. she does everything wrong
and by main strength. She is so willing to
work, however, aud to learn everything
that one will teach her, that American
| housekeepers abroad regard her. despite her
clumsiness, as rough diamond.