Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-14

|
ss, sne washing up; take up nursery yea,
neIp the cook prepare. the late alnneTI
| carry up the dishes for late dinner, clear ana
%asn up kitchen supper. The nurse mas aeg nes
snouid be breakfast before the family, aln-
| ner directly after upstairs lunch, tea at o.
supper at9. They should go to bed regu-
| Iarly at 10 o'clock Now as to their fare. For
| breakfast u little bacon or an egg or some
! smoked fish: for dinner meat, vegetables,
| potatoes and pudding If joint has Deen
| set up for lunch it is usual for it to pc SEM
down to the servants table. Allow " pints
OF peer to each servant who asks for IL OF one
Dottle. Tea, butter and sugar are given ouC
70 Them. The weekly bills for the servants
snail be about 50 so.
English Servants Lose Their Manners Here.
And so on. The neatness of all this care
ful housekeeping would be delightful II II
could be carried out with us or If the serv-
ant would accept it. But imagine a New
| York mistress achieving it The independ-
ent voter would revolt. Neither he nor his
wife would ever accept it. English servants
lose all their good manners when they come
over here and cannot appear at all as tney
| do In London American servants are al
ways expected to eat what goes down from
the masters table, and there is no sucn
thing as making one servant wait upon an
| other.
There are households in America where
many servants are kept in order by clever
mistress, but it is rarely an order which lasts
for long. 1t is vexed question, and the
| freedom with which we takea servant, with
out much of character, must explain a
great deal of it. Foreign servants ind out
soon their legal rights and their Importance.
Where labor is scarce it is not SO easy to get
a good footman, parlor maid or cook, the
| great variety and antipathy of race comes In
The Irishman will not work on a railroad
with the Italians, and we all know the his
tory of the "heathen Chinee."
Mr.. Winans, in Scotland, hires place
which reaches from the North Sea to the
Atlantic; he spends 100000 year on It,
He has, perhaps, 800 servants, every one OF
them perfect. Imagine his having such
| place here! How many good servants could
he find, how long would they stay? How
long does French chef at $4,000 year
stay? Only one year. He prefers to re-
turn to France.
Establishing Their Independence.
1t is, however, possible for a lady to get
good servants and to keep them (for awhile)
| if she has great executive ability, II she
has a natural leadership; but the whole
| question is one which has not yet been at
all mastered. The great lack Of respect in
the manners of servants in hotels Is especl-
| ally noticeable after returning from Eu-
rope. A woman, sort of care taker, on a
third story floor, will sing while a lady is
| talking to her, not because she wishes to
sing at all, but to establish her independ-
ence. In Europe she would say: "Yes,
my lady," or "No, my lady," when spoken
| to- It is to be feared that the declaration
of independence is between us and good
service. We must be content II we md
one or two amiable Irish or old negroes,
4 L af
bear us, and for our children's sake, whom
they love as if they were their very own.
| This is, however, but taking the seamy
| side, and the humber side. Many opulent
people in America employ 80 servants and
their house goes on, with much of the Eu-
ropean elegance 1t is not unusual In tlne
| New York house to find butler and four
men in the dining room, chef and assist
ants in the kitchen, head groom and his
men in the stables, coachman, who is
very important functionary, and three
women in the nursery beside the nursery
| governess, who acts as amanuensls OF the
lady; the laay's maid, whose sole duty is to
wait on her lady and perhaps the young lady;
aparlor maid or two, and two chambermaids,
| laundress and her assistants. Of course,
| the men in such vast establishment do not
sleep in the house, with perhaps one or two
exceptions; the valet of the gentleman and
the head footman may be kept at home, as
needed in the night for errands, etc. But
| our American houses are not built to accom-
modate so many.
The Men Must Have Help.
In q household where one man alone il
| kept, and where he is expected to open the
| front door and to do all the duties of the
| dining room, he must have an assistant in
| the pantry. The cook, if awoman, gener-
| ally demands and needs one; if man, he
demands two, for chef will not do any of
| the menial work of cookery. He is a
pampered menial
The housekeeper should hire the servants
and be responsible for them. She orders
the dinners if the lady chooses, she gives
| out the stores, she watches over the house
| linen and gives it out, attends to the mend
| ing and replcnishing of it, and every day
visits all the bedrooms to see that the cham
| bermaids have done their duty, that writing
| materials are III every room, that all is
comfortably arranged for guests and for the
| family.
She is expected to see that her employers
are not cheated and this makes her unpopu-
| lar. A bad housekeeper is worse than none,
! as of course her powers of stealing are end
less. The butler is answerable for the
silver and wine. He must be absolute over
ing and passing of dishes, and then stands
behind the chair of his mistress. Many
gentlemen in America send their buffers to
market and leave to them the arrangement
of vhe table. If woman cook is kept this
is generally done, but in England butler
would not considerthis his work. All the
men servants must be clean shaven none
are permitted to wear mustaches; that is
the privilege of the gentleman.
Nine Meals Cooked Every Day.
Nine meals day are cooked in an opulent
house at Newport. A breakfast for the
servants, another for the children and gov
erness, another for the master and his guests
make three. The children's dinner, the
servants dinner, the family luncheon, an
other three. The grand dinner at 7:3o, the
children's tea, the servants supper make
another three
Those people are the happiest who can
many families live well and elegantly with
this number. To mark the difference in the
feeling as between those who employ and
those who serve, one little anecdote may
apply. At watering place in Europe
once met an English family of the middle
class. The lady said to her housemaid:
"Bromlon, your master wishes you to be in
at o'clock this evening""
Bromlon said: eyes, my lady"
An American lady stood near with her
maid, who flushed deeply.
"What is the matter, Jane?" asked the
lady.
called my MASTER" said the American.
NJ. E. W. SHERWOOD.