Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-14
THEY WILL BE FREE.
Servants Lose ALI Their Good Quail
tiles Coming to America.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
At the Bottom of the Trouble About Ser
vice in the Household.
TIRE QUESTION OF NATIONALITY


THE QUESTION OF FATl0NAiniI
| rwRETTEH Tol THE p1sfATcH.l
| Verify
| swear tits better to be lowly born,
| And range with humble liyers in contene,
Than to be perked upin clustering grief
| And wear golden sorrow.
1t is impossible to do much with the art
of entertaining without servants, and where
shall we get them? In country village,
not 200 miles from New York, have seen
the well-to-do citizens going to little res
taurant on the main street, actually because
they could not get women to stay in their
houses as servants. They are willing to pay
high wages, they are generous ivers, but
such a thing as domestic service is out OF
the question. If any lady comes from the
city bringing two or three maids, they are
of far more interest than their mistress, and
are besieged, waited upon, intrigued with
to come and serve the village lady. What
is the reason? The American farmers S
daughter will not, go out to service, will not
be called a servant, will not work IN
another persons house as she will in her
| own.'
Such story repeated all over the land Is
the story of American service. We have,
however, every day ship arriving in New
York harbor which pours out on our shores
! the poor of all nations. The men seem to
take readily enough to any sort of work.
Italians shovel snow and work on railroads,
but their wives and daughters make poor
domestic servants.
|
The best that we can get are the Irish,
who have been long in the country. Then
come the Germans, who are now beginning
to outnumber the Irish. The French, the
Swedes, the Danes, the Norwegians, all
come in shoals. Of all of these the French
are by far the best. Of course as cooks
they are unrivaled; as butler, waiter, foot
man, a well-trained French servant, man, is
the very best. He is neat, economical and
respectful He knows his value and he is
very expensive. But if you can afford him
take him and keep him.
The French maids are admirable as
seamstresses, and in all the best and highest
walks of domestic service; but they are
difficult as to the other servants, they make
trouble about their food; they do not tell
| good, but for that drawback-they do not
instill love of the truth into their charges.
| An Irish nurse is the best and most tender,
| the most to be relied on. Children love
Irish servants; it is the best compliment we
| can pay them. They are not good cooks as a
rule, and they are wanting in head, manage
ment and neatness, but they are willing and
good mistress can make of them almost
anything she desires.
Romance Runs in the Swedish Blood.
The Germans surpass them very much in
| thrift and in concentration, but the Ger
mans are stolid and very far from being as
gentle and willing as the Irish. If house.
Keeper gets a number of German servants
in training, and thinks them perfect, she
need not be astonished if some fine morn
| ing she rises and finds them gone off to
parts unknown. The Swedes are more re-
liable, up to a certain point. They are
never stupid, they are rather fantastic and
full of eccentricity. They are also full of
poetry and always full of sublime longings.
| The Swedish language is made up of elo-
quence and poetry as soft as Italian; it has
also something of the flow and the magnif-
cence of the Spanish. 1t is rich in pic
| turesques and brilliant metaphor and
| richer in its expressions of gentleness,
politeness and courtesy. They have great
| courtesy and of protesting with pollteness,
| ease. q
A Dinner Party for Five Dollars.
1 once had Swedish maid argue me out
of my desire to have the dining room swept
! in better language than could use myself
They are excellent cooks. A Swedish
woman used to come to my house to cook for
| dinner parties, and she was equal to any
French chef Her price was S5; she would
do all my marketing for me, and serve the
dinner most perfectly-that is, render it up
to the men walters. I rarely had any fault
to find. If I had it was who was in the
| wrong. She came often to instruct my Irish
cook and made good cook of her, but had
attempted any further intercourse feel
that it would be who should leave the
house and not my excellent cook. They
have every qualification for service except
ing this, they will not obey; they are cap
tains..
Norwegians Are Best of All.
The Norwegians are very different. We
must again remember that they are at home
so poor, so frugal, so religious, so capable
of all sacrifice they will work patiently for
seven years in order to 60 home to Norway
again, to that poetical land, whose beauty
is so unspeakable. These girls who come
from the herds, who have spent the summer
on the plains in small hut and alone, max
ing butter and cheese, and strong, hand
some, fresh creatures, their voices as sweet
as lutes and so obedient and good, thinking
of father and mother and home. Would
there more of theml If they were little
less awkward in an American house they
would be perfect.
Could T have my choice for servants
about country house they should be Nor
wegians. In city house, French people.
In Chicago the ladies speak highly of the
German servants, if they do not happen to
be Nihilists, which is dreadful possibility.
At the South they still have the negro,
most excellent when good, most objectiona-
BILE when bad. Certainly freedom has not
improved them as to manners, and a colored
coachman in Washington can be far more
disagreeable than an Irishman or a French
cabby during the exposition, which is say
ing a great deal.
The excellence, the superiority, the beau
tiful manners of English servants at home
has induced many ladies to bring over par
lor maids, nurses, cooks. with, however, but
small success. 1 need but copy the follow
ing, from the London Queen, to show how
different is the way of speaking of servant
and to a servant in London from New York:
What Is Expected of Servants.
The servants should rise at $50, and the