Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1891-09-25
MISTRESS AND MAID.
A Short Chapter on the Differences Whicl
Occur Between Them.

Occur Between Them.
That there is a maid for every mis-
tress and mistress for every maid is
as certain as that for every Jack there
is Jill.
Even that most homeless of appli
cants for a position in an American
kitchen, the Icelandish damsel WHOSE
only accomplishment was milking
reindeer" would be treasure to a
family who kept milch-goats.
The difficulty is that employers are
always trying to fit wrong people into
wrong places, and will never quietly
consider their own peculiarities.
shall startle you by saying that the
best servant in the abstract is by no
means always the best for you. For
you must consider, not so much what
she has done in her last place, as what
she will be expected to do in yours.
If your family is drilled like regi-
ment, SO that all rise, go to meals and
retire with exact regularity, the we'll
trained English servant is the best for
you She will serve you seriously, an
swer your orders with an invariable
Every well, man." have your Sunday
dinner ready for you when you come
home from church all in a row, lock
the front door, extinguish the hall lamp
and Danish the family cat at ten pre-
cisely and allow you to have an occa-
siopal regular party with ice cream and
salads, and the company all in full
dress. In fact she will rejoice to serve
SO exemplary family, and feel that it
is owing to her influence that you keep
so strictly to the right way.
IT, on the contrary, you are profess
sional people, with mildly Bohemian
habits and desire to have some inno-
cent jollity and sense of good-fellow-
ship avoid this perfect servant as you
would fiery dragon.
Her wrath on learning that the vari-
Gus members Of the household rise
when they please and sit up until two
o'clock when they desire to do So that
they have impromptu banquets at ir-
regular hours, that they do as they like
without asking what others do, will be
too great for utterance. Her first dis
covery of Flemish jug and mugs to
match in the dining-room of morning
will crush her. She will sweep the
cigarette boxes away with anguish in
her SOUL and will be seized with symp-
toms which force her to pin white
handkerchief about her forehead.
From that moment her shocked ex-
preston will be permanent, and you
will feel as though you had established
somebody elsc's family ghost on the
premises until you part, very, very
gladly.
No, this perfect servant will never dc
for you. Get a jolly Irishwoman, or G
comfortable fat, southern black aunty
who can understand that you keel
house to live and do not live to leeI
house.
The matron whose family love to live
well spends half a day at a bureau t.
engage at last mild, -and-watel
sort of female, with a small chin an(
no mouth to speak of, who in reply t.
every affable question utters the sam,
I've no choice, ma'am,"
Why, Heaven knows, forty years o
experience ought to have taught he
that woman like that always serve
meats half cooked and barely warm
sleeps her coffee, watersheds her vege
tables, sends up her buildings in
liquid condition and flavorless, is incar
able of getting up a good fire or givin
arranges, of opening a door widely t
admit guest or quite shutting one o
any occasion; that while she dominate
the kitchen the household will feel hal
starved and wholly wretched.
Meanwhile sensitive person, wit
strong feelings on the subject of gravie
and original ideas as to salads an
sauces, has been engaged by lad
who keeps her family on short rations
principally of bread and smoked beet
while the timid elderly spinster i
glasses has been so far left to hersel
as to take home with her to her littl
fiat an immense, red-haired fury, wit
blood-shot eyes and an evident bottl
in her pocket, and Mrs McGillicuddy
who boasts of quelling connections i
her kitchen by such heroic means a
the throwing of pudding-pans and fiat
irons, captures meek, cross-eye
woman, who mentions that she left he
last place because after seeing ghos
in the cellar she wouldn't go down fo
Goals never no more, nor if it was eve
So"
But all these women, having eye.
saw not, and blindly selected a servar
t as from a grabbing at fair, when tn
matter might have been one of sens
BILE and well-advised choice, and tn
contract tolerably permanent one
consequence, Mary Kyle Dallas, in \
Y. World.