The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-03-22
MR.. AND R BowsER.
The Servant-Girl Problem In The
Home.

NOSO u SGGA44O L4O1l1O W
dinner the other evening.
"Why7' he cautiously queried in
reply.
"Oh, nothing. I thought if you did
I'd run out this evening-and-"
"Mrs. Bowser, has the cook leftI T" he
hoarsely demanded.
"She-she has. You see she was so
obstinate and impu-"
"Then you have deliberately driven
that poor girl out of the house, have
youF he sternly interrupted.
81 told her to 60"
"Then you may do without another
for 10, 600, 900 years! Drove her right
out of the house, perhaps to a suicides
grave, and all because she couldn't be
ground to dust! Mrs. Bowser, if you
were the last woman on the face of
the earth I wouldn't work in your
kitchenY"
do you know the facts in this
case!" she asked with considerable
spirit.
q do. I haven't the least doubt
that you went out into the kitchen
with the air of a duchess and tried to
make her feel that she was only
mud.
Il didn't do anythink of the kind!
No one could be more pleasant than 1
was"
Mrs. BOwser, l know your ways!
They have driven fifty different girls
out of our house before this one. The
fact is, and 1 feel that 1 must say it,
you don't know how to manage kitchen
help. You have neither tact nor
policy"
you have l suppose"
Certainly every husband has, more
or less. Those traits were born in him.
Mrs. Bowser, did you ever inquire if
that girl read her Biblel"
mo. sir!"
Didn't ask after her family, or
eve express any concern as to her
welfare'"
ono"
Never sat down with her and
sought her confidence and let her see
that you were her friends"
"Of course mott"
81 see how it is, Mrs. Bowser, and
the wonder is that the girl stayed two
hours. Well, it's no use to get another
not under your style of manage
ment."
perhaps your style would turn out
differently she retorted.
Mrs. Bowser, no wife should talk
back to her husband. AS you have
been pleased to doubt the success of
my management 1 will prove to you
that l know more about servant girls
nature in three minutes than you
ever will if you live to be a thousand
years old"
"HOw?'
"HOw! I will hire the next servant
girl, and start her on the way to stay
ing with us for the next twenty years.
[ will send an ad. down to come out
in the morning paper, and I'll stay
home to morrow till we get a girl" =.
He sent off his add. and the subject
was dropped until the next morning.
Breakfast was hardly over when the
bell rang and an applicant was a an
nounced. She was ushered into the
parlar, and Mr.. Bowser arose and
shook hands with her and said:
"You have come to see about the
place. My wife, you know, doesn't
understand how to run the kitchen,
and Sd /"
"TIl have no hen-hussy O. a man
poking around any kitchen I work
in!' Interrupted the girl, as she
rose up.
"But. you see, my wife is >
eff your wife can't u the house
you'd better shut it up" she said, as
sic walked out. "The idea of making
me come a journey of three miles to
find a man who wants to go poking his
nose into kitchen affairs and telling a
girl how to hang up her dish cloth
Why, sir, l wouldn't work for you for
$50 a month, nor for forty!"
"Who was it," i~nnocently asked
Mrs. Bowser, though she had been
listening at the door all the time.
"a woma selling tickets for some
church festival" he calmly answered.
When the second applicant came
MIR. B0wser also shook hands with her
and hoped all her folks were we'll, and
added
elf you take the place I shall do my
best to make you feel that you are
in YOUR own home. Not a word will
ever be said to make you feel that you
ara not as good as