The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1893-04-13
MISTRESS AND MAN.
a Short Chapter on the Difference " hich
Occur .ctween Them.

That there IS maid for every mis-.
tress and n mistress for every maid is
as certain as that for every Jack there
is a 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
family who kept milch-goats
The difficulty is that employers arc
always trying to fit wrong people into
wrong places, and will never quietly
consider their own peculiarities
shah 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, 60 to meals and
retire with exact regularity, the we'll
trained English servant is the best for
you. She will serve you seriously, IN
swer your orders with an invariablc
very we'll. M am" have your Sunday
dinner ready for you when you como
home from church all in 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~
sional regular party with ice cream and
salads and the company all In full
dress In fact she will rejoice to servo
so exemplary q family, and feel that it
is owing to her influence that you keep
so strictly to the right way.
If, on the contrary, you are profess
sional people, with mildly bohemian
habits and desire to have some inno-
cent jollity and q sense of good-fellow.
ship, avoid this perfect servant ns you
would a 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 Us they like
without asking what others do. will be
too great for utterance. Her first dts
covery of Flemish jug and mugs to
match in the diningroom 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 q white
handkerchief about her forehead
From that moment her shocked exr
preston will be permanent, and you
will feel as though you had established
somebody elsc's family ghost on tho
premises until you part, very, very
gladly.
No, this perfect servant will never do
for you. Get jolly Irishwoman, or
comfortable, fat, southern black aunty.
who can understand that you keep
house to live and do not live to keep
house.
The matron whose family love to live
well spends half day at bureau to
engage at last mild, milk-and-watcr
sort of female. with o small chin nnd
no mouth to speak Of, who in reply to
every affable question uttcrs the same
I've no choice, ma'am.
Why, Heaven knows, forty years Of
experience ought to have taught her
that woman like that always serves
meats half cooked and barely war1n.
sleeps her coffee, watersheds her vege'
tables, sends up her prddings In
liquid condition and flnvorless, is incap-
able OF getting up a good fire or giving
q comfortable effect to room that she
h,renges OF opening door widely to
n,,.nit guest or quite shutting one on
cny OCCASION: that while she dominates
.hc kitchen TIE household will feel han
starved m .Hoiv wretched.
Mean. j. cnsitive person, with
sicone "a" y, the subject of gravics
and o. las as to salads and
sauces, zen engaged by lady
who Ike > family On short rations,
principally o. bread and smoked beet,
while the timid elderly splnster In
glasses has been so far left to herself
as to take home with her to her little
flat an immense, red-haircd fury, with
blocd-shot eyes and an evident bottle
"a her pocket, and Mrs McGillicuddy,
who boasts Of quclling connections Ia
her kitchen by such heroic moons aa
the throwing Of pudding-pans and fat.
irons captures a meek, cross-eyed
woman who mentions that she left hes
! last place because after seeing ghost
4 in the cellar she wouldn't go down fo1
Goals never no more, nor if it was evey
So
But oil these women, having eyes.
saw not, and blindly selected a servant
as from grabbing at fair, when tho
matter might have been one OF sensi-
BILE and well-adviscd choice, and tho
contract tolcrably permanent one tn
consequence Mary Kyle Dallas, In N
! ~ NNorld