The Washington times., 1895-06-16
SERVANTS WITH DIPLOMAS
Busybody Club Advocates Training
Schools for Domestic Help.
Occupation of Cook and Housemaid
Must Be Elevated to the Dignity
of Profession.

Although nearly all the women's clubs
in the city have adjourned for the summer
/ there are still quite number of the mem-
bers in town, and a few, very few, who
| do not intend TO go away at all. About
| a dozen of these stay-at-homes, made ZIP
| from various clubs, met in a CoZy little
parlur last Saturday evening and dis
cussed the never-failiug topic Of interest
10 every house sekeeper, Servants and
how to treat them"
zone lady, the wife Of a prominent
| journalist, who was going to her cottage
| on Lake Ontario, opened the conversa-
tion by relating to her frie nds how she
! had been uu the search for good servant
| for the past week or two aud was almost
| in despair; she wanted to know if her
| friend. the hostess, couldn't recommend
! a good. reliable, cleanly servant"
I'm very like the good old darkey
! servants about Washington, 'Fraid, mis-
sus, to 'commen' any o. desc trifrnG
niggas bout heah.' one thing is certain,
however. 1 would never take a servant
in Washington, from any employment
agency The agents know nothing Of
either their qualifications or OF their
character. and just as like as not you will
I
"A good servant has no difficulty in
securing a situation just as soon as she
leaves a place; in fact they are generally on
| with the new, before they are off with the
old love Servants are apt to get tired of a
| place Then the general rule amongst
negroes is TO say she is sick, muss' have a
res; will be sure TO come back, but muss'
res till / gets ober dis misty And off
| She goes, and ten chances to one you Will
never see her again, although you have
| had her for fouT or five years and believed
| you couldn't do without her.
Sometimes IL is the fault of the
! mistress; you expect too much of your
/ servants. If you are Northern woman
or are yourself a good energetic worker,
| you apt to think thata negro servant Will
| work as hard or as constantly as an Irish
woman or as you will yourself but you
will find yourself mistaken; they cannot
| and wouldn't ii they could. 1t is a matter
! of heredity; OF constitution and of habit.
| Through long years of slavery the
negro only did what W9s expected of him,
| and because there were always many
| servants, his laboTs were comparatively
light and his hours short. II can not be
expected that this heredtty can be changed
all in n few years or even In one gen
Grafton. The negro servant in Wash
ington is very like Il child: you must make
dilO WduCeS LOT all uGT UTHHHS uliSUG-
meanOrs, but above all things, you must
put her upon her honor or rather appeal
to her naturally kind heart, and do uoth-
ing, absolutely, which it is her duty to do;
| in fact you must make her believe that you
| depend entirely upon her. The chances
are you Will secure better service than by
scolding and helping her do her work. II
a negro servant thinks some one else
| win do her work she win never do it
| herself"
The Busy Bodies took up the question
| warmly. 1t was the opinion of all those
present that If you wanted a servant and
could get respectable old man or woman
who had themselves been in service to
recommend one, you would be apt to be
suited, but it is very bard to get them to
do so. 1t sometimes happens, too, as in a
case related by one OF the ladies present
that whilst those so recommended might
be honest and fairly good servants in many
ways, their morals, as measured by your
code, might be very defective.
There again is that stumbling block
OF heredity, and you had better think
twice before You dismiss your otheTwisegood
servant, for such, to her, paltry reason. But,
there was no question about it, We must
have trained servants-trained pTacti-
cally, morally, socially.
The workings of the cooking and train
tng-school for servants, at the corner o1
Thirteenth and n streets, was taken VI
and thoroughly reviewed. 1t is only q
mission school supported by voluntary
contributions, and inadequate, for this
and other reasons, to undertake the training
of large number. Besides, of the 200 ol