Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-12-05
GERMAN SERVANTS.
SLAVERY THAT AN AMERICAN cALlo
 iDYLLIc CONDITIONS.
Doing the Work of Three or Four For Eighteen Hours a Day For 61.26 week-MaIsing a Pack Horse of a Girl. Is This Story of Cruelty True7

Eighteen Hours a Day For 61.25 .
 week-MaIxing Pack Horse of a Girl.
 Is This Story of Cruelty True?
 "They have solved the servant girl problem in Germany" said New Yorker to Sun man. Il need not go into the details of all saw in German family economy during my year abroad to eonvincs you of this. would not even try to explain the way in which the Germ ans have done it, but can give an illustration or two of the re- suits as I saw them.
 "We first went to live in boarding house i'll BruIisw ioh. it It ,wr:a.ss w:a.ss ye.y fashionable boarding house, for Ameri- cans only, and the prices would bring joy to the heart of even New York city land1ady. There were eight board CTS besides my wife and myself. There were the father and mother of the fam | fly and three grown daughters We lived in villa with garden attach ment and very imposing entrance adorned with metal that needed polish ing daily. For the work of this whole big house and household there was just one servant, who received just marks, or $l.25, a week for her services. She not only cooked all the meals, polished all the doorknobs, made up all the rooms and washed all the clothes, but she cut the grass in the garden, trimmed the grapevines, scrubbed the fence and weeded the walks. She rose at 4 80 every morning, moreover, and blacked 1 all the boots. Her hours of labor were from 4 :80 a. m. to 10:30 p. m. daily, and she had just one day off month.
 "When we first went to tho boarding house, noticed that after each dinner the herr papa went through queer l performance. He would mash down two potatoes on q plate, cut two slices of meat and lay them on tho potato, add Q spoonful of each vegetable to the heap and crown the collection with thick, unbuttered chunk of black bread. thought he must have high bred dog about the place. For the first week or two that was my idea of tho purpose for which the dish was prepared. Then learned that tho hodgepodge was the servant girls allowance. She was per mitted to clear the plate, but not . mouthful more was hers. From what observed afterward l concluded that any effort on her part to get more would have had dire results. The herr papa certainly would have had an apo l plectic fit. The frau mamma probably l would have torn her hair and burst on the spot the moment she heard such request The consciousness of such pos | sibilitios evidently was what deterred the girl from asking for more. All the time l was in the boarding house she l worked her IS hours day with three 1 portions of coffee and black bread and the hodgepodge I have described as her sole nourihsment.
 tOne day last May we made a trip iD- to the Harz mountains. We went US Q big German family, carrying all of our, three meals, our beer and our wraps, 1 with us-that is, the servant girl car ried them with us She had strapped on her back deep conical basket capable' 1 of holding about two bushels. The bas- ket had been packed with ham, sausage, bread, beer and various other resouroes| ef the delicatessen shop. On top of the| l provisions were packed the wraps Loaded with the two bushels of miscel- lany, the servant girl brought up the| rear of our procession through Bruns- wick and was showed into seatless| l fourth class car, and the rest of us got| into q second class car, and away vel l spun to the foot of the Harz mountains
 Now, not wanting tho reputation of long distance liar, I shall not tell you| all the wonders performed by that serv- ant girl on that picnic tramp Suffice it| to say that she was with the procession, up hill and down dale, climbing rocks| and sliding down the steep places. Wei began tramping up the mountains at| 8:30, and at II o'clock my wife and Il were so tired that we took to ponies, but the servant girl, with her wicker| cone of delicatessen. didn't turn hair When dinner came, she got only hea little platefrl of sausage and black bread. When supper came, she got only bottle of beer and black bread. Yeti when it was all over she stood up in| her fourth class car while the rest of us| dozed on our second class seats. She| walked home uncomplainingly behind| as and the next day not 8 boot was un. blacked or peg unpublished in ths| whole establishment. She did not be- come suddenly lame or weak or get a| call to go at once to her sick sister oe| receive notice of the funeral of all aunt or uncle. In short, none of those thinRs| that harrow the souls of American sery- ant girls with regularity turned up to| distarb her industry. She simply work ed on.
 And thae is what they all do-w0k put their money in the bank and get| married. Outside of marriage couldn 'tl see that anything was likely to move the German servant girl to give notice Every girl has her book in which are| recorded all the changes which the ordi- nary course of human life may cause her to make The entries are made by her successive mistresSeS md she is