Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1897-11-12
GERMAN SERVANTS.
SLAVERY THAT AN AMERICAN CALLS
,pvLLlc CONDITIONS.
Doing tho wor,s of Three or -Four FOR
Eighteen Hours a Day Fcr s1..5 q
Weex-Making a Pack Ecrso of q Girl.
Is This Story of Cruelty True:

Eighteen Hours q Day For S1.25 q
Wce;s-Making a Pack Ecrso OF a Girl.
Is This Story of Cruelty True:
"TEey have solved tho servant girl
problem i'll Germany" said Il New
Yorker to g Sun man. 81 need not go
into the details of all l saw i'll German
family economy during my year abroad
to convince you of this. / would not
! even try t o explain the way i'll which
the Germans lave done it, but | can
give an illustration OF two of the re-
suits as l SAW them.
we first Went to live in q boarding
house i'll Brunswick. 1t was Il very
fashionable boarding house, for Ameri
cans only, and the prices would bring
Joy to the heart of even Il New York
city landlmtv. There We're eight board
ers besides MY wife and myself. There
were the father and mother of the fam
lily and three grown daughters. We
lived i'll IL villa with u garden attach
ment and IL 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 ST. 25, Il week for her services. She
not only cooked all the meals, polished
all the doorllnobs, made up all the
rooms and washed all the clothes, but
she cut the grass i'll the garden, trimmed
the grapevines, scrubbed the fence and
wcedcd the walks. She rose ut 1880
every morning, moreover. and blached
all the boots. Her hours of labor We're
from 4:30 IL. III. to 10 30 p. III. daily.
aud she had just one day Off a month.
"When we first went to the boarding
house. l noticed that after each dinner
the herr papa went through IL queer
5 performance. He would mash down
, two potatoes OH u plate, cut two slices
Of meat and lay them OIL the potato. add
, Il spoonful OF each vegetable to the heap
and crown the collection with IL thick,
! unbuttered chunk OF black bread. Y
9 thought he must have a high bred dog
about the place. For the first week or
two that was my idea of the purpose for
which the dish was prepared Then !
learned that the hodgepodge was the
servant girls allowance. She WAS per-
mittcd to clear the plate, but not Il
: mouthful more was hers. From what L
5 observed alterwari | conclEded that
amy effort on her part to get more
G would have had dire results. The herr
papa certainly would have had an apo
plectic lit. The frau mamma probably
would have torn her hair and burst OH
the spo, the moment she heard such !;
- request. The consciousness OF such pos
e sibilities evidently WAS what deferred
the girl from asking for more. All tine
time | Was in the boarding house she
worked her IS hours IL day with three
NJ portions of coffee and black bread and
the h%odgepodge l have described as her
sole nourihsment.
! cone day last May we made trip i'll.
i to the HarZ mountains. We Wont as {
I'd big German family, carrying all OF oul
three meals, our beer and our wrap:
with us-tliat is, the servant girl car
,t ried them with us. She had strapped OF
her back q deep conical basket capable
!, of holding about two bushels. The has
ket had been packed with ham, sausage
= bread, beer and various other resource
,e of the delicatcssen shop. On top OF tin
Ii provisions were packed the wraps
" Loaded with the two bushels OF miscel
a. lany, Tie servant girl brought up til
IL rear OF our procession through Bruins
-, wick and WAS showed into IL seatlcs
- fourth class car, and the rest of us go
II into a second class car, and away w
1t spun to the loot of the Earz mountains
III Now, not wanting the reputation G
IL long distance liar, | shall not tell yo
SIS all the wonders performed by that serv
an ant girl OH that picnic tramp. Suffice
I've to say that she was with the procession
up hill and down dale, climbing rock
and sliding down the steep places. w
OIL began tramping up the mountains q
Mt $3.50, and at IL O'Clock my wife and
ew but the servant girl, with her wicke
of cone of delicatessen, didn't turn Il hail
When dinner came, she got only he
~. little plateful of sausage and blac
VI bread. When supper came, she got onl
u bottle Of beer and black bread. Y,
when it was all over she stood up
her fourth class car while the rest Of
H., dozed OH our second class seats. 81
walked home uncomplainingly benin
us. and the next day not Il boot was Ill
'ns blacked or a peg unpublished i'll IL
whole establishment. She did not b
Che come suddenly lame or weak or get
md call to go ut once to her sick sister
in receive notice OF the funeral of an aul
i, Is or uncle. In short, none of those thin;
that harrow the souls of American ser
ant girls with regularity turned up
disturb her industry She simply wor
the ed OH.
as "And that is what they all do-wor
of put tl.cir money i'll the bank and &
uld married Outside OF marriasel couldl
see that anything was likely to mo
the German servant girl to give motto
Every girl has her book i'll which Il
na' recorded all the changes which the orc
Ne nary course OF human life may eau
led her to make. The entries are made
to her successive MistIeSses. and she
do never engaged without her having shoI
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