The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-10-26
GERMAN SERVANTS.
SLAVERY THAT AN AMERICAN CALLS
IOYLLlc CONDITIONS.
Doing the Work OF Three or Four For
Eighteen Hours Day For Si.s5 q
Week-MalxinG a Pack Horse OF Girl.
Is This Story OF Cruelty True?

lamlly economy during my year abroad
to convince you of this. would not
even try TO explain the way in which
the Germans have done it, but can
give an illustration or two of the re.
suits as l saw them.
1--WE first went to live in boarding
house in Brunswick 1t was very
fashionable boarding house, for Ameri-
Joy TO the heart of even New York
city landlady. 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 in villa with q 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 81. 20, 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 i'll the garden, trimmed
the grapevines, scrubbed the fence and
weeded the walks She rose at A 80
every morning, moreover and BACKED
all the boots. Her hours of labor were
from 4 80 a. M. to 80 p m daily,
and she had just one day off month
When we first went to the boarding
house, noticed that after each dinner
the herr papa went through a queer
performance. He would mash down
two potatoes on q plate, cut two slices
Of meat and lay them on the potato, add
a 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 the purpose for
which the dish was prepared Then /
learned that the hodgepodge was the
servant girls allowance. She was per-
mitted to clear the plato, but not a
mouthful more was hers. From what
observed afterward | concluded that
any effort on her part to get more
would have had dire results. The herr
papa certainly would have had an apo
plectic fit The frau mamma probably |
would have torn her hair and burst on |
request. The consciousness Of such pos |
sibilities evidently was what deferred
the girl from asking for more. All the |
time l was in the boarding house she !
worked her Is hours q day with three I
portions Of coffee and black bread and
the hodgepodge have described as her
sole nourihsment.
lone day last May we made trip in
to the Harz mountains. We went as a
big German family, carrying all of our
three meals, our beer and our wraps
with us-that is, the servant girl car
ried them with us. She had strapped on
her back deep conical basket capable
of holding about two bushels The bas-
ket had been packed with ham, sausage,
bread, beer and various other resources
of the delicatessen shop. On top of the
provisions were packed the wraps
Loaded with the two bushels of miscel-
lany, the servant girl brought up the
rear of our procession through Bruins
wick and was showed into a seatless
fourth class car, and the rest of us got
into a second class car, and away we
spun to the foot of the Earz mountains.
Now, not wanting the reputation of
a long distance liar, / shall not tell you
all the wonders performed by that serv-
ant girl OH 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. We !
began tramping up the mountains at
$3.50. and at l / O'Clock my wife and |
hot I
but the servant girl, with her wicker
cone Of delicatessen, didn't turn hair.
When dinner came, she got only her
little plateful of sausage and black
bread. When supper came, she got only
a bottle of beer and black bread. Yet
when it was all over she stood up in
her fourth class car while the rest of us
1ozed on our second class seats. She I
walked home uncomplainingly behind I
as, and the next day not boot was I'M I
Dlacked or q peg unpublished in the I
whole establishment. She did not be. :
,ome suddenly lame or weak or get a
,all to go at once to her sick sister or
receive notice of the funeral of an aunt
II uncle In short, none of those things I
hat harrow the souls of American serv- i
INT girls with regularity turned up to
disturb her industry She simply work Q
ID on. y
And that is what they all do--work,
,ut their money in the bank and get :,
married. Outside of marriage couldn'
zee that anything was likely to move
he German servant girl to give notice
every girl has her book in which are
recorded all the changes which the ordi-
larry course of human life may cause
Ter to make The entries are made by
Ter successive mistresses, and she is
lever engaged without her having shown
Ter book. A girl who started out in
,ity with book recording semimonth- '
y changes throughout the whole of her :
working career would have no chance ,
f finding employment on the face of
he whole German empire. That may
70 one reason for the idyllic conditions
hat have described