The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-04-03

tress half way, but when her friends
visit her she tells as great joke how
| tba mistress hoped to make her live
i as sh;. wanted her to- Perhaps YOU not
only gave your time and your very
| self. but YOU spent a great deal OF
money on this woman, who was i'll
when she came to you. Two weeks af-
| ter. when you We're tired out from
| general nursing and hoped 10 be able
to rest n little, this young woman APP
peared and informed YOU that she in
| tended to leave that afternoon. You
| said: What, Maggie! Leave me now
when | took as good care of you when
| you were i'll as if you had been my own
sister, And Maggie, with that won
derfu GOODNESS that belongs to her ilk
and that still more wonderful ingrati-
tude. answered: "Yes. ma'am, that is
| Just the reason why. If you had been
| the lady L thought You, you would not
! have done so"
| Now. what is to be done? You and l
are tender hearted women, and when
| trouble comes to some one who is in
our kitchen our hearts go out to the suf-
ferer, and we give of our best in every
way, only to be hurt afterward. Have
you and /, who count ourselves and are
| good mistresses, ever know "a maid to
saw by doing thus and so | can save
rs cents?" Oh, no! If you and | see
! the great need to economiZe and 60 into
the kitchen and insist upon it, we are
spoken of as mean" Care as to the
amount of food used, the quantity of
coal burned of gas lighted or considera-
| ton given to clothes is never proper in
the eye of a domestic servant. tits sim
| ply an evidence or close fistedness. Care
for something because it is beautiful, be-
cause it was given to you by somebody
you loved. is Greek to the average SER
want Dishes and glasses were made to
break, and if YOU bother people to dust
bric-a-brac You must expect it to suffer.
The average ma:d-servant not only be-
ieves that dust is the bloom of time,
but also that it should be Il never fading
blossom.
| 1t is all wrong. But how are we going
| TO straighten it? Sometimes you do meet
domestic servant who counts her word
as worth something and who does not
claim to be able to do everything. But
why is it that all are so positively I'M
willing to learn? If You and | We're to
go out as cooks, we would make an eff
fort to be the very best of cooks so
| that we might make the greatest amount
of money. | fear that too often the
employe does bad work because the EN-
ployer accepts it. Too often, the en-
ployer pays high wages for work that Is
done i'm the most slovenly manner, the
idea seeming to be that to get the work
| done. no matter how, is the acme of
happiness. 10 do it well is counted as
of no worth. You know perfectly we'll
4 Al. IL Il. 49, To-
may have five tall feathers in her hat
and a frock of the newest fashion. her
underwear is torn, tattered, miserably
poor and positively untidy. You use
all your diplomacy in trying to frame a
sentence that will suggest to Caroline
or Maggie or Jane the desirability of q
bath at least once in awhile, and yet
little Miss Industry, who is busy down
town, is only too glad TO walk home one
day in the week that she may give 10
cents to the chamber maid in her board
| ing house TO get the bath washed out
SO she can use it. But Caroline, Mag.
gle or Jane dose not appreciate the bless
ing of personal cleanliness. She thinks
it all nonsense.
i Perhaps you think this is severe, you
who have not been the mistress Of a
lfnanse or a fiat. But to wrestle literal
/ ly and physically, day in and day out,
with ignorance, ingratitude. laziness and
slovenliness and II certain particularly
| impairment seif-satisfaction is more
than merely difficult. 1t is time some
body spoke for the mistress. What can
You or |, we who are just ordinary wo-
men, dog III tell you what / do-just
make the best of IL bad bargain.
realize that the maid i'll any kitchen is
capable of just so much that is good and
of much that is indifferent, / have long
ago learned that if / allow myself to
have IL feeling of friendship for any
special maid / am going to have my
heart hurt But / would rather have
my heart hurt than allow myself TO grow
hard-hearted. You and j, who try to
live good lives, never refuse to allow a
maid to 90 to whichever church she
pleases or TO have time TO give proper
attention to her religious. duties, but
when she claims to be u church member
surely we have right 10 expect some
thing that is good from her. We must
set the example; but, that given, GER
tainly there should be enough womanli-
ness in her to follow in the right path.
/ DrtIdgeiy can be made divine, but
/ then it ceases to be drudgery There
are good servants, as there are bad mis-
tresses. but one is as few as the other.
Away down in the southland there was
for many years a dear old colored mann
my who nursed three generations of
babies and then in her old age mad a
little home, wherein she was supported
by the Youngest members of her flock
She had known the skeletons in the diff
ferent households. She always appeared
IN trouble or illness or in some great
JOY. She sleeps at the foot Of her mis-
tress-the mistress who owned her alb
solutely and the mistress who gave her
freedom, the freedom which she never
| wanted and refused to rake Il do not
believe that in the hereafter she will be
happy unless she is serving some OF
those she loved. and on the little tomb
stone that marks her grave are cut
these words: "She Served Well" Win
that be said of you or Bah.
/ NIT IInNS I'm A