The age-herald., 1898-03-27

Copyright, 1s9s.l

l can per1ectly Sympath1Ze With the
 young girl who before she was a wife
 expressed her disgust at the women
 who continually talked about their
 servants, but after her marriage, when
 she was in the midst of discussion
 of this never ending subject and re-
 minded by a friend of her former re-
 marks, said, q wonder that they talk
 about anything else" The business
 man engaging a clerk pays him for
 certain work and expects him to be
 capable of doing that work. He needs
 a competent bookkeeper. Numbers ap-
 pear to apply for the situation. Each
 tells of his experience, his ability, and
 offers his references. The business man
 engages that one who seems to be most
 competent, most healthy and about
 whom the best words are said by a
 former employer, who gives a reasona-
 ble excuse for having dismissed him
 from his employ. That man expects
 that in few days his bookkeeper will
 have learned the special methods of the
 establishment and be a competent
 workman. He knows that he would not
 dare to pose as first class bookkeeper
 unless he was one. He understands that a business man does not write a
 reference for an employee unless it is
 deserved, and the employer would
 think the world was coming to an end
 if, at the end of the first day, the man
 engaged to keep the books announced that he did not know very much about
 them, but that he was very good at
 putting corks in cologne bottles.
 But that is the sort of treatment that comes to the mistress of house. She is anxious for first class cook. The cook appears, either in answer to an advertisement, from an employment agency or through some friend She presents her recommendation. It is written evidently by a lady, and ac- cording to it this woman has all the virtues and is a perfectly competent cook. Her first dinner is an absolute failure. The meat is cooked to death, while watery potatoes, greasy vegeta- bles and heavy pastry constitute the menu. The mistress signs. After din- ner she has a little talk with her new employee, only to discover that where she lived before she did not do the cooking, "just helped around the house." but she wanted to be a cook and Mrs. Montmorenci Brown was so kind hearted that she gave me a recom- mend as one." My friend, what right has Mrs. Montmorenci Brown to tell an absolute untruth on paper? Yet this untruth is not the worst that has come to you or to me, brought by some one desiring to literally live with us.
 A well known woman who would have been mortified, for she was espe- cially conspicuous in church work, at being told that she was a sinner com- mitted crime of the deepest dye, which she excused on the ground of feeling sorry for the girl" To wait ress who had been caught stealing money she gave recommendation for honesty. From the next household which this girl entered she stole more than money. She took magnificent silver, wonderful jewels, fine pieces of bric-a- brac, and handed them over to her sweetheart to pawn, while she disap- peared. When the detectives looked up her references, which her mistress should have done, they discovered that this lady, knowing her to be a thief, had yet allowed her to go into other homes as an honest girl. As woman to a woman, as a housekeeper to a have the strength of mind to give nothing but an honest recom- tO tAS servant WhO icdNCS you or whom you discharge. And nev- CT fail to date your reference, for a girl who may be honest today may be 8 thier next year, while she who may have been sweet and pure and good while with you may be depraved in six months time.
 Each of us, as we enter the little place that means home, whether it be tiny house or a small fiat in some great city, is overfiowing with hope about the wo- man who, while we employ her, will yet help make the house home. Each of us means to be good to her, and each of us wants to make her happy. How does she meet this desire on the part of the mistress? The average servant regards the average mistress as her natural enemy. Kindness she consd- CTS as nothing more than her right. Sympathy she suspects, and gratitude is something unknown to her. Oh, know there have been faithful servants and there are good servants, but once in awhile the mistress has right to speak, especially now, when the papers and journals are overflowing with arti- c1es from the side of the employeeI You and I, who engage one girl, ar- range for her a comfortable bedroom There is a chest in it which contains a sufficient number of sheets, pillow cases and towels especially dedicated to this room. You allow your maid time enough to put her room in order. and you beg of her when she gets up to throw the bedclothes off the bed. open the window and let the fresh air in.