The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-05-20

have so much difficulty in keeping ser
| vants-which merely means making them
contented-is because mistresses have ac-
uuired the habit of regarding maids as a
separate and distinct species of human
beings, with but little capacity for joy
or suffering, and quite incapable OF any
thing SO highly aristocratic az feelings,
says "Demorest's Monthly"
"If you are good to servant you SIM
ply can't keep them In their place. IS
the response to every plea for the maid.
This may be true, but mistresses Who
will try the experiment of once putting
themselves in a maids place will perhaps
find that 1t is not usually such a very de-
sirable place in which to be kept.
No woman can manage servants sue
cessfully who does not manage them IN
telligently. 1t is necessary to regard the
world from their point of view, just as It
is requisite to understand the world from
a child's point of view If the nursery Is
to be a popular spot.
Here are a few brief but essential rules
to consider if you would like your SER
wants to stay with you and be contented
in your home.
Always pay them the most money
you CAN dilUIQ as d COIiPCh~oeAoH
services they render you, and always pay
them regularly. So far as you cam with
out offending, take an interest in the way
they use their wages. and help them to
be economical.
Always state your orders pleasantly.
briefly and clearly. Maids, as a rule. are
not mind-readers, neither are they re-
sponsible for a MISTRESS poor memory.
Have the kitchen and the servants
room or rooms clean and coy. Pictures
and flowers are not necessary, but com
( Portable beds, easy chairs and sunshine
are.
Do not take a superior tone In speak
ing to servants. It makes them ether
servile or %resentful. while the qualities
you should seek to cultivate in them are
self-respect, honesty and affection.
Never permit children to be disrespect-
full to a maid; this rule is as necessay
for the proper breeding of the children as
for the comfort of the maid.
Greet your servants pleasantly in the
morning, and do not forget 'thank you
and please for kitchen courtesies.
1t is a mistake to command servants.
State your wishes ~graciously, and then
never fail to see that they are carried
out.
Don't be afraid to let your maid see
that you like her and appreciate her good
qualities.
Be considerable of her when she is i'll
or in trouble. and do not take it for
granted that she is free from care or
not to complain.
-. II fha4 a1J-
too-prevalent feeling that in paying a
woman a few dollars a week you are
purchasing the right and title to her
very life. the full limit of her existence.
Remember that friends are as good
good for her as for you. that she needs
rest and fresh air and sunshine, that
social relationships are as essential to
her as to you, that her life is brighter
and her work better for her afternoons
and evenings off. that sorrow depresses
her and pain Hurts her, even as they do
you and yours.
1 once heard a woman of wealth and
apparent refinement boast that her little
parlor maid had never had a caller In
the two years she had worked for her.
And when I pictured these two long,
lonesome. miserable years which the
little machine-girl had spent in the rich
woman's house my heart ached with pity
for the wretched servant and niger
against her heartless employer.
1.-THE happiest home by all odds I ever
visited"
The unbeliever asks, with doubt ex-
pressed in every tone:
strro-- 1on~ -r,ora 1,pdap This nartio-
ular roof tree?'
If you can answer one month. two
months. three months or a year. atten-
ton may be given to the declaration.
Some people insist that the family skel-
eton is never trotted out for the benefit
of the transient.
I don't know much about this. There
| are households where the rattle of its
bones is never quiet. A days visit will
show the horror from its, hiding place.
1t is wretched taste to attempt enter
tanning unless a host is pretty certain Of
her family. This coaxing people under
ones roof to dose them from family jars
is inexcusable.
What constitutes a happy home? Good
manners The lady of mansion or cot
tage, as the case may be, must be a lady
from her hearts core. She will then
treat husband. children. servants.
guests with the same gentle consider
alton.
And host and children must be equally
well trained in the code of good manners
A wife and mother may be ever so
charming, but if husband is a wage
and the children tiny Doors a guest may
well wish herself at the a~ntipodes.
I nave visited homes fair and fine.
Marbles, rugs, silver. furniture, pictures,
bric-a-brac, all elegant models, and not q
restful pillow for one to sleep on because
Of pin pricks. from the members of this
household; not a crumb that could be
relished because of table squabbles; not.
indeed. one happy moment from the time
the threshold was passed until the good
bye was uttered.
A great farce. Let young people study
true home happiness. Some day the girl
now in training will make or mar a hus-
bands happiness. She will be given the
control of servants. Little folk will be
dependent upon her for every day hap
piness. Her friends will claim the hospi-
tally of her home.
Healthy helpfulness brings happiness.
We should hear more about heart culture
than we do. We are hard at it. culti-