Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-16

ploy male private secretaries. Those who
can bark back that far will recall what
Mortified cutlery the Mesdames Grundy of
this land made over the society women's
young men secretaries. The society women
coolly replied that the female secretaries
whom they had formerly employed had
proved themselves so ''catty''-it was then
that that admirably expressive word was
minted-that they could not be trusted to
keep social secrets inviolate, whereas the
male secretaries could be so trusted-and
they kept their trousered arnanuenseS. The
matron of New York's 400 who does not
now maintain male secretary as part OF
her encourage is regarded as old-fashioned.
not to say hopelessly prudish, by her more
emancipated and unfettered sisters.
1t will probably be no different with this
matter of madame's valet. The idea SEEM
ed shocking at first, and even the women
of the social crowd over here who are
called daring hesitated for quite while
to follow the lead of the one woman who
inaugurated the idea. Now, however,
some scores of the established and i'm
movable matrons of New York society en-
ploy their Wallets, and the idea is gaining
ground right along
1t should be understood that all of the
women who employ Wallets also have their
Enthusiastically French maids, who regard
the Wallets of their mistresses with dis
trust and suspicion, If, indeed, they do not
decide to marry them out of hand. This
is thing that has happened in several
instances. so that both valet and maid
,
are man and wife-and, by the way, what
a unique opportunity such valet and
maid must enjoy to discuss and dissect
their mistress in their below-stairs confab-
ulatiOnSi In most cases. however, SO the
people who ARE familiar with this sort of
thing aver, the French maid entertains
that "conspuez" feeling toward her mad
ame's valet, who is usually a native of
perfidiouS Albion and. consequently,
dog-robber, so to speak. by instinct and
Inheritance, according to the French maids
view.
All of these womens Wallets are graduate
hairdressers. and this. as a matter of fact,
is said to be one of the chief reasons for
their employment. The preference of fash
ionable women for male hairdreSsers has
long been known The women use the
Wallets for errand running and message de-
livering in hundreds of instances in which
their maids could not serve, and the fell
lows are said to be far more useful than
the maids In attending to their mistresses'
baggage in travelling, which seems to be
reasonable enough. They are also expert
trunk packers, and they are detailed to at
tend to the pressing of their mistresses'
tailored dresses. to the care of their boots,
to the manicuring of their nails,
and in fact. to all of the tasks except the
more intimate ones which fall to the de-
partment of the maid The women's Wallets,
most of whom are servants of European
training who speak several languages, act
as couriers for their mistresses when the
latter are travelling abroad, and hustle gen.
orally. In some respects, In truth, their
duties are not unlike those of the pages to
the ladies of the olden time. The chaps are
paid from $50 to 500 month land found,
and those who seem to know maintain that
the wonen's Wallets earn every SOU markee
of their wages.
Nevertheless and notwithstanding there
are plenty of conservative husbands of
fashionable matrons in New York who de-
cidedly do not cotton to their wives valet
idea. A wealthy New Yorker, yachtsman
Of -Uh m q SIlit divorce against
his wife a couple of months ago on the
ground of 'incompatibilty Of temper" gave
among various other grounds for domestic
disagreement that, despite his pleadings,
expostulations, beseechngs. protests and
finally commands, his wife persisted in
employed male valet.
Careless Employment of Servants.
While on this topic of upper servants in
the homes of rich New Workers. it is worth
while, as instancing the excessive careless
ness of highly placed people who dwell on
this island, to call attention to the hap
hazard methods which most of them have
in employing household servants. The pc
riod when references wer required from
upper servants seeking employment in rich
New York homes has virtually passed, and
for a peculiar reason.
The great body of rich and fashionable
New Workers want English men servants
in their homes. not only because the fell
lows are as a rule well trained and obse-
Quious but because it is the fashionable
thing. The police of New York maintain
that fully one-half of the well-trained Eng
lish men servants who come to the United
States in search of employment are chaps
who have left records behind them in the
British Isles-have been fired from their
jobs in the old country, that is to say, for
theft or other disgraceful or crooked work.
Every one of these chaps fetches to this
country neat wallet filled with forged
references. They may have made up their
minds to be ION the square in their new
field Of employment, but they have no COM
junction whatever about forging references
in order to gain such employment. New
Workers interviewing such applicants for
household positions used to ask for these
forged references written on crested paper,
make notes of the names of the writers of
the references. and duly send inquiries
across the water to them as to the charac-
ter Of the applicants for jobs on this side
But they found that such Inquiries were
not replied to by their British cousins In
one case out of twenty So they stopped
making inquiries about the English appli-
cants for household employment, and even
gave up the habit of asking for their writ
ten references having long ago learned
how valueless these papers are on account
of the frequency with which they are forg
ed. So that 1t has now come to pass that
rich New Workers take their men servants
from the intelligence offices for better or
worse, without any written references
whatever and of late years 1t Is not to be
marveled at. therefore that so many of the
employers have been getting the worst of
it. For example. couple of weeks ago
August Belmont employed second man"
who came to him from an intelligence office
The fellow formed part of the menage of
Mr.. Belmont's country home on Long ISL
and for just twentyfour hours, when, in
favorable moment, he quietly packed up
some $4,000 worth of silverware and jew
elry and sloped for New York. where, luck
lily, he was corralied while in the act of
endeavoring to dispose of some of his loot
in a pawnshop. But he might not have been
corralled, all the same. and a large number
of these shady British men servants who
have been taken into American homes ION
their faces" have "got away with the
goods" scot clear. and never been appre-
hended One of them disappeared with
$4,000 worth of Jewelry belonging to a
wealthy New York family which employed
him a few years ago, and he Is going yet,
so to speak the police of Great Britain and
the United States never having been able to
get track of him. The butler who robbed
the Burdens of $4,000 worth of diamonds
two or three years ago Is now doing his
sentence in Sing Sing, but 1T was long
chase after him, and by the time he was
gathered in he had squandered a large part
of the money that the pawnbrokers and
fences" gave him for his plumber.
The Skirtless Bathing Suit.