The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-01-24
Servants IN SOUTH AMFRICA.
Trials of the Grinqo Who Keeps
House in Colombia.

Ife American woman at home think:
her help is a sore trial. bur when shs
goes down to South America and has
To hire natives she begins to wonde,
I why she ever grHmbied about the serv-
ant problem al home.
kspiritu Santa she calls.
Isl, sonora
Some friends are coming to dinner
+ this evening. andsI want you TO take
] particular pains 10 buy exactly what
tell YOU at the market. Now listen TO
/ me carefully Get three or four pounds
of beef"
{ Isl, sonora
Some potatoes and onions"
Isl, sonora.
Lettuce. yams. oranges and some
other fruit
Isl sonora
Now, don't forget. Are you sure you
understand ?"
NO. sonora. don't know what you
want"
Espiritu Santa was cook in the in
terror of Colombo Her stupidity was
characteristic OF all her kind
Patiently and carefully the American
mistress went over the list again and
again. until she thought the woman
could not fail to understand. EspiFitu
Santa left the room, protesting that
l =
only to return the next minute and
ask:
Don't you want me to get any meat.
sonora 81
Espiritu santa was a cook IN the IN
piazza one morning and said che had
heard that a servant was wanted The
mistress of the house was a New YOlk
woman who had newly arrived in a CO.
lombian town. She had not been able
TO get a servant for love or mone-
fand had been obliged to go 70 the mar
ket every morning to buy the days
provisions.
There she was iOstled and insulted by
the Indian peasants who brought i'm
meat and Vegetables from the surround
ing country. Sometimes these peasants
hating foreigners, would not sell to her
IF they eondeseended to do so they
asked three times as much as they
charged the natives.
Under these circumstances Espiritu
Santa was cordially welcomed. al
though her appearance was decidedly
against her. She was a tall fat. black
woman Her feet were innocent Of
shoes and stockings. great shawl was
thrown over her head. and she was
smoking a big. black cigar.
What wages do you want2" the
American woman asked.
Forty, dollars a month, sonora
we can't afford that. can we,
dear?" she asked, turning TO ner hus-
band
Easily" he replied. She means for
~ dollars i'm Colombian paper money
That is equivalent TO 40 cents in Amer
lean gold. at the present rate of ex-
change. You will only have TO pay ner
10 cents a week.
Espiritu Santa was a success. as Co.
lombian servants so. When her mis-
tress left the eoultry some years later
all the foreign ia niles in the town
eagerly competed for her services,
knowing that she had been carefully
trained in American WAYS. But before
she was broken in her mistress suffered
many things
She would crush giant cockro2ches.
four inches long. with her bare ieet.
and leave their mangied c0rpses adhcr-
ing to the polished floor of the dinInS
room. IF she wanted TO find out wheth-
or the soup was bot, she Invariably PET
her finger ir it.
she would annoint her fTizzy loei'1
with cocoanut oil with her left hand
while her right hand was preparing
the dinner. She always smoked c.
gars while cooking.
These were her more delicate habits.
4 veil had better be drawn over .ne
others.
But why. it 6lay be asked. was si}s
endured? Simply because she was tie
best servant availabl and anyhow,
it was a c0ndescensicn for Colombian
to work for despised gringo.
The greatest troubles. arose over din~
ner. Sometimes fruit vas served after
SOUP. and it would core out that Es-
piritu had forgotten to provide the rest
of the meal.
On other occasions she vanished az
ter serving soup and fish: and Mary
Magdalene. the house cleaner. an
nounced that she had gone TO vespers
at the church and the gringos must
wait until she returned for the re-
mainder of their dinner.
Espiritu Santa was good servant