The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1908-02-26
THE
SERVANT
PROBLEM.
FROM SMITHS
M MAGAZINE.


tells in an article in the last number
how a friend of hers arrived at a sat
isfactory solution of the servant
problem. In an Interview, she allows
the friend to tell the story in her own
words. Here it is in nutshell.
~ haunted the offices, and finally
! took to haunting the emigrant
homes and places. l caught Della
fresh from the old sod, so to speak.
/ j think 1t was the nice, generous
width between her eyes and the neat
ness of her hair that won me. A girl
with such glossy hair must be ca
pable of being instructed in tidy ways,
must even have a little vanity to
which judlcicus appeal could be
made! And a girl with eyes set like
that would never do anything mean
never leave you in the lurch, or wear
your best petticoat when you were
away, or hide the pieces of the dishes
she broke and then deny all knowi-
edge of them.
80 / took Della, whose culinary
wisdom was merely how to boil 20
tatoes and how to serve buttermllk,
and who had never seen a gas-jet in
her life! She had to learn every
thing-but she didn't have to unlearn
a single thing. In these two years
she has become an excellent cook, a
deft waitress, and she can do the rest
of the work acceptably; but she
doesn't have to- often.
81 am firmly of the opinion that 1t
takes what we call lady to keep
the stting-rcom lamps in condition.
" example | do that each day. |
dust the sitting-room, water the
plants, freshen the flowers, see that
there is wood in the wood-basket,
make the beds, and wipe up the floors
with long g-handled mop. You see
we have no carpets, and in the Sleep
ing-rooms no rugs too heavy for me
to lift easily.
''If there are almonds to be salted,
1 salt them. Della has learned how,
though; you see, managing as l do,
she thinks that l do a good many
things in the cooking line because ]
am so extremely fastidious, and she
forthwith becomes ambitious to show
me that she can do as well as /. If
there are many grapefruit to be
freed from seeds and tough skin,
do it; l prepare the salad and | mix
the salad-dressing-exc as a great
favor to her, have allowed her to
do it all often enough to be able to
do 1t in an emergency,
"On washdays / lunch downtown
with Walter, so that she won't have
to bother with me at all between
breakfast and dinner-time. We have
a simple dinner that night, and any
other night when she has had very
trying day.
1--WE use a table-cloth very seldom.
think people imagine l want to
show off my mahogany. 1t is good,
looking, and l do like it when the
candle-light and the flowers shine in
its surface. But it's chiefly because
doilies are easier to do up that pre-
fer them. wear dark silk shirt
waists a good deal fer every day
it's always washable silk, so that l
can be as fresh as possible; but at
the same time they don't get soiled
SO soon, and doing them up is the
easiest thing in the world.
when we have any dessert at all
IL is likely to be jelly and cheese,
priSarily, | suppose, it was because
Walter was fond of 1t; but second
srily because there was no labor for
Della attached to it. Often we begin |
dinner with a little relish-caviar or
of with soup, SO that she will not |
have that extra cooking to do. And |
a few judicionsly bestowed theater
tickets keep her perpetually grateful
You say you think that such con-
sideration would spoil her, and that |
you don't see why l don't give her
the best room in the house. the larg- |
est rocking and become soul |
lery-maid myself? You're talking |
nonsense. Della isn't spoiled, be-
cause tuOuE, illuliy StlcCtcu du uil- |
spoilable kind-an affectionate, CRATE |
full kind. And 1t isn't consideration |
for her-it's for myself. If she doesn't |
have so much cooking to do, so much |
washing and ironing, so much dish
washing, she can do for me the things |
that l chiefly want done.
She can bring me my tea in the |
afternoon decently instead of stopped |
on TO tray because she is in such
q mad rush to get to her vegetable
peeling. She has time TO brush my |
skirts and my boots. She can wait
upon the table with an unfiurried air.
which is a great aid to pleasant in
terccurse And she isn't sullen and
unhappy. She likes to stay with me
as much as like to have her.
Really l think l have discovered
q solution of the oneservant prob
lem. My solution is. you see-keep
two servants, being yourself the Sec
ond one!"
MODERN PIED pIPERS,