Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1910-01-06

lust heart-to-heart talk upon the
~ twin subjects of servants and
murders. One naturally leads to the
other
And. at the start, want to say that
totally disapprove of servants as a
subject of conversation. The trials
OF housekeepers should be tabooed
topic. And / will say the same of
murder trials.
For myself, make 1t point never
to read about murders. can get all
i want from the headlines. To be
sure, there are exceptions to every
rule; there was Robin Graves, who
murdered his great-grandmother on a
dare from his fellow medical students
didn't read anything about it. but
heard people discussing it. and it had
elements of interest in it. And ! al
ways thought that Probyn-Clew case
far from dull. You may remember
that Probyn sent Clew poisoned car
amel on the very day that Clew sent
Probyn poisoned peppermint, and
the papers were full of it. / gathered
enough to enable me to hold my end
up when | encountered a person with
bad enough taste to discuss the sub
Jest. 1t was deplorable the way
people harped on that case.
= Then take the affair of the land
lady who murdered all her boarders
because they resented a raise in the
price of board. What mine of wealth
that was to the reporters! My paper
had six columns a day for 20 days and
| Just had to read that because there
was nothing else, but politics, in the
paper; but / felt that 1t was no sub
ject for person of any refinement
Yet knew one man who makes quite
a pretense of being up in the English
classics. and he knew every point In
the trial. l could not trip him up on
a single bit of evidence. That expert
ence just about destroyed my faith in
humanity. My brother said that
talked of nothing else but that trial
and he was quite right. ! was com
pletely absorbed in trying to find
some person who knew nothing of it
And at last did find an old lady who
never reads the papers. She had not
even heard about it, She wanted to
discuss one of Fiske's books on evolu
ton. but / said, "See here, Mrs. De
lancey, you're rara avis. You're the
first person I've met who has not
heard about this unique series of muir
ders, and I'm just going to tell you
the whole story SO that you may see
for yourself what 1t is that fills
peoples minds in these degenerate
days" And so / told her the whole
story and she listened breathless; this
cultivated woman was positively as
interested as if she had been police
man, off Cor on) duty, and discussing
shop with brother officer. Oh, was
,sickened.
After a while she wanted to shift
off to evolution so that she wouldn't
dream of the horrible murders, but
looked at my watch and saw that
had train to catch, and again Fiske
was side-tracked. Fiske, with his lu
cidity and logic and sweet reasonable
ness, was side-tracked for a horrible
murder.
Just as l was coming away / asked
my hostess. casually, if she remem
bered the Bond street murder and she
did remember that, for her father
lived on the very same block at the
time it was committed. I actually
missed my train because l sat dowr
to hear her talk about it. 1t was like
a bit out of Ainsworth. l was MOI
born when it happened, and she was
but girl, but her father had the baG
habit of discussing such things in the
presence of his children, and it had
made such an impression upon hel
infant mind that here she was retail
ing it to me. AS bit of local history
contemporaneous with the days of Ir
wing and Cooper, it had a certain
value; and that is what appealed tc
me.
But to return to servants. There IL
absolutely no excuse for talking about
the Bridgets and Christmas and Ma
ries and Dinahs that come and go.
Il
there are circumstances that alter
cases. If there is servant who ex
cites your interest In humanity, 1t is
allowable to talk about her. Now we
had a maid for couple of days last
week who had evidently seen better
days and many of them. The way she
broke crockery showed that she die
not do it with malice prepense, mol
yet out of sheer carelessness as al
ordinary maid would have DONE She
had evidently been used to being wait
/ ed upon and had no manual dexterity
whatever. In fact, she told me thai
she had never lived out before. Hell
name was Marie Brannigan.
We had one girl who refused to &C
when her day was up. She was abso
lutely worthless as a cook, but she
liked her room and she wanted tc
board with us. My mother wanted
me to eject her forcibly. but am not
felt 1t was a sort of compliment to oul
house that she wanted to stay, and SC
we allowed her to keep the room. She
paid board and we handed her money
over as wages to her successors.
Servants are queer any way you
look at them; but this everlasting
talking about them, when we are sur
rounded by art and literature and the
good deeds of philanthropists, makes
me wonder What we are coming to-
l think that men are almost as bad
as women in this matter. A man is
lust as likely to be interested in our
case of the servant-boarder as a wo.
man is, and l never go out anywhere
where there are some strangers pres.
ent but l am asked to tell about her,
and that always starts the servant