davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28
THE HOUSEM MOTHERS EXCHANGE

learned during my four years as a servant.
It was a true training for my present
A SATISFIED WOMAN Oregon w,s.).
(No. 81
You ask If no maid has kind mistress,
and II none OF them ever acknowledges that
she Is comfortable in her situation.
Here is one who is not ashamed to say
s ina she Is better off where she is than Il
I have lived ten years in one family as
cook and assistant laundress In all that
my, mistress, or any one Of the family She
Is kind and considerate TO me when 1 am
last winter she had her own doctor attend
me. and would not let me pay the bill or
for the woman she had in to take my place
of my mothers death last spring she was as
sy.mI1pathizing as If it had been her own
My younger sister has place on the
next block as waitress in just such another
Al the same, you are right in saying
that, as class, we have the trick OF
making poor mouth as the saying is
been mortified at noticing how much Of our
talk is Of the hardships we meet and the
to be, as you.say, a sort of a trick Of the
trade And very ugly habit it is, when
there are so many good women who are
doing their best by us. and deserve at least
good word from US in return.
NJ. G. New York city,
Ono. y
From my experience, judge that the we'll
porn woman makes good mistress, as
rule. and the upstart on the other hand
Is usually tyrant -N'
| am the daughter of an Irish engineer.
world lost both parents fni Before ne w ola
II and found myself in a foreign land
younger sisters than myself. MY education
was unfinished. My father taught me a
/ h1rt
20 teach in the primary department of a
school SC 90 in Minnesota, What I have to say
since my marriage / have had servants aS ao Of
tlon better than I can write of it. | could
lelI OF Christian mis- tfesses who kept their
even thirty five years. One southern slave tie
holder has, kept her French maid fifty years.
Mrs. G. 5. Tia Moelle, Mimi.
(No. 81
] cannot claim to be so highly educated
as as, your Swiss correspondent My learning
say what mean. I am qualified to earn
my TYNE s In ways b anan 6 ons but g6od
zeal OF experience in working for different
It is not always the fault of the girl II
she is not contented. There is as much diff
ference in mistresses as there is in maids.
Woodward avenue who is. lady by nature
as AS she is In name; She always has smile ae
maids. She, never fails TO say Good
morning and Good night to them as she
would to one of her own family. We girls
eat in the kitchen. We go in and out OF
the back door and are perfectly contented.
know there are lots more like her If the
girls would only think But there are
others One, for instance, In another part
OF town. Her husband is in business and
prosperous. The best of everything is none
100 good for them. But the maid whom
they watched and used like a slave. could
set out on her days work after a break
fast Of oatmeal porridge, with skim milk
and piece of rye bread, cup Of coffee
with skim milk IN it-and nothing else.
Il say to a girl: IF you have a place
Ike that, leave 1t and get better. There
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28

l put into practice from that hour She
had had many and terrible sorrows. Her
husba nd and child had died within a
year of each other; her father survived
them but a short time; next, the brother
who had given her home in her desc
late widowhood was taken from her by
sudden death. When I visited her she
was in a home for incurables-the sun
light Of the dreary place. ready with
CHEEKY word and helping hand, so far a
her feeble powers would let her act, to
make life endurable for some one more
helpless than herself.
How do you liye?" I burst out in a
passion of pity.
by living one day at a time-just one
day. answered the brave creature with
a smile that was like heavens own
sunlight. by taking the Master at his
word
Years afterward I made that the text
of a book I wrote out Of the fullness of
q grateful heart. For, by then, 1 had
learned, in and for myself, that IL is
possible 10 live Just one day at a
time.
May 1 tell you some of the things l
put into the mouths of the characters
in that book? The Royal Road l
called il. There is no more direct road
10 happiness and peace
"A day, Take the beautiful new thing
in your hand and look at il. Fresh from
Gods hand. stamped with his image and
superscription; his present to you, and
to you alone; made expressly for you,
and not another like it in all the uni
verse. or in eternity past or present.
Hold il with both hands and get IL the
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28

ing a week after $ p NJ I spent most
window was roofs and chimneys. and
could not see these without standing
upon chair.
It was hard for me to eat In the
kitchen, and often there was barely
enough left for the help" as we were
called Being obliged to enter and leave
like nobody. I felt that my position as
governess was equal to that Of the seam
stress, who had the same privileges as
the family, and she had no education to
Thirteen cooks were employed in that
house during the year I spent there.
and all left on account OF il-treatment
is comfortable in mind or in body while
doing housework, and I believe that
American madams" are selfish They
think 1t is enough II she is well paid
and kept In good running order. Since
free. I am now a nurse In a hospital and
NJ c. (wampaca, Wis.,.
Readers will agree with me that
treatment such as is described here as
the lot of a nursery governess is rare
In the extreme. The behavior of en-
ployers so underbred as the parents OF
the five children can hardly be accepted
as that OF any class OF decent men and
women in this country.
with this symposium our discussion
or the mistress and maid question will
rest with our public. II has drawn out
a mass of testimony highly creditable to
both the parties represented am
especially pleased with the excellent
our maids, and congratulate the Ex-
change upon including so intelligent a
body of readers and correspondents in
our big family.
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28

good you can out Of it.
Have you ever thought why the idea
of today is repeated in the Lords
prayer? Such a short prayer as it is!
Give me his day my daily food will
do, If you mean it. Food for the soul,
food for the heart, food for the mind.
and last and lea stood for the body"
The same homely preacher goes on to
say:
Trim your day clean at both ends
and don't waste scrap of it. If you
are housekeeper, Monday is washday
You wouldn't mind wa shday so much ii
II wasn't for the thought OF how much
longer It takes to iron than to wash
clothes. You have nothing to do with
Tuesday until Tuesday comes. Put it
out of your mind. Say 7 won't think Of
IT, and then keep your word. You'll be
surprised to find how much more
strength youth have for today If you
don't fritter it away worrying over to-
morrow When Tuesday comes, take
hold of it, too, with a brave heart and
clean, empty hands, with none Of Mon
days mud sticking 10 them"
Another refined speaker, whose feet
had been, set in the Royal Road by
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28
From One Who Plays Fair

I do enjoy reading OF other housekeepers'
experiences, and I will try to play fair
by sending some OF my own.
!. good way to prepare for sweeping
is to put on gown with short sleeves.
short skirt and Dutch neck An old
bathing cap makes a good covering for the
head In sweeping Rub vaseline into each
nostrH before beginning to sweep. 70 keep
the dust out of the throat and lungs. Rub.
the hands with a little vaseline to keep
washing. keep them white.
2. Black pot lifters nicer looking
than white. Make them OF WORKOUT stock
tngs: Cut the stocking down the back OF
the leg and the sole OF the feet. Fold the
foot first to the desired size and then fold
this into the leg. Sew around the edges.
These may be washed daily IL necessary
and kept as clean white holders
g. little powdered alum IN cold starch
gives beautiful gloss to collars and cuffs.
A Leftover
Butter a bakedish: line the bottom with
fine crumbs: next. put layer OF hashed
meat: then one OF macaroni: a second layer
filled Pour over ali half 1 can q tomatoes MAJ
and bake + is mighty sood'' II little
cooked before 1.-THE nacaroni must be-. the
dish will be ready for table in half an hour.
5. dainty cooky for luncheon - the
maple marguerite. Another Is the home
made peanut wafer. Beth are easily made
A 1s-YEAR-OLD HOUSEWIFE Pueblo.
COLI
II you go on as you have begun,
you will take high rank among our
housemo theirs by the time you are 49,
You would have played fairer'' had
you treated US to recipes for the cookies
and waters. Do 1t next time.
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28

people, I called at that place two months
after left It, and not until then did I get
6. S. r. Detroit. Mich)
P s-This Is one thing | should IKE to
place, IL only small room. which maids
could use as a sitting room. they would
late. They are in the kitchen all day and
they do not like to sit there at night II
ak tSem to is b nGr
So they must go out. And you know what
consequences often follow. G. s. R.
Allow personal comment upon your
last suggestion. Other housemothers
may have been more successful than 1
in educating maids up to the eonven-
fence and pleasure to be had from a
private sitting room.
Years agone / fitted up disused room
adjoining a pleasant kitchen and look
ing across the street into a pretty park
as Withdrawing room for my three
maids. The walls were painted a soft
cream; a carpet of harmonious eolors
covered the floor. 1 had several easy
chairs. table and a couch. / even took
pains to select several nice engravings
heated. In the two years during which
1t was reserved for the purpose I have
named IL was occupied perhaps four
! learned Incidentally that / was ridi-
culed among their acquaintance for
trying to make company of NV help''
Zen years later / had a veranda built
over the lakeward windows of the kitch-
en- In my country home. Vines were
trained to curtain it, and l set there a
small rustic table and three rocking
chairs. A more secluded and Inviting
nook could hardly be imagined. IT was
set apart for the servants evening re-
treat. Not one of them cared for it. On
the hottest Of dogday nights the moon
looked through vines upon vacant rock
GAfh I 10 10
comfortable by the device gossiped in
laundry and kitchen In the flare of gas
hgnt and lamps with the gardener and
the region.
And why not? Every farmers and
m NEE family in the township and
S c,e Goes the same. 1t is more socia-
Die because more homelike
ono. 81
have been maid-of -all-work In one
place for twelve years. and am quite
wases but 'h reesive o' k II le th small
me abundance Of advice about better
them. 1 wish the readers Of the Ex-
S Snans wb 10 snoW mere Is one maid at
MY motto is: TT is better to quit IL
you are not satisfied than to keep on
E. A S. tBroolzlyn. n. II.
Bravo! for a sensible girl who knows
when she is well OFF and also to speak
her mind briefly and to the point.
(No. 1O
After long period of nursing and
teaching: thought it would be a rest
70 care for children in family 1t was
like jumping from the frying pan into
the fire.. spent one year with family
where there we're. five small children.
did the work Of second housemafd
and looked after the children. NY days
work usually ended at p. NJ Occa-
Eonaliy, ! had to help wait at dinner
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28
ST. dur ONt DAYA LAY JtRMON35

me to call "Our Big Family" The
thought has not left my mind during my
waking hours for weeks past And with
it grows the desire to be yet more of
mother to those who honor me by crown
Ing me with the title. My heart has
never been drawn toward you moro
closely than during the last twelve
months of financial distress with many
of you and to a larger number of more
taking care for the morrow than you
have ever had to exercise before.
Some of you have told me this in let
tiers. I have guessed at the weight of
anxiety that has lain like a nightmare
upon others; anxiety which the tender
est friend toiling in the same path can
not lift Hundreds of families to which
priyatfon has hitherto been a stranger
nave had to practice rigid economy.
hundreds Of men have brought home at
night grave faces and sad eyes, that
struck the hearts of wives with vague
forebodings. I do not like to compute
the number of letters we have had from
WldoWs whose sole support is the earn
ings Of lads of 10 or younger, who have
been taken from school and set to work
TO provide the barest necessaries of life.
/ shrink yet more from estimating how
many women have confded to us, MY
husband has been out of work all win
ter | am taking in washing; or, Can
you get plain sewing for me to DOR
Squalid and unromantic details these
but they are the driftwood that shows
the ebb OF the tide of the times"
Our daily and weekly papers have
teemed with editorials and contributions
from the pens of financiers and states
men dealing with the increased ex-
pense of living" The chief sufferers
from the increase have borne dumbly
the consequences of mismanag cement IN
high places. How heroically, God and
his angels know.
Bearing all this upon my heart-since
through this our wonderful, If humble
work. I feel that have my finger upon
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28

the pulse of our housemotherly band
my thoughts have again and again re-
verted to the cardinal principle Of phil
osophical and Christian living by the
day.
We have absolutely no warrant in the
word of God for taking trouble upon
interest" like the old-fashioned, homely
phrase. And the imagination, fevered
and perverted by much fearful looking
forward. pays compound interest upon
every draft upon the vested sum
on which we have no moral claim. 1t
is not today's work or Hardship that
robs the head of the house Of appetite
and sleep. The mother can get along
today we'll enough, but where Is the
food or the money or the work that
stands for these to come from tomor-
row or next week?'
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28

1t is, / think, John Newton who says
in substance that the Father appoints to
each the cares of the day. as a man
gives his son a stick to carry from the
wood. If we will persist in carrying to-
morrow's or next weeks load, we must
do 1t in our own strength. God nowhere
promises grace for fagots.
With the beginning of this, our tenth
year of united service, I would lay be-
fore you, my faithful and well-beloved
constituency. this simple plan of just
one day at time. 1t is not easy to
learn 1T in one or in fifty lessons. Habit
Is strong and human nature Is prone to
worry uselessly as the sparks fly up
ward But make a beginning, Say to
yourself with the dawn of each new
morning:
All have to learn Of living
Is to do his will today.
Brace yourself upon the thought and
take up the burden of that living. You
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28

this unlearned evangelist, tells her init
mate friend of the sermon and how she
had begun the journey.
Il had said over to myself times
without number, Take no thought for
the morrow very much s an illiterate
peasant wears a scapular and a pagan a
charm against the evil eye. Now, when
l sat down with the one desire to take
God at his word, the text took on a
new mea ming. BY the way, the revised
version puts it yet more clearly and
strongly than the old. 1t says:
- BE not therefore anxious for the NOR
row, for the morrow will be anxious for
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof
Dear sistersl-I should rather say, if I
pleased myself, Dear children!'-I am
wondering If any one has recollected
that with this month we enter upon the
tenth year OF my association with and
loving ministry to what you have taught
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28
IMPORTANT NOTICE

BECAUSE Of the enormous
X zEmber Of letters Sent TO the
Exchange, 7 must ask con-
tTibutorS 10 limit their conlmUfi-
cations 20 one hundred cords, eT-
oept ia cases Of formulas or rec
ipes which require greater space.
7 i00Rt Gil M correspondents TO
haze q Snoring IN the COrner,
and Il ny request in this respect
Is complied Nth, it aoiu be posSt-
bic 10 print many more letters.
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28
Symposium Upon Our Domestic
Sergfce

T y RESPONSE TO my proposal that
some Of the maids who do not con-
slider theirs an intolerable lot be
invited 10 express their views upon
the "Vexed Question" such food OF
letters has been turned into our mail
bag that I am appalled, at the task OF
sitting and selecting from the mass.
Most OF them are too long and too cir
Cumstantlal in narration OF events that
would interest US, had we time TO read
Of them, 10 be admitted 10 our Corner.
The best / can DO is 20 condense and
edit 10 the best Of my ability, present.
ing the salient points OF each story.
Let me remark in advance Of the selec-
tons that all are written with a free
dom and ease and a command of nerv-
Gus english that would do credit to any
educated woman, whatever might be her
social status. The chirOgraphy is more
than fair and the tone OF a majority Of
the letters temperate and well-bred.
Exceptions 10 the condition 1 name
VIII speak for themselves.
(No. j.
Although now a happily married woman,
I have not lost my interest In the girls"
] am now their dressmaker and keep in
touch with many OF them
think most OF their troubles are their
own 1ault- They forget what is their
place in the world. Savage Cor primevaD
instinct tells them they should be mistresses
q homes ana they do not adapt themselves
TO circumstances. In factory a girl does
not expect 10 be the boss" but when she
does the work OF a householder she thinks
she should be queen OF the hive. And no
home-or hive-csn contain two queens
II our maids would realize their true DO
sitiOn and respect themselves in it. there
would be no servant question
AN EX-SERNANr (Bittendorf. Iowa.
(No. q
Having had ten years OF experience as a
second maid I should be qualified 10
Judge for myself. at least where the trouble
The first woman i worked for had ten
IN the family, yet the house was the best
regulated and the cleanest in which / ever
lived The mistress was the sweetest most
refined person I have ever known Meals
were prompt: there was a place for every
thing. and everything was kept in place
yet no cross words were spoken on either
side. She kept her place and I kept
mine I did my work to the best Of my
ability. and she appreciated this fact.
Ny rather had business embaTrasS znents,
and Il became necessary for me to earn
more money. Ny mistress could not afford
70 give larger wages. and I had to seek
them elsewhere. We were both sorTy. and
parted good friends. . could give
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28
mo. 81


Yes. I am servant But when 1 read
your article in the Exchange, The Maid
Protests" I was Disguised with some Of
the excuses the girls gave for dissatisfaction
/ went out 10 Service as a child of H.
at first during school vacations. and at Ii
cents week, and l am now earning 81
per week and an expenses. except clothing:
$40 month. In hard cash this may not
seem as much as some office and sales
lodgings and laundry bills and how
much they have left, Then can they afford
the excellent fare l have always had? Have
they a nice, coy bedroom and good Il
brary to select books from? I am sitting
now in my room with a panorama before
me of lovely. fields for miles yet I am
looking over housetops TO see it. For my
room is in the attic. 1t is cozy and modern,
bathroom adjoining. There is steam heat
and plenty Of hot water all the time Can
your, office and shop. sisters have these?
up ali day, do they say? Not I. with
The girls raise their voices and cry,
But we can't all get places like that
OIL OF Just such places know Of two in this
N fb BLOCK % locking for good girls to MI
viii nof 9 eep am an 0e nnniaSed u af
where It is sweltering hot in summer and
ireezing in winter. | le' one such place:
But said the madam oas % aw Hl1ln sneb
nice sitting room downstairs" We couldn't
sleep in the sitting room
Now, about being told when one
go IN and out. have never yet been told
that l could not 60 out if I wanted to go:
But do not care 10 be out every night of
the week and keep reasonable hours.
Now and then, when there is a party. 1
have not got in before 9 in the morning
The madam often tries TO make things
easier for me the next day. If she knows
! have been up late. She knows that
VIII not neglect my work for my pleasure.
Things run smoothly in our house. be-
cause l try TO be quick thorough, obliging
and honest with my employers.
NO, am not made one of the family, be-
cause don't want to be. Their interests
DO not appeal TO me. and mine do not In
terest them socially. If you are careless
siovenly and slangy. thinking OF your
pleasures and grievances. instead OF your
work don't expect to be carried on a
golden spoon But YOU have an easy
place you repeat Listen. my dear girls.
i have been here year this month. There
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-28

was over 20 years old when / opened
my eyes 70 the great truth that we live
hut a day at q time. and that the dear
Father Uea surSs our strength merci-
fully and wisely in telling US TO act and
think and feel as If we were never to
have another. I had been a Bible reader
from my youth UP and a student Of life
2nc human nature ever since / wa s old
enough 10 rate cause and effect at
something ike their proper value Yet
n was reserved for a friend who was
no older than / 10 teach me the lesson