The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-12-08
HOW TO KEEP THE COOK.
Thrifty German Hits on Scheme to
Make Mistress and Maid Agree.

A thrifty German in the Yorkville
section thinks he has solved the ser
vant-girl problem. He makes his boast
after a years experiment, and points
to a. spick-and-span household, a con-
tented wife, and a still continuing ser
want girl in confederation thereof.
The husband had long been seeing
servants come and go. and as each one
departed he had heard his wife declare
that she was the worst of many that
had gone before; and as each new one
came he heard his wife devOutly but
obviously express the hope that the
new broom" would continue to sweep
clean" But the new broom never did.
And so he finally decided that maybe
the fault was with the sweeper instead
of with the broom, and that perhaps
his wife was expecting $4-a-Week
broom to act like an automatic and
self-wielding vacuum cleaner. But with
a thrifty Germans aversion to the di-
vorce courts he sedulously forebore to
breathe a word of his suspicion to his
wife.
Instead, one evening he announced
that he was going to try a new expert
ment, and that thereafter he would al
low her So month more, to be given
to the servant girl Che knew it would
be given in the form of bargain sale
wearing apparel reduced from IS to
SO cents) in case she remained six
months in her present employment.
More, he added that he would, in addi-
ton, make herself a present of $50 if
she could keep the girl from migrating
within that same period.
Results were apparent almost imme-
dlately. The very next day, when the
servant girl was detected red-handed
elevator man over the telephone, the
housewife, who had threatened her
with Immediate discharge for a crime
so inefable, swallowed her just resent
ment, saving it merely for utterance to
her bridge party next day, and saving
also, incidentally, her chances for the
$50. In the same way she stilled her
wrath when the horrible handmaiden
broke cups and saucerS and even vases,
charitably ascribing the disaster to
such accidents as all nervous flesh is
heir to. She learned, too, that hardest
of all lessons for the housewife-to
realize that even black talk from
servants can be tolerated if need be.
Presently, however, out of sheer
desperate defense of her breaking
chinaware the housewife found herself
obliged either to risk loss of her
chances to the $5O--and she had al
ready planned exactly what purchases
she would make with the money-or to
see her servant girl spoiled by induIg-
ence and her dishes smashed whole
sale.
A sudden inspiration, suggested by
her husband, saved the situation; she
presently conceived the idea of split
ting fees and offered her house
Wrecking servant an additional 5
(this time it would be a shirtwaist
that looked like real lace" and cost
$2) if she could cure herself or her
infirmity and permit six months to
pass INHALED by the clatter of broken
dishes. The cure worked miraculOusly. |
and Bridget became as deft in her
handling of the family dishes and
utensils as if they were her own.
Under the softening influence of
these two fold subsidies and rewards of
merit. long before the fateful six
months had winged past, the mistress