The daily Alaskan., 1911-06-07
By EUNc IDA BLAKE

l 8lO the MlIe bA a AN.|Ns N'f.s"n 't my officer and have lived a good deal l of my time on the Pacific slope, where the only servants to be had axe Chi nese. There is no doubt but rhc Chi. uese make very good servants il they wish to be good butil they prefer Go be bad they can excel atthat too.
 married in the infantry and went out with my husband lo station where the Chinese were as thick as blackberrfes. ! had the pride natural to bride of showing how well , could keep house and appreciated the importance of winning the confidence of my servants, or. rather at that time my servant, for the wife Of second lieutenant neither she nor her husband having anything but his pay is not supposed to keep more than one.
 My first Chinese servant was TT Wang. ri was Che smo0fhcSt soitest tongued rascal l ever met He had enough dupHaity In him for am eight eenth century European diplomat To him words were indeed intended Co conceal ideas
 "You yeIly young wife" he said Co me. You want vcIIy good Chin0m0n for cook. Nucby Chnamon vol0y bad ri feel solly for Meltcau lady TT he good cook"
 An this was spoken with a look of commfseratiou for a young thing like myself that Co one familiar with the man from the FIowCry Kingdom would have boded no good did not doubt that my servant would he @ great comfort to me. It was not long be- fore his true inwardnoss showed it. self He first made am excuse of hav- ing sick brother who gou.dnrwashy- washv to provide for t0 whood'a mo ouf of months wages iu advance. Then he surrcpdtiou~y removed m- der his capacious coat and ample sleeves all the staple kitchen urovi sious I had bought To last several months. Tea. coffee, sugar and spices disappeared like magic Then having received am offer of better wages than I was giving him he took himself ol without so much as saying Inc was going
 My next servant was Charlie Ti Why so many Chinese are called Char lie l don't know. though Ii is am au- pronriate name for them Charlie was recommended by the majors wife. who had him in her kitchen for awhile when her regular servant was UI. She told me she would rather have Charlie than the other had no faul. Co find with Charlie except that he stayed with me but day. He didn't stay long enough tn ask for any wages. and since experience had taught me not Go pay Chiuamen i'm ad. vance he didn't got ary,
 After this servants were passing through my kitchen. none staying with me more than a week. In vain ] re- fused to engage one unless he would agree to stay a month Something must be securing them away didn't see how they could see anything in young woman of nineteen to friGhfen them. and I was the only person with whom they came in contact One or them. who was about to depart after three days of service, I asked why Inc left.
 ,syou get Mclean cook. Chinaman not velly good in this house"
 "Why notg
 "Donno. Cbmaman won't stay here"
 "Why do you go so soon after com iug2"
 CT am ve'ly we'll"
 He did not seem Go care whether I believed him or not Indeed, ho knew he was lying, and I knew 1t too. How ever. had had such bad luck with Chinese soryauts-and there were no others to be had-that ! made up my mind to do my own cooking for awhile.
 Meanwhile my husband, who had been making inquiries for mo as to servants from brother officers wives, began to be considerably veNed that ! could not keep any of them There was no such loss Of servants among those who sent me mine, and il ap- neared that Imust either be too eX- acting or have a frigbtruI temper or some other bIemish that prevented a servant from working for me- where as the truth was that after the earlier ones left I simply gave mp everything to those who came later. granting all requests and opposing them in notb iug. I didn't even dare cridcise the cooking of a single dish. The first tiff I had with my husband was when be venturcd to remark that perhaps ] didn't give them quite free rein enough. I resented the imputation with a ferv0r that sent him off to the officers club and prevented his ever making any such suggestion in future
 One day I put the tin bread box out in the sur. turning it up on its side and exposing the bottom, was sur prised to see Chinese characters on tt. . I wondered what they meant When a woman begins to wonder what Is the meaning of anything it is preparatory to making plans to find out I called the servant of my next door ueiEhbor who was beating a rug, Go come over and translate the characters. He did