VI.WASHING-DAY.
“IF it were not for the washing, housekeeping would lose half its terror. But I rise every Monday morning in a troubled and unhappy state of mind, for it iswashing-day! The breakfast will surely be a failure, coffee muddy, meat or hash uncooked or burnt to a coal, everything untidy on the table, and the servants on the verge of rebellion. With a meek and subdued countenance, with fear and trembling, lest some unlucky word of mine may infringe upon their dignity and cause them to leave before the washing is finished, I go softly about the house.”
This ought not so to be. In the first place, if you allow yourself to be kept thus in bondage to your servants, you destroy all hope of comfort. Let them once see that you fear to give them offence, and from that hour they are your tyrants.
Define, distinctly, the appropriate duties of each; but with this proviso, that in emergencies they will be required to lend a helping hand in any department where their services are needed. Let them understand, unmistakably, what your rules are,—for you cannot manage a household without well-digested laws and regulations,—then kindly, but firmly, make them know that you will have no infringement upon those rules.
“I wonder how long any girl, my Bridget, for instance, would stay, were I to take such independent ground.”
Probably not long, if she has learned that she can intimidate you; and once aware of that, the sooner she takes her leave the better for your future peace,—that is, if you will be taught by this experience to begin right with her successor.Those servants who fully recognize the lady as theirmistress, in something more than name, are generally the most respectful and reliable.
Never allow a girl to give a disrespectful answer or manifest irritability, simply because the work for some days in the week may be more distasteful than in others; and never permit them tothreatento leave you without insisting that the threat shall be carried into effect, unless an ample apology is given; for, if passed over submissively, it will be repeated whenever the girl’s temper is ruffled. Not for our own selfish comfort alone, but for the good of all who are compelled to employ servants, should we defend our own rights and position; not till there is concerted action and organized rules that will define the duties and rights of mistress and maid, and these rules strictly enforced, will this plague, which leaves us at the mercy of our servants, be stayed.
And now let us see if there is, really, any good reason why washing-day should be so full of terror. If one is feeble, it is not easy,nothingis; but to a strong, healthy person, it ought not to be burdensome, even if one is obliged to do it one’s own self, particularly with the aid of all the “modern improvements.” The apportionment of duties we have already considered, in Chapter I.
Twenty years ago the tubs and wash-benches were to be brought from the cellar or area, all the water pumped, and often carried some distance, heated in a boiler, then poured into the tubs, and every article wrung out by hand. Then, in the city, tubs were carried out into the streets and the dirty suds emptied into the gutter. But there was little complaint then of hard work. What would the girl of the present day think if expected to work under such disadvantages?
Now we have hot and cold water in the laundry, wringers, “tubs set,” generally, which can be emptied at pleasure, without a step, making the washing of a medium-sized familynot as laborious as the Friday sweeping of a large house. With one or two servants in the house, to divide the work, washing is not and should not be considered a hardship.
Put the clothes to soak overnight, rubbing soap on the collars, wristbands, bindings, etc., of each article. We have found Babbitt’s soap very satisfactory, safe, and much more economical than most soap. It is excellent for bleaching. Cut up several cakes in sufficient water to dissolve them, and let it boil till the soap is all dissolved, then pour it into a wooden pail, or old butter-tub that is well cleaned, and when cold it will be nice soft soap, and keep well as long as it lasts. This is a good way to prepare any soap for soaking or boiling clothes. But it is more economical to have a cake of hard soap, to use for the dirty spots, while washing.
Rub soft soap on the dirtiest parts of each garment, when you put them to soak, and just cover them with water. Table linen should be soaked in a separate tub, and washed first; the fine clothes, sheets, and pillow-cases put in another, and stockings and coarse things in a third tub.
Early Monday morning wring out the clothes from the water in which they were soaked, and prepare a fresh, clean hot suds. Table linen and all fine or starched clothes should be washed and hung out first, that they may be dried before night. If any are left out overnight, it should be the stockings and underclothes, bath-sheets, and dish-towels; the latter must be soaked by themselves, and washed in water that has been used fornothing else.
When a boilerful has been washed, rub soap on all bindings, collars, etc., replace the clothes in the boiler, fill it with cold or lukewarm water, and set over the range to boil not over twenty minutes; then pour all into a tub, adding cold water enough to make it comfortable to the hand, when ready to put them through the second suds. While the first set of clothes are boiling, of course those for a second boilerful arebeing washed and ready to be put in as soon as the first is removed, that no time may be lost. When the second is over the fire, get the first through the next suds and the two rinsing waters, which should be blued and ready as quick as possible. Do not be sparing of rinsing water. Have your largest tubs two thirds full, and put in but a few pieces at a time, so that each article may have unobstructed benefit of a large body of water, and all the soap may be removed. Wring and shake out and put into the second rinsing. Shake out each thing from the last rinsing, snapping them smooth; lay them loose into the clean clothes-basket, and hang out to dry before you begin on the second boiler. Careless rinsing and wringing will soon turn clothes yellow. When two girls assist about washing, one should rinse and hang out while the other is washing. It greatly expedites the work, of course, if they do not spend half the time talking; but it must be a very large wash that, even with but one at the tubs, is not all on the line before two o’clock.
Refined borax, in the proportion of one large handful of the powder to ten gallons of boiling water, is said to save nearly one half the soap, and make the clothes beautifully white and clear. It is a neutral salt and will not injure the fabric. For laces, cambrics, etc., an extra quantity is necessary. The wash-women of Belgium and Holland, so famous for the beauty of their work, use borax instead of soda.
Much more might be said on this topic if space would permit, perhaps of little interest to old experienced housekeepers, but our talks are more especially intended for those just entering upon the unknown sphere of domestic care.