With specialization in the household come complications. The manual labor of the mistress may be lessened when she adds to her domestic force, but with every new maid she assumes more responsibilities. She has to reconstruct the system to which she had become accustomed when she employed but one servant, and very often the whole tone of the establishment is changed from what it was in the days to which she sometimes looks back as comparatively care free.
Yet with the increase in a family or with an alteration in the mode of living additional service becomes necessary, and, unless the housekeeper is of thetype who takes life hard, there is no reason why she should not soon adapt herself to the new conditions. As in all other circumstances where she must make plans for her domestics, she should have her scheme of action clear in her own mind before she gives it to her servants. Vacillation and uncertainty on the part of the mistress shake the maid's confidence in the judgment of the ruling brain, and dispose her to question decisions and to neglect the duties which she thinks do not strike even the mistress as absolutely essential.
It is hard to change the method of work when the former general household servant is put into the place of cook or waitress and a second maid engaged. The former factotum is likely to criticise the way in which her late duties are performed, and perhaps to feel that the lion's share still falls to her. So, unless it is an exceptionally competent maid who has been doing all the work, it is usually well to begin a new deal of thissort by getting two maids and dividing the work between them from the outset.
The duties assigned to the different domestics in a house where two or more servants are employed are not easy to define explicitly. They must be determined largely by the individual wants and conditions. The size of the family, the arrangement of the house, the style of living, the fact of there being small children in the home, all suggest modifications of any general outline. Therefore, the schedule of ordinary household duties following must be subordinate to the conditions mentioned, and also to the capabilities of the individual servant. In a household where more than one servant is employed it is desirable that there should be from the beginning as clear as possible an understanding of the duties to be discharged, since with the specialization comes a disinclination to undertake any work outside of the particular line for whichthe servant was employed. In the household of more than one servant there is a strong probability that the statement, "I was not engaged to do this kind of work," will be heard, sooner or later.
"It seems absurd that I should employ a man-servant besides the coachman and the gardener," said a housekeeper to me the other day. "I have plenty of maids, and, as nearly as I can make out, I took on this extra man for the sake of having him sweep off the stone platform in front of the porch steps. It was nobody's work. The waitress said she did not hire to do outside work, and the coachman said it had nothing to do with his work. It was not the gardener's business, and they were all so strenuous about it that I told my husband I seemed to be the only one to whose lot it really fell by rights to keep that platform clean. There was so much discussion over it that I finally hired a houseman for the especial purposeof having that platform swept. Of course, he looks after the furnace and brushes off the porch and washes windows and does other things of that sort, but they are merely incidents. The real reason I keep him is so that my husband or I won't have to sweep that platform!"
Bearing in mind the possibility of such complications, the mistress should tell her second maid when she engages her that she may have to perform other tasks than those which lie exactly within an over-rigid conception of her duties. If this is understood from the start it averts later annoyance.
In a family of adults where two maids are kept, these are usually the cook and the waitress and chambermaid. Unless some special provision has been made to that effect, the cook does nothing outside of the kitchen in the early morning. She may perhaps take care of the furnace (this would be her first duty when she came down-stairs), and it is alsopossible that she may brush off the front steps and sidewalk, but with that her extra kitchen-work ceases for the moment. She gets the breakfast and should be up early enough to do this, brush up her kitchen, and perhaps make preparations for cooking that is to be done later in the day. After breakfast she may assist the waitress to wash the dishes. This depends upon the work the latter has to do.
Upon the waitress comes the work of opening and airing the living-rooms, brushing out the halls, sweeping down the stairs, and dusting the rooms. All this should be done before breakfast, and in order to achieve this, the waitress must rise as early as the cook. As with the general housework maid, the hour of rising should be not later than six when breakfast is at half-after seven or eight.
In most homes it is customary to excuse the waitress as soon as the principal part of the breakfast has beenserved, that she may go about her chamber-work and be ready to come down to her breakfast by the time the family has finished. Before she goes to her own meal she clears the dining-room table and takes the dishes into the kitchen or butler's pantry.
Even if the chambermaid is competent, it is well for the mistress to make it possible to enter the bedrooms occasionally while work is going on there to make sure that it is all being accomplished properly. It is easy for the best employées to drift into careless habits, and the details of bed-making are too often neglected. Under no circumstances should the mistress delegate the care of her linen-closet to a servant. She herself should lay out the linen that is to be used, taking it out in a certain routine so that it may all be worn alike. On the days when the beds are to be changed, she should select the sheets, pillow-slips, spreads, etc., before she goes down to breakfast, thatthe chambermaid may not be hindered in her work. Clean towels should also be given out by the mistress. In a very large establishment, or in the case of an exceptionally trustworthy maid, this work may perhaps be safe in the hands of some one besides the mistress, but, simple as is the task, it requires a discretion and familiarity with the household supplies that only the mistress is likely to possess.
After the waitress has had her breakfast she returns and finishes any work she has left undone in the bedrooms. It is possible she may not have had time to dust properly, or that the dust had not had a chance to settle after she gave the room its morning brushing. The bath-room, too, is attended to at this time. After this the waitress washes the breakfast-dishes. Before she left the kitchen after her own breakfast she should have scraped the dishes and put them in soak. This will lessen the work of washing-up when she comesdown. If there is a special arrangement by which the cook washes the dishes, the waitress is free for other work. Sometimes the dish-washing is divided, the cook taking charge of the dishes in which the food has been served, while the waitress looks after the glass, silver, and the finer china. It is not easy to apportion the work in this fashion if the dish-washing is all done in the kitchen, but where there is a butler's pantry it is comparatively simple. In this case the fine tableware should never go into the kitchen at all. This plan lightens the work of the waitress and makes her responsible for the more delicate dining-room ware.
A word here about the dish-washing. If the maid is open to suggestion the time she takes to do her dishes may be shortened. The general habit of servants is to leave all the dishes until the entire meal is concluded and then attack the mountain that has accumulated. Much time can be saved ifthey will wash the dishes as they come from the table. As a matter of course, this cannot be done in a family where the waitress is required to remain in the room during the entire meal. But this is seldom the practice in the average home, when only the family is present. There is a preference for what some one has called "unexpurgated meals," and the freedom of conversation that is not possible when servants are present. If this is the case, it is an easy matter for the waitress to wash the soup-plates while the heaviest course of the meal is being eaten, and to get some of the dishes of the second course out of the way while the family is discussing the salad. In a large family all the china may not be washed then, but the silver at least and some of the smaller pieces may be clean and out of the way by the time the meal is at an end. The science that is known as "making the head save the heels" is not understood and appreciated by the average maid, and if shecould receive and apply a little instruction along these lines she would find her hours of work shortened and her toil lightened. If the butler's pantry adjoins the dining-room too closely, it is not always feasible to wash dishes while the family is eating, unless it can be done so carefully that unpleasant clatter is spared. But a little thought and skill given to the matter will usually lessen the labor of washing-up after a long meal.
To return to the routine of work. Except when there is a great deal of cooking done it is well to arrange to have the cook take a share in the sweeping. What part this shall be circumstances must decide. She may sweep the first floor, including dining-room, drawing-room, sitting-room, and halls, once a week. Or there may be a day on which she goes up-stairs and gives the bedrooms a thorough sweeping. Again, it may be stipulated when she is engaged that she is to wash the windows.If one set of these tasks devolves upon her it leaves the waitress more free for her special duties. These vary, according to the size of the family. When this consists of but two or three members, the second maid should have time in a small house to keep everything in her domain in perfect order and even to do a little of the mending. If the family is larger she will have leisure for nothing outside of her regular duties, and the case will be the same if there is a good deal of entertaining done.
One part of the daily work of the waitress is to take care of the lamps, cleaning and filling these. When dusk draws on she should light these and the gas, pull down the shades, and make the living-rooms ready for the evening. It is also the work of the second maid to put the bedrooms in order for the night, closing the blinds, turning down the beds, removing spreads and day-pillows, and bringing iced water to each roomthe last thing before she goes to bed herself.
In point of fact, the work of the waitress is nearly as general in its nature as that of the maid-of-all-work. She attends the door, as a matter of course, answers the bells from the chambers or drawing-room, brings hot water to the bedrooms in the morning, prepares and carries in the afternoon tea-tray, and must be on the alert to see that the house is in spick-and-span order. She has the charge of the silver, keeping it clean and polishing the brasses. For each of these especial duties she should have a regular time, and the mistress should see that the system she put into practice when she had but one servant is followed out after she has added to her household force. All the dusting falls to the care of the waitress, unless the mistress prefers to reserve for herself the handling of curios and choice bric-à-brac. The cook may sweep, but it is the waitress who follows her with a dust-clothand who scrubs the paint and wipes off stray finger-marks from mouldings and window-panes.
When there is a child in the house, and the second maid unites the offices of nurse and waitress, her work must be divided differently. She may do the chamber-work, but she cannot be expected to wash the dishes unless the mother or some other member of the family assumes the care of the infant while the nurse is otherwise employed. Nor can she be held responsible for all the details that would fall to her were she waitress, pure and simple. When a nurse is employed as well as a waitress, her work is usually absolutely separate from that of the other maid. She may do sewing and the baby's washing, help make the beds, and lend a hand on the afternoons and evenings out of the other maids, but she has little or nothing to do with the general work of the house.
If the cook has thus far received slighterattention than the waitress, it is because her work is so much more closely confined to one department that it requires less minute consideration. She prepares the meals, takes charge of the kitchen, cellar, and pantries, inspects the latter and the refrigerator every morning in company with the mistress of the house, and reigns supreme in the lower realms. In small families where two servants are employed the cook usually is laundress as well. In that case the waitress generally takes part of the cook's work on washing and ironing days, preparing the luncheon on those days, washing all the dishes, and keeping the kitchen in order. The waitress often assists with the fine ironing on Tuesday. Cook and waitress relieve each other on their days out. The cook waits on table when the waitress goes out and attends the door, unless the mistress chooses to do this herself. When the cook takes her holiday the waitress assumes her duties.
When the housekeeper has a force of more than two servants the complications thicken, since with the introduction of each new maid comes more specialization. Unless the new servant is engaged because the family is so large that the work is too heavy for two maids, or because of the need of a special servant, as a nurse, the addition is usually due to increased elaboration in the way of living, and this, of course, subdivides specialization still more as well as raises the scale of wages. The "professed cook," who does nothing but cook and demands a helper or scullery-maid, gets higher pay than the general cook who does the washing and ironing or the one who may refuse to do laundry-work but yet undertakes all the labor of the kitchen. The waitress who understands the service of wines and is an adept at handling large dinners and luncheons, demands—and gets—large wages and feels her dignity to an extent that makes her cling tenaciouslyto the rights and privileges of her position.
The average American household which employs servants—and there is a surprisingly large proportion of the sum total who keep no servant at all—is contented with one, two, or, at the most, three servants. The third may be a nurse, as I have said, or a laundress, who, besides her washing and ironing, does the chamber-work and thus leaves the waitress free for her especial tasks in the dining-room and for the duties of a parlor-maid. The laundress may also wash windows or help in other cleaning. Or the third servant may be seamstress and chambermaid and have nothing to do with the dining-room or with the kitchen unless she fills one of these places on the "day off" of the regular incumbent.
In a book that deals with the work of the maid-servant it is not worth while to go into the duties of the man-servant or to touch upon the possibilitiesof change latent in the introduction of Japanese and Chinese service. That all has its part in the domestic labor problem, but this is not the opportunity for discussing this phase of the servant question.
The tendency to introduce the wearing of livery into domestic service has grown within the past few years. There are still many protests against it, and writers are found who declare the cap and apron of the housemaid a badge of servitude. But the growth of the livery has been universal, and implies no more degradation in one relation of life than in another. The public servant, whether he be policeman or street-cleaner or motorman or car conductor or what you will, takes his uniform as a matter of course. The shop-girl, who often prides herself on belonging to a higher social class than the "living-out girl," does not feeldisgraced if in the big department store where she works she is expected to conform to the rules of the establishment and don a black gown and a white collar. The trained nurse does not feel it an indignity to wear a cap. In truth, there is a great deal of nonsense talked about the livery of the servant-girl. I have known sensible young women—at least they were sensible in everything else—who would flatly refuse to wear a pretty and becoming cap, and would give up the chance of a good place sooner than put one on.
The girl who surveys matters with an unprejudiced view will recognize a pretty little cap as an uncommonly becoming adjunct to her dress. She will also appreciate the fact that she looks much neater with her flying locks tucked back under a cap than she would with the stray tresses wandering over a forehead that is heated by brisk work. Rightly considered, the cap is no mark of servitude, and has a reason for itsexistence in the added neatness and freshness it imparts to the working-girl's garb.
This, indeed, is the whole object of the livery. When the maid is at work she should be dressed in a manner that is suitable for her employment. In the morning when she is to be busy with her housework, in and out of the kitchen, handling a broom and dust-cloth, her dress should be a neat print. In houses where the mistress provides the working-frocks of the maids, as is sometimes done, she can have these frocks made all in one piece, but in the majority of homes, where but one or two maids are kept, they dress themselves. Under these circumstances they cannot be expected to conform to any especial color or style, and will probably wear shirtwaists and skirts. It is a pity if the skirts are dark woollen goods, because these gather dust and retain the odors of cookery, but a large apron will protect the skirt, and washing is saved tothe maid if her whole gown is not of a light material. She is wise if she wears a large sweeping-cap in the morning when she is busy at work that is likely to make dust, but this can be exchanged for a smaller cap when the rougher parts of her labor are out of the way.
For the afternoon, when it is feasible, the maid, whether she be the maid-of-all-work who discharges the functions of both cook and waitress, or the servant who is waitress and parlor-maid, should, if correctly dressed, wear a black frock with white collar and cuffs, and a white bib apron. The latter may be a little more elaborately trimmed than that she has on in the morning. In fact, with a morning apron she may dispense with the bib altogether and wear only a plain, large apron. Some mistresses demand the broad collar, although the cuffs may be omitted. I say "when it is feasible" the maid should make this change, because it is not always the most convenient thing in the world forthe maid who has to do the cooking of the dinner before she serves it to be in her black frock all the afternoon. She may look neat in her gingham waist and skirt, and then, when she gets everything in order for the dinner, she may slip away to her room for a minute and get into the black waist. The waitress who has no kitchen work is usually expected to have on her black waist soon after luncheon in order to be ready to answer the bell properly dressed. The absolutely correct custom demands that she should be in this garb before luncheon is served, but this rule is not followed in the average household.
There are many obstacles in the way of strict enforcement of various regulations which are insisted upon as essential by those who endeavor to make the social by-laws. To such rules the majority of housekeepers would be glad to conform if they could. Like Lady Teazle, they would be only too happy if rosesgrew under their feet and they could gather strawberries all the year round. But domestic exigencies forbid many indulgences, and the wise woman is she who adapts herself to things as they are and does not make herself wretched over non-essentials. When a woman keeps but one maid to do the work of a household of half a dozen members, she cannot hope to have her establishment conducted as it would be with a force of three or four maids. She may very properly insist upon certain niceties of serving and waiting, but if she does this she must make up for it in other ways. For instance, the woman who demands candles for her dinner-table instead of gas must not expect the maid who does all the work of the house to have time to keep the candlesticks in order. The care of the flowers that brighten the table must also come upon the mistress. She must take this sort of thing for granted as much as she does the necessity for relying upon her ownefforts in the preparation of her more delicate desserts and salads. Such efforts are the price she pays for wishing to live in a certain fashion, and, since she has made her choice, she has no right to be dissatisfied with it. Plainer modes of life and ultimate salvation are not incompatible, but if she prefers the added daintiness to the lighter labor it devolves upon her to do the additional work necessarily implied by the touches of elegance.
I have spoken of the habit of some mistresses of providing the maids' working-dress. This is done in large establishments where a certain livery is required, and in other homes, where the mistress feels it worth while, she supplies the black frock to be worn in the afternoon. Whether this is done or not it is customary for the mistress to provide the caps and white aprons worn by her maids, and the collars and cuffs, if she insists upon the latter. These belong to the mistress, and arenot taken away by the maid when she leaves.
The laundering of these articles is generally paid for by the mistress. That is, if the washing is put out or some one comes in to do it, the aprons are included in the family washing instead of being done by the maid herself with her own washing. In the average family, where two or three servants are employed, each does her own washing and has a fixed time for it, unless some other arrangement is made between the mistress and the servant. In some cases the mistress provides also colored aprons for the maid to wear at her heavy work, but this is not obligatory. There is not the same reason for this that there is for the mistress's purchasing the livery. It is taken for granted that the maid has enough clothing of her own to enable her to look decent about the house. If, however, the mistress has her decided preferences in favor of the maid dressingherself in a special fashion, it is her business to provide the raiment in which the maid is required to appear. Often it will be found that the maid has adapted herself to her work and has purchased for herself neat black waists or frocks to wear in the afternoon. In this case the mistress is saved just so much expense and may esteem herself fortunate, but she has no right to demand that the maid shall supply herself with such a garb at her own expense.
The social relations of servants is a matter with which some mistresses exercise themselves over-much, while others, perhaps, give too little attention to it. According to the ideas of some persons, the affairs of a maid outside of working hours concern no one but herself. So long as she conforms to certain rules of the household, her coming and going, her associates and habits, are no one's business but her own, unless they interfere with the proper performance of her work. In a way this is entirely true,and a mistress has no more right to pry into the affairs of her maid than the maid has to be overcurious about the business of the mistress. But there is something to be said on the other side. Look at it in as matter-of-fact fashion as one will, relations of domestic service are different from any other business association. The mistress and maid do not only meet in the morning and part again at night, after having been together simply in the way of their work during the day; they eat and sleep under the same roof. Often they work side by side for an hour at a time. They see each other in bodily and mental dishabille. They are by way of asking or granting little kindly services that were never nominated in the bond. Without bringing too much sentiment into the relation, it may yet be asserted that it is next to impossible for them to meet on purely business terms.
When this is admitted it opens the way for something more. Not familiarityor interference, but a kindly and friendly interest. This interest grows to be something very like a sense of responsibility if the maid is a young girl far removed—as she often is—from the family and associations amid which she was reared. The ties that used to hold her have been loosened, and it would be no wonder if in the feeling of irresponsibility that comes with novel freedom she should occasionally make a mistake which she afterwards has to repent more or less bitterly. In one sense it is none of the mistress's business. She is not her maid-servant's keeper. Yet she could hardly help reproaching herself if she thought that a kindly word, a query that showed her interest, might have spared the girl a blunder, even if this did not amount to wrong-doing.
So, if the mistress can do it, she should try to establish some sort of anententewith her maid. It can hardly be anentente cordiale, perhaps, until they have been together long enoughto have broken down the little class antagonism that generally exists at first between mistress and maid and to convince the latter of the good-will of the former. It does not take much trouble to bring about this state of affairs. An interest in the girl's family, a question or two as to whether she has any of her own people on this side of the water, an inquiry as to her friends—not in a manner that seems to imply a mere curiosity or patronage, but in a fashion that shows a genuine friendliness is prompting the queries. The assurance of the maid that she may feel free to have her friends come to see her, a pleasant word of greeting to these if they come and the mistress happens to meet them, all do their part towards making the maid sure that her employer is in a measure her friend.
When it comes to the question of "followers"—that vexed question in so many households—the mistress is wise if she pursues the straightest course.In the first place, she should recognize the fact that the maid-of-all-work should be permitted to have her men friends come to call on her. She did not enter a nunnery when she went into domestic service. She is a human being, and she has the right to friends among the opposite sex—just as good a right as the daughter of madam herself. Bearing this in mind, the employer should allow "followers" subject to the same rules which she would enforce with her own daughters. The young men should come at a suitable hour and go at a suitable hour. They should no more be granted permission to linger around the kitchen when the objects of their attention are busy with the daily toil than should the callers of mademoiselle be welcomed when she is at her music lesson or occupied with her language teacher. To do the followers justice, they do not often attempt it, nor do the maids encourage it. Of course, there are the stock jokes about the policemanon the beat and the milkman and the butcher's boy, but none of these—except the policeman—has sufficient leisure to spend much time in the kitchen or the front area during working hours. Even if there is violation of this rule once in a while—well, we have all had little occurrences of the same kind in our lives. Our chance meetings and partings out of canonical hours did not take place in the front area, perhaps, but that was because our employments did not lead either of us there.
The responsibility of the mistress does not go so far as to make it necessary for her to inquire into the antecedents of the young men who visit in her kitchen as she would into those of the men callers in the drawing-room. That is outside of her province. Yet she may let the maid know that she feels an interest in her admirers and friends, and such an interest is likely to be appreciated.
Again I feel I must defend myselfagainst a charge of sentimentality. But I have seen these experiments tried with success. I do not mean by this that the maids were models of unending devotion and fidelity. We seldom find this sort of thing without flaw among our chosen associates. But I have known instances where the casual friendliness of the mistress was repaid tenfold in times of sickness or trouble by offices which could not be compensated for in money. And it was done freely and gladly, with no thought of anything out of the ordinary, with no hint that sacrifices were being made.
"Yes," says some one, "and those very maids will talk you over behind your back."
Quite true, dear madam. As the majority of us discuss not only our maids but our own familiar friends behind their backs—as they do us when our backs are turned. We are all of us as ready to resent criticism as we are to offer it. When we find the habits ofhigh life below-stairs, it behooves us to ask ourselves what sort of an example along those lines we had set the maid-servants within our gates.
Without hope of any reward, except that of the comfortable sensation we have when we have attempted to do the decent thing, let us try to make our maids feel at home in our houses. If it is possible, they should have a place in which to meet their friends. Where there is space, it is becoming more and more the custom to provide a sitting-room for the servants in which their visitors can be received. To many housekeepers such an arrangement as this would be impossible. In such cases there should at least be an effort to render the kitchen as pleasant as the circumstances will permit. It may be clean and neat, there may be a couple of chairs that are tolerably comfortable, and any little attempt the maid may wish to make to add to the attractiveness of the apartment should be encouraged.
The mistress of a house must not look for bricks without straw. In other words, she must not demand good work from her maids if they lack the tools with which to achieve it.
When women, in the course of discussions on domestic topics at clubs and elsewhere, declare that housekeeping can be practised on the same principles as those on which men conduct their business, when they affirm that housekeeping may be run like machinery, they sometimes forget what is meant by the management of machinery. The metaphor pleases them so much that they fail to examine it too closely. But any machinist will tell one that an enginedoes not go of itself. I do not mean only that the fires must be kept up and the water which is to generate steam must be provided. There is more to it than that. The machinery must be watched and oiled and kept in perfect repair. If any bit of it is injured it must at once be replaced. There must be a regular inspection made to see that there is not so much friction on one part as to make too much wear and tear, and that other portions which are temporarily out of use do not become rusty so that they are unmanageable when they come in demand.
But what housekeeper takes such care of her home machinery as this? Here and there one may be found, but the majority, having started the works going, seem to have the impression that the wheels will continue to revolve with no further attention. It is taken for granted that the maid will pursue the even tenor of her way as if she were anotherpiece of clockwork that has been wound up—or, perhaps, as if she were a part of the same big machine which comprises the household and all its appointments.
The difference, of course, between the machinery and the home is that in the conduct of the latter the human equation has to be reckoned with constantly. It is not enough for the mistress to see that all parts of the engine are supplied, if this or that section is to be injured through carelessness as soon as her back is turned. The head machinist would probably drop a man on short notice who had proved himself to be persistently careless of the portion of labor committed to his charge. The fact that he could do other parts of his work well, that he was kindly and good-natured and never spoke an impertinent word, would weigh for little if he did not pay attention to his especial duty and take proper care of that which was committed to his charge. With the domesticservant matters are on a different footing. In counting up her good and bad qualities the mistress must keep a debit-and-credit account and feel that one positive virtue offsets many negative defects.
Yet, even while she does this and puts up with shortcomings because of some one conspicuous merit, the mistress should not relax her effort to approximate, so far as she may, the performance of household duties to the workings of the machinery to which it is so often likened. And to do this she must see that everything necessary is at hand, to make the wheels turn smoothly.
It is a proof of the carelessness with which many homes are managed, and of the slackness which maids take for granted, that the household equipment is so often conspicuously poor. I have been in houses that were well furnished above-stairs where I have seen the maids attempting to do careful cookery with utensils that were utterly inadequate.There were broken vegetable-graters, cream-churns, egg-beaters, flour-sifters, coffee-pots with parts of their mechanism missing, bowls and dishes with large sections gone from them, an insufficient supply of such small items as measuring-cups, mixing-spoons, vegetable-knives, and the like. I have also had a glimpse of the articles provided for keeping a house clean—stubby brooms, worn-out brushes, half-bristled scrubbing-brushes, a stingy provision of the detergents and cleansing fluids manufactured for household use. In the midst of this dearth the maids worked as best they could, accomplishing wonders when one thought of the means they had in hand.
"But," some one will say, "these things were doubtless provided at first, and if they are lacking now it is because of the carelessness of the maids that had them in charge."
Precisely so. But the maids ought not to have been permitted to be careless.If that consummation devoutly to be desired of making the house run like a machine is ever to be brought about, the methods of the shop must be introduced into domestic work. The maid should have given to her the utensils that she will need in order to do her work properly and then she should be held responsible for them—not responsible merely by word either. It will be necessary for the mistress to keep her eyes on these details just as the head machinist makes his inspection. She will have to see for herself that the broom is hung up or stood on the handle instead of on the bristle end, that the brushes and dust-pans not only have their nails or hooks, but are kept on them when not in use instead of being thrown into a corner of the kitchen and kicked about by any one who finds them in the way. She will have to inquire if the dish-towels are washed out after service, boiled once a day, and well dried and aired—notthrown carelessly over a clothes-horse or a line to dry with the grease and stains from carelessly washed dishes still clinging to them. Once in so often the mistress must make an examination of the contents of the pot-closet to ascertain for herself if the double boiler has been left on the fire until the water has cooked away and the bottom has cracked from dryness. She must see that her pans are scoured when they need it, that no utensil is ever put away with part of the contents sticking to the inside.
Do some or all of these admonitions appear uncalled for? I hope they are, but I am afraid that at least five out of every ten housekeepers would find one of these defects in her pantries should she go there seeking perfection.
When the mistress neglects matters in this way the maid-servant is not wholly to blame for her heedlessness. It must always be borne in mind that our domestic service is not recruited from training-schools. The maid comesto us from her own home or from a succession of other persons' homes, where she has been taught to do one thing in half a dozen different ways. From all these she has evolved her own method, which may be good and may be poor. Such as it is, she is likely to follow it, unless she is persuaded of a more excellent way or compelled into it by her new mistress. In the latter case she will probably "go back to the blanket" as soon as she is at liberty.
I have already said that it is a mistake for the mistress to demand that the maid shall change her mode of doing a piece of work, provided the results are good. The mistress should allow time to discover the advantages or disadvantages of the servant's system. But if she feels that her own way is surely better than that the maid follows, she should insist upon a change. She should recognize the possibility of the employée's being a reasonable creature, and show her what she considers themerits of the new plan at the same time that she makes it clearly understood that, whether the maid sees these or not, the work is to be done in the manner prescribed by the mistress. She pays for the work and she has a right to say in what way it shall be performed.
Sometimes one finds a maid who rebels against this sort of management. In that case a mistress is wise to discharge her at the end of the month—that is, unless she can be induced to do the work in the right fashion. Of course, it is always upon the cards that the maid may have so many other good qualities that they make up for this defect; but, as a rule, it will be found that the maid who persists in refusing to adopt a method of work ordered by her employer will be hard to manage in other ways. Before giving up such a servant, however, it is well for the mistress to think carefully of the question at issue and be very sure that the way she desires possesses enough advantagesto make it worth while to raise an issue upon it.
Sometimes a maid will come around to a new method of her own accord. I knew of a cook whose mistress had purchased one of the admirable bread-making machines. The housekeeper had investigated it thoroughly and become persuaded that it not only saved time and labor, but that the bread made from it was more wholesome than that mixed and kneaded in the ordinary manner. So she installed the machine in her kitchen, explained its workings and its virtues to the cook, and supposed that there would be no trouble about it. But the cook was an obstinate conservative. She had made good bread by the old way, and to the old way she would adhere. She did not absolutely refuse to use the machine, but she calmly went on making bread by hand. Excellent bread it was, too. The mistress could find no fault with it—but that was beside the point.
Being a sensible woman, she hesitated to raise an issue and possibly lose a good cook and a trustworthy servant. She herself went into the kitchen and made bread two or three times with the machine. Her daughter did the same. In spite of herself the cook became interested in the new-fangled notion. She saw that it saved time and toil. At last she tried the machine herself. The results were so good and at so small a cost of work that she became an ardent convert.
"Sure, it was wicked I used to be about it," she confessed to the mistress later. "When you and Miss Jane were making bread with it I used to be just prayin' that it would turn out bad."
There are plenty of maids of this kind, although once in a while one finds a specimen of the other sort. Usually the latter kind is found among the older women who have become "set in their ways" and object to experiments of any nature. If the employerwishes to be mistress in her own house she can hardly retain one of this variety in her service. But if there are reasons that make her willing to waive her own authority for the sake of comfort in other directions, she is perhaps prudent to do it. This is a matter each housekeeper must settle for herself.
To return to the first point for a moment. The mistress must give her maids what they need to do their work well before she expects to receive good work from them, and having done this shall demand that they keep their tools in order. At the same time that she makes adequate provision she should not encourage extravagance by overabundance. We all have a tendency to be lavish when we see before us what seems like more than enough. The maid should have what will suffice for the present need, but no more. There is no sense in having half a dozen double boilers, for instance, when the utmost need of the household does not call formore than four. Keep two in reserve until accident or use has disabled one of the others. The maid should not have so large a supply of kitchen and china towels that she feels it makes little difference if she takes proper care of them. Instead, she should have enough to wipe her dishes without having to stint herself, and if extra towels are needed for extra service they should be given for that time and then put away until the next occasion arises for their use. She should not have three or four dust-cloths in commission all the while, but should wash those she has every day or two and use them until they are worn out. Her cleaning-cloths—for lamps, bedroom crockery, and the like—should not be so numerous that she feels it is easier to throw them away than to take the trouble to rinse them after service.
Not only the housekeeper is to be considered in the enforcement of these rules. The maid is being trained inhabits of thrift or of wastefulness, and the housekeeper is preparing for her own kitchen or for the kitchen of some other woman a servant who will be valuable or the reverse. I have touched upon the responsibility of the housekeeper for her servants in other respects, and this is another way in which she should appreciate her duty to her neighbor.
In some households the mistresses have slipped into the careless way of permitting the maid to give orders to the butcher and the grocer. This should only be done in unusual circumstances. The maid may be entirely honest and conscientious. At the same time, the mistress is not only putting her in the way of a temptation to extravagance, but is also neglecting one of her own duties. The maid should have a pad and pencil hanging in the kitchen. With these she should keep a list of what is wanted in the line of household supplies. When she takes the last of any kind of provisionfrom its receptacle she should make a note of it on the pad. By this method there is never a discovery at the last moment that a supply of some desired grocery is exhausted. This memorandum the mistress must go over every morning when she makes her daily inspection of the kitchen and pantries. The slip she tears from the pad will serve as her list of purchases when she goes to market. This, too, should not be the work of the maid. Once in a while she can be sent out on an emergency errand, but, as a rule, it is the mistress who should do the buying. By following this plan she knows what is ordered, what delivered, and is able at the end of the week to check intelligently the record in her weekly book from the grocer or the market-man.
In all that has been said there has been no attempt to consider the large establishment where there is a housekeeper who assumes the duties of the mistress of the home in the way of orderingmeals, directing servants, and looking after all the details of the household. Such establishments are not plentiful enough to be considered in a book of this scope. It is in the homes where but one servant or at the most two or three are kept that problems of the sort we have touched upon present themselves for solution. In such homes these problems are often matters of daily or weekly consideration. The mistress desires to do all she can to enable the maid to make the best of her place; the maid's intentions are usually as good as those of the mistress, even if they are not quite so clearly formulated.
Something may be said concerning payment for extra work. When a maid is engaged it is with the understanding that she is to do for a fixed wage all the work in her particular line. If hers is the place of a general-housework servant, the duties are, as already said, hard to define, but there may bean approximate idea formed of what they comprise. In other positions in the household it is a simpler matter to lay down with some precision what the avocations of each servant shall be. Except by special arrangement she should not be required to step outside her round. But there are times in nearly every family when some accident or set of unavoidable occurrences renders it necessary to ask one maid to do the work of another. Sudden illness, the departure of one maid before it is possible to engage another, the descent of unexpected guests—any one of these things may make it needful for the housekeeper to request a servant to do something besides her regular work.
When this is the case it should be shown by the mistress that she appreciates the consideration of the servant, and there should be an effort made to compensate for such consideration—not necessarily by a payment of money, but by a gift, the granting of an unusualprivilege, or by relieving the maid of a part of her own regular work. It is not a good principle for the mistress to fall into the habit of bestowing tips for any extra service. If matters were conducted on a purely business basis this might be desirable, but, as I have said before, in the relation of mistress and maid there are too many opportunities for mutual accommodation for either to stand upon a point of a kindliness granted by the other side.
When it comes to tips from guests it is another matter. If a visitor feels more comfortable to offer a gift to a servant on leaving, there is no reason why it should not be done. I know of employers who say that they pay their servants adequate wages and do not thank their guests for feeling it obligatory upon them to supplement these by presents. This is not quite the point at issue. The guest does not mean to question the justice or generosity of his host, but he feels that he has causedextra labor and has received services for which he would like to make some return to the domestic. The gift is not taken by the servant as a supplement to her wages, but as an acknowledgment of services given, on her own part, and as a token of appreciation of these by the guest. The matter of tips in this country has never assumed the importance it possesses on the other side of the water, although it is by way of becoming a more serious matter with every year.
At least once a week the maid should go over the list of silver, which the mistress should have put into her hands when she came first to the house, and see that no pieces are missing. In the same way it is well for her to keep track of the china. Whenever a piece is nicked, cracked, or broken she should report it at once. Few mistresses are severe when this is done, although they are rarely so amiable as not to be irritated to discover such damages byaccident. There will be mishaps in the best-regulated household, but concealment of these or neglect to mention them is a mistake. It shakes the confidence of the employer and saves the employée no trouble, since the injury is bound to be discovered sooner or later, and the reproof is much sharper in those circumstances than it would be if the maid had made a virtue of necessity and told of the breakage when it occurred.
When there has been an accident of this sort there should be judgment exercised on the part of the mistress as to enforcing the rule concerning payment for breakages. If the maid is usually careful and the accident was the result of circumstances she could not avoid, it is better not to deduct the value of the broken article from her wages. If she is habitually careless, she will learn a lesson by having to pay for her fault. If there is a clear understanding on this matter at the time themaid is engaged, there is no room for any feeling of being imposed upon when the rule is put into practice. Justice should be tempered with mercy, however, and allowances made for the first offence. The maid should be asked just how the accident happened, warned against holding wet china in slippery, moist fingers, crowding too many pieces into the dish-pan at once, attempting to carry too large a number at one time, and other methods of provoking casualties of this sort. Should she persist in such habits after the warning has been given, the payment for the broken articles should be insisted upon.
Rise at six o'clock and have clothing in readiness, so as to be dressed and down-stairs by six-thirty. Strip the bed and open the window before leaving the room.
If the care of the furnace is in your hands, open the draughts and put on a little coal.
Light the kitchen fire, fill the kettle, put on the breakfast cereal and potatoes, or anything that requires some time to cook.
Open the windows of rooms on first floor, brush up the floor and the halls, and sweep off the front steps. Go over bare floor in dining-room with a clothand dust the dining-room. Put more coal in furnace, close draughts, and give a look at kitchen fire.
Set table for breakfast. If a large cloth is used, put it on over the canton-flannel "silence cloth." If a square of damask or doilies are employed at breakfast, lay them onevenly. Crooked spreading of a table is an abomination.
At each place put a plate, knife, fork, and two spoons, the knife and spoons to the right, with the napkin beside them; the tumbler also on the right. The fork must be on the left, and near it the bread-and-butter plate. If fruit is the first course, there should be at each place a fruit-plate with a doily, finger-bowl, and fruit-knife on it. For oranges an orange-spoon should also be laid on the plate. When a cereal is the first course, the porridge bowls or saucers should be at each plate.
Arrange the cups and saucers, sugar-bowl, cream-jug, and other necessaries at the end of the table where the mistressof the house sits. At the other end place the carvers and lay the heavy mat for the hot dish the master of the house is to serve. See that there are tablespoons, salt-cellars, and pepper-cruets, and the call-bell on the table, a salt and pepper to every two persons, the tablespoons at the corners of the table, the call-bell near the mistress's hand.
Return to kitchen and prepare breakfast. Cut bread, fill glasses, and bring in butter the last thing. Do not announce the meal until everything is ready to serve. Put on a clean apron to wait on table.
While the family is eating the last course of breakfast go to the bedrooms, strip the beds, turn the mattresses, hang the bedclothing over chairs, and leave it to air while going over the floors with a carpet-sweeper. Empty soiled water in bedrooms.
Go down-stairs and have your own breakfast. Clear the table, scrape dishes and put them in water. Return tosecond floor, make beds, dust and clean bath-room.
Wash and put away dishes. Rinse out dish-towels and put them over to boil. See what is in the pantry and refrigerator. Wipe off the shelves of pantries and refrigerator every day. Scald out ice-box three times a week. Clean and fill lamps.
Go now to any special work, such as sweeping, washing windows, or general cleaning. Stop this in time to prepare luncheon. Set the table for this meal as you did for breakfast. Be sure that the dining-room has been well aired and that there is no odor of stale food left from breakfast. Observe the same rules as at breakfast about serving butter, bread, and water.
After luncheon clear table, darken dining-room, and finish any small duties that have been left over from the morning. Plan your work so as to have only light tasks in the afternoon.
Change your dress, brush your hair,put on a fresh cap and a clean apron, and be ready to wait on the door. If afternoon tea is to be served at five o'clock, make the tray ready and carry it in at the proper hour. Start to get dinner in time so that there will not be a rush at the last moment. If possible, arrange the preparations so that the cooking can safely be left half an hour before dinner-time in order to set the table.
Spread on the thick "silence cloth" smoothly and lay the table-cloth over it evenly and without a wrinkle. Place the centre-piece in the middle of the table with the vase of flowers or jardinière on it, lay a carving-cloth in front of the master of the house, with the carvers. If a mat is used under the meat dish, put it in place. At the other end of the table lay the soup-ladle. At each place there should be a service plate with the knife and soup-spoon to the right of this, with the tumbler and napkin; the fork or forks, if more than one will be needed, at the left. If butteris served at dinner, the bread-and-butter plate may be at the left. If not, a piece of bread, cut thick, may be laid on the napkin. In most households it is customary to give a clean napkin at dinner. This should be folded plainly. The tablespoons, salts, peppers, and call-bell should be in place as at other meals. If such articles as olives, salted nuts, and the like are used, they should be on the table before dinner is served. When soup is the first course the soup-plates may be put on the service plates and the tureen be placed in front of the mistress before dinner is announced. In houses where gongs or bells are not used, the maid comes to the door of the room where the mistress is seated and announces, "Dinner is served."
If you have not dressed earlier, change your waist just before announcing dinner.
After the soup is served, dish the rest of the dinner and be ready to bring it in when the soup has been eaten. Take out the tureen first, then the soup-plates,carrying out two at a time, one in each hand. Carry in all the hot dinner-plates at once, put them on the serving-table, and as you take up a service plate from the table put a hot dinner-plate in its place. Bring in the meat dish first and put it in front of the carver, and then bring in the vegetable dishes and place them on the serving-table or dinner-wagon. Pass meat and vegetables and see that every one has bread and that the glasses are filled. Return to the kitchen and wash the silver and china of the first course.
When clearing the table after this course, take out the meat and vegetables first and then the soiled plates. If salad is to be served next, put down a salad-plate in place of the dinner-plate removed. Set the oil and vinegar cruets and the bowl for mixing the salad-dressing in front of the hostess, and pass the salad first and afterwards the dressing. The dishes of the preceding course may be washed during the salad course.
If a sweet comes next or in place of a salad course, clear the table, removing salts and peppers, unused silver, and everything except glasses. Brush off the crumbs into a plate with a folded napkin, take off and fold the carving-cloth. Put the plates and finger-bowls on the table. Bring in the sweet. When this has been finished, take out the dish that has held it, remove the soiled plates, and bring in the coffee.
Return to the kitchen, have your own dinner, and finish washing the dishes. By this time the family will have left the table. Clear this, remove the cloth, folding it in the creases, put away the china, and darken the room. Finish putting the kitchen in order for the night.
On Monday morning rise early enough to get a good start at the washing. Any work of this sort that can be done before breakfast is just so much clear gain. Proceed with other work as on other days, except that the dusting of the rooms and the care of the chambers willprobably be assumed by the mistress. Wash the sheets and other heavy pieces early in the day in order that they may have a chance to dry. Do the flannels early and follow them with the fine clothes. The second water from the flannels may be used for the first rinsing of the cotton clothes. If the worst-soiled pieces can be put in soak overnight it will lessen the labor on Monday morning.
On Tuesday morning it is also well to get an early start in order to make a good beginning on the ironing. The same rule of early rising will be found helpful when there is any piece of extra work to be accomplished. A prompt beginning gives time for rest in the latter part of the day.
Rise at six o'clock and be down-stairs by six-thirty. Open draughts of furnace and put on a little coal. Fill thekettle and put the cereal over the fire. Make ready the materials for the breakfast. When the furnace fire has come up put on more coal and close draughts. Open the windows of the cellar, air the pantry, and see that the kitchen is in good order, the stove blacked, etc. After the family and the kitchen breakfast inspect the contents of the pantries and refrigerator and plan with the mistress for the best use that can be made of left-overs. If soup is to be made it should be put over now, and desserts that are to be served cold should be prepared. The ice-box must be scoured out with hot water and soda three times a week, the shelves of the pantry and the refrigerator wiped off every day.
Each morning see what is wanted in the way of groceries and other provisions, and make a list of what is lacking, to be handed to the mistress before she goes to market. After the luncheon and dinner are planned there will probablybe time to do a little work outside of the kitchen before the hour for making ready for luncheon. Never be behindhand in such preparations so that the waitress is delayed in serving. Keep the luncheon hot after it comes from the table, and have the kitchen table set ready for the maids.
In the afternoon there is usually time for resting and changing the dress. The beginnings of the dinner should be made in season and the utensils used should, as far as possible, be washed as fast as they are done with in order to prevent a clutter of work when the meal is over. Wash the pots and pans in which the dinner is cooked as soon as the food is out of them. Scalding water should be put into a vessel as soon as you have finished using it. Scald out towels and fish and jelly cloths as soon as you have done with them. Keep the sink clean, and wash it out thoroughly after each meal.
Rise at six o'clock and be down-stairs at six-thirty. Open and air the rooms on the first floor, brush off the steps, sweep out the halls, and brush down the stairs. Brush up the drawing-room or go over the floor with a carpet-sweeper, wipe up the hard-wood floors, and dust the rooms. If the woodwork is painted, spots must be wiped from it. Take hot water up to bedrooms half to three-quarters of an hour before breakfast, according to directions previously given by mistress. Wait on table during the early part of the meal. Pass the fruit, offering it from the left side. Take off fruit-plates from the right side, putting porridge service in the place of the plate removed. Offer porridge, as sugar and cream, from the left side, remove soiled porridge service from right side, putting hot plate in its place. Offer other dishes from left side, or if the plate is served by the carver, put it in front of the guest from right side. Place cup andsaucer on the right, offer sugar and cream from the left.
When dismissed after the service of breakfast, go up-stairs to the bedrooms and proceed with them as directed previously in duties of "General-Housework Maid." Have breakfast when summoned by cook, clear table, and prepare dishes for washing. Return to the bedrooms, finish the work there and in the bath-room, and then wash dishes, put them away, and despatch other work of the dining-room. See if silver needs cleaning and that table-linen is in order. Polish brasses, rub off furniture, wash windows, or attend to other work of this sort. Make butter-balls for the next meal. Clean and fill lamps.
Set table for lunch according to previous directions. Wait as at breakfast. Be careful that no glass is allowed to become empty, and keep a watch on the plate of each guest, offering to replenish it as it is emptied.
After luncheon clear the table beforegoing to luncheon in the kitchen. Wash dishes and dress for the afternoon, requesting the cook to answer the bell while you are in your room. Be in readiness to attend the door during the afternoon. Make the tray ready for tea at five o'clock, and carry it in at the appointed hour without waiting for the order. If the salad is in your care, prepare it in time and see that the mayonnaise, if this is needed, is made in season. Set the table according to directions already given. At dusk draw down the shades and light gas and lamps in hall and drawing-room.
In passing the soup do not use a tray, but put the soup-plate down in front of each guest, from the right. Remove the soup-plate from the right, leaving the service plate untouched. When the hot dinner-plates are brought in, take up the service plate, substituting the dinner-plate. Bring the meat to the table first, then place the vegetables on the serving-table. Stand back of the carver,a little to the left. Take each plate as he serves it and put it down in front of the guest, from the right. Pass vegetables, etc., from the left. Follow the same plan as has been outlined earlier in serving salad, sweets, and coffee.
Should you be expected to remain in the dining-room throughout the meal, the soiled dishes must remain untouched until after dinner. If you are permitted to wait in the pantry, many of the soiled dishes can be washed during the meal.
When coffee has been served, go up to the chambers, remove spreads, shams, etc., turn down beds, and close the blinds. Come down to your own dinner, and then clear the table, wash the dishes, and put the dining-room in order for the night. Be ready to answer the bell during the evening. About ten o'clock take iced water to the chambers. If up later than the members of the family, turn out lights and lock up.
THE END