Onceevery week your silver should be thoroughly polished.
First clean with electro-silicon, or any perfectly smooth powder, mixed with a little alcohol and water. Rub with soft cloths or chamois, and use a soft brush where necessary. Sometimes it is impossible to get all the powder out of tracery and filigree work. In that case hold under boiling water and dry quickly.
If you have a Vienna coffee-pot, Benares brass trays, or similar articles to clean, rub first with electro-silicon and a mixture of one-half lemon juice and one-half water, then polish with hard silver rouge.
To keep the polish of your tables in order, have a mixture of one-half turpentine and one-half olive oil. Wash the wood with clearwater, or water in which a little borax has been dissolved. Never rub soap on polished wood. Rub a little of the oil and turpentine on with a flannel cloth. Polish with a clean flannel.
Dining-roomlamps are either a source of great pleasure or of perpetual torment.
Any one who washes dishes according to the directions given will not have to be told to have always a spotless chimney and no oil on the outside of jars.
To prevent oil from oozing over the top of the burner, turn the wick down after the light is out.
Rubthe wicks, do notcutthem. A new wick must be started right. Loose threads should be clipped off to start with, but when once in shape the necessity for clipping will be very rare. A wick ought to be put in several hours before using, so that it may be thoroughly saturated with oil. When a lamp has been burned, if one part is a little higherthan the other parts it will char first, and, when well charred, can be rubbed off to the level of the rest. A bit of soft paper, a nailbrush, or, best of all, the unbroken finger of a glove, will do this successfully.
Be sure that no bit of charred wick or burned fly or moth is left in the lower part of the burner. There is danger of these igniting and setting fire to the oil in the reservoir. A clean, unbroken lamp is not dangerous.
If a lamp has been left standing with a little oil in, it should not be lighted until filled and the burner carefully wiped. It is possible that gas may have formed, making the lamp, as it stands, unsafe to light before refilling.
To start the circular wick of a large lamp, like the Rochester, put a new wick in the burner, and saturate thoroughly with oil that part of the wick that is above the burner, which is best done by holding wick and edge of burner upside down in a shallow cup of oil. Put the burner in the lamp, but haveno oilin the lamp. Light the wick and put the chimneyon. Let the oil burn out of the wick. This method chars the wick so that it can be rubbed down to a smooth, even surface. Started rightly, a wick can be kept even. The objection to this is the odor from the burning wick; but the time necessary to do it is short, and an open window can be arranged without having enough draught to break the chimney.
When a lamp is first lighted, leave the flame low until the metal of the burner is heated, then turn as high as possible without smoking. This secures a clear, steady flame.
To clean burners, boil in water in which sal soda has been dissolved. Put one teaspoonful to each quart of water.
To prevent chimneys from cracking, put them before using into a large pan and cover them with cold water. Bring the water slowly to a boil. Take the pan off of the fire and let the chimneys cool slowly in the water.
If the brass catches of a burner are too tight, the chimney will break as it expandswith the heat. These catches are easily loosened without injuring the lamp.
Alcohol lamps for kettles and chafing-dishes must be kept perfectly clean. The wicks must sometimes be renewed before they are burned out. The question, What is the matter with the lamp? may often be solved by putting a fresh wick in the place of one that has become clogged.
This is very often true of oil lamps. There is more or less paraffine in oil, which fills the wick and prevents combustion.
Thechair placed for a carver must be high enough to allow the work to be done comfortably without the carver being obliged to stand. The platter must be large enough to hold the entire joint or bird when carved, without any piece falling over the edge of the platter. A waitress should make sure before placing a dish in front of the carver that the platter is really hot; if it is not the dish gravy will become chilled, and consequently unfit for use, before it can be served.
See that no string or skewer is left to annoy the carver. The silver skewers sent to table intentionally are, of course, excepted. The platter must be placed near enough to the carver to prevent awkwardness or the necessity of moving the dish. In serving large birds,as goose or turkey, place the head always to the left. If smaller birds, as partridge or grouse, which are placed across the platter, let the heads be on the farther side. A saddle of mutton should be placed with the tail end to the left of the carver. A haunch of venison or mutton, with the loin or backbone nearest the carver. A leg of mutton or lamb, or a knuckle of veal, with the thickest part towards the back of the platter. A shoulder of mutton or veal, with the thickest part up. A rib roast or a sirloin roast should be placed with the backbone at the right end of the platter. A rump roast, with the backbone at the farther side of the platter. A round of beef, with the flesh side up. A sirloin beefsteak, with the tenderloin next to the carver. A fillet of beef, with the thickest end at the right end of the platter. A calf’s head, with face to the right. A roast pig, with head to the left. A roast ham, with the thickest part on the farther side of the platter.
A waitress should know how to carve. Thefirst steps may be learned by cutting bread and slicing pressed meats. To do these two things perfectly, one must acquire a steady hand and a straight eye. Slices must be of uniform thickness, thin enough to be delicate, not thin enough to break. There must be no ragged edges. From the slicing of cold meats to the slicing of a rolled roast or other meats from which the bones have been taken is not a great step if the knife be in perfect condition. Enough confidence will have been gained to grasp the slicer firmly and slice quickly and firmly across the roast.
Further than this it will not be well to go without some object lessons, for the meats are not the only things to be considered; the knives must be kept from injury.
When you have placed a rib roast properly, watch the carver. Study the different positions of the knife and fork, as he puts the fork in the middle and cuts down to the ribs close to the backbone. The thick gristle near the backbone will be next cut off. Then from theside nearest the carver will be cut thin, even slices parallel with the ribs, and the knife run under them, separating them from the bone. The sirloin roast will be sliced in the same way, a cut being made at the flank end as well as near the backbone to separate the slices.
You will notice that a good carver is careful to serve neatly the crisp fat with the rare slices. This adds richness to their flavor.
To carve a beefsteak, the eye must be trained to know at once the best parts, and all of the best should not be served to one or two persons. First cut out the tenderloin close to the bone and cut it into long, narrow pieces, then cut the other part from the bone and cut into strips. Serve a part of each, and serve the fat to those who prefer it.
To carve a leg of mutton or lamb, or knuckle of veal, put the fork in the top, turn it towards you and cut slices through to the bone, slip the knife under and cut them away from the bone. The under side may be sliced in the same manner.
A saddle of mutton must be carved with the grain of the meat, in long, thin slices from each side of the back. It must be partly turned over to reach the tenderloin and kidney fat.
The leg and saddle of venison are carved in the same way as the leg and saddle of mutton. When the leg and loin are served together, the loin should be carved before the leg. First cut off the flank and cut it in pieces, then separate the ribs and afterwards carve the leg.
It will be better not to attempt to carve a forequarter of mutton, lamb, or veal until this part has been studied uncooked and the joints learned. The same advice applies to birds, large and small.
To carve a forequarter, put the carving-fork in firmly near the knuckle. Cut all around the leg and up on the shoulder. Lift the leg from the shoulder and cut till you reach the joint. Cut through this joint, then from left to right, separating the lower from the upper part of the breast. Take out the blade, if ithas not already been removed, divide the ribs, and then slice the leg if it be required.
Roast ham should be cut from the thickest part down to the bone, in thin slices, the fat and crust being served with each slice.
In carving tongue, the tip or thinnest part should be cut lengthwise. The centre is the finest part.
Before trying to carve poultry, study the joints of the uncooked birds. When you find a joint and cut the cord and gristle, a leg or a wing is free. To find a side bone or a collar bone is not easy at first, but can be learned by a little practice.
Watch the rapid manipulations of a good carver. Remember that to carve a roast chicken or turkey, you remove first the leg, then the wing, from one side, then the leg and wing from the other side, separating the joints. Then carve the breast on each side; next take off the wishbone, separate the collar bones and shoulder blades, separate the breastbone from the back, then the back from the body, andthen the side bones. In large birds the second joints and legs should be carved in at least two pieces.
The breast of a roast goose and of a roast duck should be cut parallel to the breastbone.
Small birds, when not served whole, may be cut from the neck to the end of the breast and down through the backbone.
To carve a large partridge, cut off the leg and wing from one side, then from the other; leg and wing should be served together. Remove the breast from the back and cut it through the middle. When the birds are smaller, serve one half of a bird to each person.
In carving fish, learn to serve neatly and leave the backbone on the platter. Carve to the bone, and serve. Remove the bone to one side and carve the lower half.
A carver should try not only to serve each person acceptably, but to leave the meat on the platter in appetizing form for a second helping.
Finecarvers should be treated with the same respect as fine razors. They should be laid always by themselves. On no account should the edge of one carver touch that of another carver, nor should it touch any other hard substance.
A carver must always be sharpened on its steel before it is offered for use, unless a contrary direction is given, and when necessary should be taken without delay to the shop of a careful workman to have the edge renewed.
It is safest to replace carvers in their own cases. When they are laid in a drawer, it is well to keep each one in its own simple case of heavy gray flannel.
Theair of a dining-room must be fresh, and not too warm. Furniture must be free from dust. Table-cloths must be laid straight and smooth. Side-tables must be draped. Napkins must be folded simply, and not in fanciful shapes, as fans, etc. The edge of a knife must be turned towards the plate; bowls of spoons and tines of forks turned up. Knives and spoons must be placed at the right of a plate; forks at the left. Place knives and forks in the order in which they are to be used; the first one used, on the outside.
All glasses must be placed at the right.
Napkins and bread-and-butter plates must be placed at the left.
Carvers, fish-slice and fork, etc., should be laid on a side-table until needed, then placedquietly and quickly, the knife at the right of the platter, and the fork at the left.
Extra plates, glasses, knives, forks, and spoons should be in readiness on the side-board.
Such things as mustard, vinegar, etc., which may be wanted, should be in readiness on the side-table or in the pantry.
Filtered water, ice, and extra bread or rolls should always be at hand in the pantry during a meal.
Bread must be freshly cut.
Water must be fresh and cool.
Butter must not be served so soon as to become soft.
A waitress is responsible for the proper heating of dishes before they are brought to the table.
A meal must not be announced until everything is ready which is or may be needed.
Everything not too large to rest comfortably upon a serving-tray should be handed from it.
Any dish from which a person at tablehelps himself should be offered at the left. Any dish which the waitress serves should be placed at the right.
Glasses for water must be kept filled.
In removing a course, food must be first taken; then soiled china, glass, silver, and cutlery; then clean china, glass, silver, and cutlery; then carving-cloths, and lastly crumbs.
Soiled plates and dishes should be removed from the right.
To remove a carving-cloth, fold it quickly together and lift to tray.
Everything relating only to one course must be removed before serving another course.
Plates and dishes must never be piled together so that china rests on pieces of silver.
Work in pantry must be as nearly noiseless as possible.
A waitress must not leave the dining-room until she is sure that there is nothing more for her to do.
Before a girl is an “expert” in waiting she must learn:
To stand straight.
To step lightly and quickly.
To dress neatly.
To keep tidy hair, clean teeth, and clean finger-nails.
To close a door without noise.
To take proper care of a dining-room, pantry, silver, brass, lamps, and polished wood.
To handle dishes and silver in a quiet manner.
To carry dishes without having them touch her dress.
To treat carvers with as much respect as if they were razors.
To sharpen carvers.
To remove crumbs.
To cut bread.
To make butter balls.
To dress salads.
To make sandwiches.
To make coffee, tea, and chocolate.
To serve wines.
Daintymeals are served in a great many houses where there is neither time nor inclination for the number of courses which are considered necessary at other tables. Perfection of serving, that is, perfect comfort, should be aimed at as much in one case as in the other. There should be absolute cleanliness and noiseless movement. Meals should be ready on time, and there should be no occasion to wait for things that ought to be close at hand. Time may be gained without causing confusion, if proper thought be given beforehand to the serving of each particular dish. Instead of passing a fish sauce, it may, in many cases, be put on the platter with the fish, so that the carver serves some of it with each helping. Meat gravies may be put onthe table to be passed from one to another without the help of the waitress. When this is done the waitress should select two suitable gravy boats or bowls, see that they are properly heated and not filled too full. When she has brought hot plates to the carver she may bring the gravy boats, put one near one end of the table and another near the other end. This may be done so quickly that she will be ready to take the first plate which the carver has ready for her. The same rule applies to pudding sauces. Instead of one large bowl or dish, two pretty, smaller ones may be selected and put on the table immediately after the pudding has been placed before the hostess. Pickles and other relishes may be served in two or more small dishes and put at convenient distances along the table.
A dinner-table is much more attractive with a handsome plate before each person as he or she is seated; but where time and space are limited, the cold plate may be dispensed with.
The proper placing of a side-table makes every difference in the serving of a meal. A small table at each end of the room is often desirable. This gives a proper place to put down a vegetable or other dish, without walking the length of the room, when the waitress needs to take a plate to the carver for a second helping. This table may hold whatever extras may be needed by the hostess for the dishes which she serves, as the table near the host holds extra carvers, etc., which he may need. These tables must be used with discretion, and no unsightly dish, which should be at once carried to the pantry, must be allowed to remain on them. Their object, like that of the dinner wagon described in “Care of Dining-Room,” is simply to lessen time between courses and to help a waitress to pass vegetables before meats have grown cold.
The best serving is often most appreciated where there are not the conveniences necessary for carrying out rules which at first sight seem very simple. To remove the dishes froma dinner of even five or six courses, according to the directions given, it is necessary to have a pantry large enough to put down the dishes as they are taken from the table, without piling one upon the other. This takes a good deal of space. The one waitress has no assistant to take from her hand and deftly separate knives, forks, and spoons from plates and dishes, piling all in a compact manner. It is necessary, therefore, that she should exercise her very best common-sense.
If the pantry opens into a roomy, well-ventilated kitchen, by a swing door which makes no noise, then a large table may be placed in the kitchen so that an extra step or two will make possible the putting down of all dishes for which there is no room in the pantry. Where this is not possible, some means must be devised for gathering together the dishes with the least possible confusion. One way to do it is the following:
When a course is finished take a suitable tray for soiled dishes; go to the right of eachperson to remove the dishes, beginning at any convenient place at the table. After a cereal course, place a dish on your tray and quickly, without any noise, lay the spoon by the side of it on your tray. Put the next dish on the top of the one you have already taken and the spoon by the other spoon. When you have taken dishes and spoons, take plates, piling one above another on your tray.
If there are few people at table, you may take all at once; if there are more, you must judge for yourself how many times to go. Follow this rule: Never pile dishes on a tray in a manner to look disagreeable to yourself or to those who sit at table.
Salad and dessert plates you may remove as you do cereal dishes, putting forks or spoons on the tray by the side of the plates.
After a meat course, go to the right, holding your tray in your left hand near enough to let no particles of food fall upon the table. Take the knife and fork at the same time in your right hand, lay the knife on one side of yourtray and the fork on the other side. As you go around the table in this way put all the knives together on one side and the forks on the other. Carry the knives and forks to the pantry. Next take the plates. Put one above another on your tray until you have taken three or four from the table. Proceed in this manner until all are removed.
A waitress will do well to make herself acquainted as soon as possible with the proper way of serving other courses than those of the simple dinner. She should know how to serve oysters and clams cold on the half-shell, or to see that the oyster plates are thoroughly chilled without being cracked. She should know the different sauces and the correct manner of serving. For instance, if game be served without a sauce, she may offer dressed celery or lettuce to be taken on the same plate. If a hot sauce and a salad are both served, she will provide an extra plate for the salad. She should learn the correct temperature for wines, as well as the glasses in which they belong,and various other details necessary to be attended to during a full dinner.
Many things may be learned by cheerfully assisting the caterer who serves an occasional dinner in the household, or by taking a position where a part of the parlor maid’s duty is to assist an experienced butler; or, in many houses, the mistress herself will kindly give the necessary instruction.
A waitress who has become competent may arrange and serve special meals, delegating the work done formerly with a caterer to assistants under her. She must be careful not to attempt more than she can safely perform, and then carry out her plan with quiet confidence in her own ability. Except in case of an accident which she cannot remedy, she should not speak to the hostess, who should be left perfectly free to entertain her guests without a care about the food which they are eating. All doubts should be settled before the lady of the house goes to her room to dress for dinner. A waitress, however competent, must consult those whomshe serves upon the special way of having many things done. She must know how to sharpen carvers, but she must not try her hand upon new ones without finding out whether the host prefers to handle them entirely himself; this question to be asked, of course, before laying the table. The special form of serving boiled eggs should also be settled, and the question of serving cheeses whole or broken.
Cheeses of the pineapple and Eadam varieties should be cut so that the top will fit again closely and exclude the air. To preserve perfectly a section cut from any large cheese, it should be kept wrapped in a napkin or piece of cheese cloth wrung out of cider vinegar. Rhine wine will answer the same purpose, but the vinegar will not leave an objectionable trace. Cheese should always be served on a folded napkin, for the reason that it is more or less oily and looks pleasanter on the napkin than on the plate.
The crisp green salad, with its accompanimentof a red or golden cheese, is one of the most agreeable courses of the dinner, and no unsightly crumbs should be left on the cloth before it is served.
A carving-cloth should not be folded on the table. The corners may be turned deftly together and the cloth removed to a tray on which it may be carried to the pantry, to be folded later.
When a number are at table, only a part of the plates should be put before the carver at one time; but the others must be ready on a near side-table.
By learning to make dainty paper frills for lamb chops or for the bone of a ham, and by studying simple garnishings of fresh parsley, celery tips, and lemon, pleasant effects may be produced and a reputation for taste and skill acquired. The same dish may be served in a variety of ways, one of which may tempt the appetite where others have failed. Instead of serving chicken salad in a plain dish at luncheon, it may be put in cups made by removingthe pulp from solid red tomatoes, and each tomato placed on a bed of green lettuce leaves.
One is always pleased by a novelty, that is, after the more substantial part of a meal is finished, and a waitress who becomes an artist in her especial line may not only give a great deal of pleasure to others, but keep herself from getting tired of the daily routine. If she wishes to raise her work above the level of mere drudgery, she will study to see how she can improve each day upon the work of the day before.
Nothing should ever be done because Mrs. X’s butler does so and so, or because Mrs. Y’s maid says she saw it done like this in England. Every good rule has a good reason for its foundation; every rule which has not a good reason for being should be replaced by a better one.
There are good reasons for serving the lady of the house first, although this rule is often waived to do honor to the distinguished guestfor whom a luncheon or dinner is given. In a country-house several distinguished people or dear friends are entertained at one time; to serve the hostess first and follow a regular order along the table makes no distinction. Novelties are often introduced, both in food and in service. Dishes are served before which a guest hesitates as to which fork or which spoon to use until he glances at his hostess to see which one she takes up.
Not every one who travels goes to the East, and not every one who goes to the East is entertained by Eastern dignitaries and brings Eastern customs home. When a lady does dispense with finger-bowls and follows the custom of a Grand Pacha in having passed to her guests a large silver bowl of rose water, in which each one in turn is expected to dip the tips of the fingers and wipe them on a pearl-fringed towel, she need not be surprised if the first guest, seeing this bowl of rare workmanship presented at her left hand, looks about on the tray for some spoon or ladle bywhich she is to help herself to the pale beverage. If the bowl be handed first to the hostess and she follows the custom of the Grand Pacha, no guest need betray that she was not brought up in the house of a Grand Pacha herself.
A hostess who takes pride in having her forks made to suit special courses, like asparagus, and who has several forks laid by each plate before dinner is served, finds it necessary to take up the right one before her guests make a choice. I have in mind a dinner where the hostess delayed the tasting of a course, the absent-minded host took the wrong fork, some guests took one and some another. The butler did his best to replace the right ones; but after all his efforts, somebody had a wrong fork to the end of the dinner.
A waitress should remember, when going into a new family, that some things, which seem novel to her and only to be done away with, may be old-established family customs, to which she must adapt herself if she is togive satisfaction. If she finds that pease, tomatoes, and other vegetables are served in a semi-liquid state instead of the drier one to which she has been accustomed, she must use the small dishes provided, remembering that the rule, “all vegetables are to be eaten from the dinner plate,” is not accepted by all housekeepers, although it is by a great number. So, if fish knives are provided, she need not feel that she is offending against good manners, even if she has seen only forks used before.
However, there are some things which a little true tact and management might alter for the benefit of all concerned. I knew one table where many well-cooked dishes and many delicate desserts were served, at which the relishes were something startling. Spanish peppers, stuffed and pickled, I had been used to see cut in small pieces and served from a pickle dish. At this table a whole stuffed Spanish pepper was served to each person in a small dish which held some of the vinegar as well as the pepper.
An improvement upon this is the serving of olives in small dishes to each person, although it is hard to realize how any one at a well-served dinner would care to eat a relish as if it were a vegetable. Those who are fond of olives think them very, very good, and those who do not like them think they are horrid; but it would seem better to lunch off of them when alone, and not neglect for one flavor the many flavors prepared for enjoyment during a well-thought-out dinner.
A waitress with good health, a fair amount of brains, and a determination to be a better waitress than any woman was before, has a great field before her. But if she aspires to raise waiting to the dignity of a profession, she must study; she must educate her eye to know the difference between a line that is exactly straight and one that is slightly askew; she must train her memory until the daily routine is perfectly easy and she can give thought to decoration and invention; she must educate her hands until they are to be trustedwith the care of the frailest glass and china, and educate her sense of smell and of taste until she can suit each salad dressing to the dinner of which it forms a part, making it rich or piquant, as the other dishes demand.
In one of our largest cities I have been shown a large kitchen which had been fitted up next to an employment bureau for the training of partially trained cooks and waitresses. The teacher had been dismissed, the cooking utensils and the range were for sale. “Why?” “Because the ladies would not give their maids any time to come and learn.” I have no doubt that this was true; but there are plenty of ladies who do wish their maids to learn, and if those who have opportunities for improvement will make the most of those opportunities, they will raise the standard of work, and inspire their co-workers who are now willing to stay as they are and let well enough alone.
Inorder to do any work in the best manner it is necessary that one should be strong and well. To become strong and to keep well some simple rules must be understood and carefully followed. One may be blessed with good health, but no constitution can stand the strain made upon it when the ways and means for preventing fatigue and disease are disregarded.
To keep good health it will be necessary to form carefully and to continue steadily nice habits of personal cleanliness.
Personal cleanliness includes more than keeping the skin and the hair, the nails and the teeth, clean. It includes keeping one’s sleeping-room sweet and fresh, and airing the bed thoroughly every morning. To spreadup a bed a few minutes after one is out of it may give to the room an air of neatness, but it folds into the bedding the close air of the night instead of letting it all go out of the window, to be replaced by the freshness of the morning.
And cleanliness means more than a clean gown and clean collar and cuffs. One of the first things for a waitress to consider is her supply of underclothing. She will see the necessity of fresh print dresses for morning work, and a neat dark costume for afternoons; but she may be thoughtless at first about underclothing. Yet to keep clean, and by keeping clean to promote good health, nothing is more important than to be able to change underclothing whenever she feels the need of doing so. And in clothing, stockings are an important item. It is restful to change shoes, but more restful to change both shoes and stockings. The warm, tired foot is very grateful for the clean, smooth stocking before it begins its rounds about the evening dining-table.
Slippers or low shoes for house wear must be thoroughly comfortable, and shoes for out-of-doors must give a firm support to the feet, and at the same time protect them from the wet and the cold. To buy cheap shoes is not real economy. A shoe to be worth buying should be well made and fit comfortably. Such a shoe will outwear two or three pairs of the cheap ones which are showy but poorly made.
To preserve health it is very important to have a sufficient amount of sleep. Girls sometimes say that they need only a little sleep, and are never tired except just before they get up in the morning. But one ought not to feel tired in the morning just before getting up. Sleep should be long enough to refresh both mind and body, and care should be taken to insure the necessary amount.
It may seem at first as if regulation of hours is beyond the control of one who is serving other persons; but in this, as in many other things, much depends upon the workerand the manner in which she performs her work. If hours of waiting are ended early she must go to bed early, for she will be required to be up betimes in the morning. If she has to wait late at night it is not likely that she will be required to be up too early in the morning, provided, her work is carefully done after she is up. If she loses health and strength because of too little sleep it will sometimes be on account of sitting up late, as many say they do, to read exciting novels; or, when she has evenings out, crowding as much exercise and excitement into one evening as ought to go to the enjoyment of a dozen.
It is said, too, that the matter of meals is beyond control; but this is often not so. Many a lady has taken the greatest pains to arrange proper meals for the maids in her employ, and has had them served at an earlier hour than those of the family. In this case a waitress does not have to stand with an empty stomach, passing food which makes her feel faint and ill, she scarcely knows why.The idea that a hasty meal taken at intervals from the remains of a late dinner is better than a plainer one nicely served and eaten at leisure is one of the greatest mistakes that can be made; yet it is constantly made by many of those to whom the choice is given of having meals before or after waiting upon the table.
Many employers are more than ready to arrange for the comfort of maids in this and in other matters. When they are not, it must be remembered that they have been too long and too sorely tried by ignorant and unappreciative help to hope at first that the new order of intelligent and thoroughly trained waitresses is going to be any better than those who have preceded them in the household.
With good health it is easier to break up bad habits and form better ones than when one has to give valuable time and attention to bodily ailments.
A habit too easily formed, and one which should be at once broken up, is that of listeningto what is said at table, instead of concentrating attention upon the waiting. Not that there is any harm in listening to good conversation, but if while listening one misses the softly spoken “Bread, please,” or “Will you fill my glass?” and has to be recalled by a repetition of the request by the mistress of the house, some marks have certainly been lost from a perfect record.
Elderly persons should not be neglected, but should be especially considered at meals. Often some little thing from the side-board, not cared for by the rest of the family, may be desired by them. A little forethought will provide the vinegar or celery salt or whatever it may be, and no unnecessary interruption to the meal need be made.
At breakfast and luncheon a, waitress may add much to every one’s comfort by keeping a watchful eye on the plates of the children. A hungry child is sometimes apparently unreasonable without wishing to be naughty. One child may be forbidden maple syrup onhis cereal and allowed sugar. If the sugar be not provided, and he sees the others eating the syrup which he loves but may not have, it is almost too much to expect that he will wait patiently until his needs are remembered.
Waiting is a department of woman’s work which is capable of being greatly improved and raised to a higher standard. The women who will improve this department are those who appreciate the necessity of good health, and who will use every means in their power to secure health and to keep it. They are women who will learn thoroughly the duties they have elected to perform. They will train hand and foot to do their instant bidding. They will train the eye so that nothing in the daily routine will be left undone, and so that nothing outside of it which may add to the general comfort will escape their notice.
Itmay be objected that the sick-room is not a place for the waitress—that the trained nurse is also the waitress of her patient. This is often true, for in cases of extreme illness it is many times unsafe to allow the confusion of voices with the noise of movement which accompanies the entrance of one unaccustomed to invalids. There are, however, numerous instances of transient illness or indisposition which are to be considered. If a little girl has had croup in the night, and must be kept in bed the next day, a nurse is not sent for; or if a boy goes swimming too early in the season, and has such a cold after it that he cannot get up, it will not be considered necessary to bring some one in from outside to take care of him. Then there are convalescents afteran illness, and elderly persons who perhaps two or three times a week may need to breakfast in bed. Enough cases to make it worth while for a waitress to consider as a part of her training the proper way to conduct herself in the sick-room.
The nearer she brings her work to perfection in other departments, the nearer perfection will she be in this.
The first thing to consider will be the nicety of her appearance and the absence of noise. If she has been out in the street to do an errand, she will on no account hasten to the sick-room with a tray before she has replaced by her soft shoes the heavier ones which may have a squeak in them. And she will at no time go hastily into a sick-room. She will open the door as softly as a nurse herself would do, and move as noiselessly when she is in the room. She will not express by her looks that she thinks a patient is worse than the day before, or say, in what she calls a whisper, as she goes out, “She looks a gooddeal paler,” or, “I really believe he is going to be down sick.”
The tray taken to an invalid should be studied as carefully as the table in the dining-room. A trained eye will let no spot or stain on the dining-room linen escape it; nor will a trained waitress fail to replace a spotted cloth by a fresh one. On a tray cloth a coffee stain or a fruit stain is not at all sure to escape notice because it is covered by a plate or a saucer. That plate or that saucer is the very one that will surely be lifted, and the stain will jar the sense of neatness, which grows more keen when one is shut in from all outside things which in health claim the attention.
Selection of china and glass is another important matter. A cup of one pattern set in a saucer of another pattern is an offence to the invalid’s eye, and to let a person suffering with pain put to his lips a glass with a piece chipped out of the edge is a cruelty.
In the service offered to an invalid the sameis true as of all other service. If it be done by rule and method, as if by the working of machinery that has no heart in it, it will fall far short of what it might easily be made by a little care and thoughtfulness. If, for instance, a chop—which it is well understood the patient must eat plain—be served with a little bunch of cress, the fresh green feeds the eye, and the invalid is conscious that thought has been given to her pleasure as well as to her needs. A whole train of sad and weary thoughts has been changed by one cheerful yellow pansy hastily dropped on a tray so that it lay smiling between a cup and a cream jug.
A waitress who cares how she does her work in the sick-room and out of it will soon find that the attention she gives is appreciated. It will not be long before china closets which have been locked will be opened, old glass will be brought out for occasional use, and great pleasure expressed by its owners that it is again possible to have it handled without fear of its being destroyed. Thiscare bestowed upon inanimate things is one indication of a truthful character, and the waitress will find herself treated, not like one who must be watched and in a sense suspected, but with the confidence which is her right, and which will give her the sense of being an individual, not merely part of the household machinery.
When confidence in her is once established there are many ways by which it will be expressed. She will be asked to execute little commissions given only to one who can be thoroughly relied upon. She may be left in charge of the house, with the direction of other workers under her, or she may be asked to go to the country-house to direct and assist in its arrangement before the family take up their summer residence there.
All this will give variety to what otherwise might be in danger of becoming a trifle monotonous; but it is not the variety which is the greatest advantage. It is the fact that she is not a mere worker, not a machine whichmay do its work with absolute exactness, never losing a minute, and always being in its own place. She will do her work with exactness, and may be relied upon like a machine; but she will also use her power to help, to suggest, and to put in motion forces outside of herself and her routine.
When the best relationship has been established between employers and those who are employed, the question of change will assume a very different aspect. Questions which ordinarily make an end of any contract entered into will be simply the subject of explanation, or at the most of arbitration, and although others may come and go, the waitress will stay on year after year.
When she does decide to go she will leave with regret what has been to her really a home, and, on the part of her employer, the most genuine regret will be felt and expressed. Great interest will be taken in all that concerns her future welfare, gifts will be prepared by each member of the household,the wedding will be made merry, and good wishes will follow her to the new home, where it will be hoped that she may have as much comfort as she has given to others during her years of faithful work as a waitress.
A waitressshould be truthful in spirit, as well as truthful regarding the letter of her contract. We are told sometimes that this is impossible; that it is necessary to tell some falsehoods in order to secure a good place, or to keep one after being in it for a time. But this is not so. An expert waitress need never be without a place, and she need never stay in a place for lack of another after real difficulties have arisen in her way.
How do I know this? Because perfect service never goes a-begging, and if her work is perfect there will always be a demand for it. Think of our servants of the public—the clergy and the doctors. Does a minister who satisfies his congregation ever lack a congregation? Does a successful doctor have to driveabout looking for patients? We know very well that he does not; we know that his office is crowded day after day. How did he come to be successful? First he studied, and then he practised, and when he began to practise he found that there were many things which he did not know. Was he content with the knowledge he had acquired? By no means. He studied more, and put the new knowledge into practice. How did he gain the entire confidence of the persons he serves? By doing well what he professed to do, and by being ready for any emergency. And this is what a waitress must do. First she must study, then she must practise, then she must study more and practise more, and she must be equal to emergencies.
If word comes to a doctor that a child has fallen down-stairs and broken its arm, does the doctor send back word that his hours are over and he cannot go to the child? And if an accident happens in the waitress’s department—if a piece of ceiling falls, for instance,when she is about to go up to bed—will she say that her hours are over, and some one else must clean up the mortar in the pantry? If the doctor thinks he is all through for the evening and another patient comes in, will he dismiss the late comer without a word? And if, after a table is all laid, an extra guest comes in, will the waitress fail to lay another cover quietly and quickly?
Yes, many will say, so many patients, so much money. But it is not so. The persons who take up a doctor’s time and try his patience almost beyond words are often those who have no idea of the value of his time, and who have no money to pay him for it.
When a maid calls herself a waitress she is not truthful unless she has studied her work until she is familiar with it, and this familiarity can come only after some amount of practice.
Truthfulness includes honesty, and to be honest means very much more than being above taking money or jewels which belongto others. To be true and honest in spirit is to have an intelligent care of whatever is put in a worker’s charge and which belongs to her department. It is not honest to let a beautiful damask cloth with a little rent in it go to the laundress without first reporting the rent to the owner of the cloth. It is not honest to let a fine carver rust for lack of attention at the proper time. It is not true that no gas is wasted when a gas stove is left partly turned on all night near an open window.
We have often heard that time is money. Now if one does not understand her work as she may understand it if she will study, she is constantly taking other people’s time, which we are told is other people’s money.
That all the world is not honest, that we are not always treated from the standpoint of strictly fair dealing, makes no difference to her. She is not other people, she is herself.
Among the men in one of our Eastern States whose business it is to lay stone wallsis one who has an especial talent for the work. Stones of any shape answer his purpose. He does not ask any direction, he does not have to make any measurements, or use any stakes or a line to lay his stones by. And in the whole State there are no such beautiful walls as this man lays. Does he ever have to tell a falsehood in order to get work? Does he ever talk about other persons interfering with him? Or does he need to care what other persons think? He does his work so much better than other men that it will always be sought. And although he has a special talent for it, he does not let that make him careless. His is true work, honest work, and so long as he keeps his health and there are stone walls to lay he need never rest with idle hands.
With regard to the privileges granted to workers it is not easy to lay down any set of rules that will meet the requirements of every household in the land. In some cities rules are in force to which the majority offamilies conform, and they seem to answer very well. But the needs of a family where there are little children differ from the needs of a family of adults. A larger number in a household will necessitate arrangements the need of which does not exist in one made up of a few members. In order to consult the varied tastes and arrange for the comfort of all, special hours must sometimes be considered, and it is not wise for a worker to start out by saying that she must have such and such times for her own. The time offered by the existing arrangements may be, if she will stop to think, much better for her.
It is important to comprehend exactly what is promised, so that there may be no mistake and no disappointment on either side. The time stipulated as belonging to a worker is certainly her own; the rest of her time as certainly belongs to the person to whom she has agreed to give it. But if her sister were going to be married, a girl would feel very grieved if she were not allowed to go to thewedding, and yet there was nothing said about the wedding when she promised her time. Will she realize the equal importance of the occasion if the lady of the house is obliged to ask her to give up one of her evenings because of some especial entertainment?
There is very little doubt about her securing the proper privileges with regard to outings. Something quite as important is that she should care about her sleeping accommodations. Ladies say that again and again they have taken pleasure in fitting up cosey rooms for the maids who were to do the work of the household, and they have been grievously disappointed to find that their efforts were not in the least appreciated. No care was taken to preserve order and neatness; in fact, carelessness had been so universal that they had lost all heart about it. What is needed is plenty of fresh air, with an opportunity to preserve thorough cleanliness, and no right-minded lady will fail to respect a maid who makes a point of claiming these privileges.
Where many privileges are not granted one is inclined to place the blame no more upon the employers than upon the employed, for I think we must all admit that, aside from some notable exceptions, waitresses have not so comported themselves as to make the persons they served take a keen interest in them.
When a reform is attempted there are always some rough places to be gotten over at first, some pioneer work to be done; but it is possible for a new order of waitresses to raise this department of women’s work to such a standard of excellence that there will be no need to ask for privileges; they will be granted without the asking.
Whena waitress has gone into a home, and has made a contract which is satisfactory to herself and to her employer, she will need to adapt herself to her new surroundings, as she must not expect that they will in all things adapt themselves to her.
The first thing to which she may have to adapt herself is the fact that she is not looked upon as a person in whom one can repose perfect confidence. But she must remember that waitresses of the old order have in many cases abused their position, that they have sent too much china and cut glass to the ash barrel for any owner of such valuable articles to consider these and other belongings safe in new hands.
A waitress will, if possible, go into a new home in the morning, and not attempt a dinneruntil she has had time to take the bearings of dining-room and pantry. While she is serving luncheon, and is going back and forth from the pantry, she need not be surprised if she hears a conversation something like this:
“The new waitress does very nicely, mamma.”
“Yes, a new broom sweeps clean, my dear.”
“But she looks as if she knew how to work.”
“She may know how; but I suppose she will be like all the rest. I have no faith in any of them any more.”
The new waitress need not be angry. She need not be even enough disturbed to let the blood rush into her cheeks, for she knows that she is competent and she can afford to bide her time.
She will make some haste with the luncheon dishes, for there is an important piece of work to be done before dinner. She will take out her memorandum-book, with its nicely sharpened pencil, and begin to make a list of all chipped china and glass and of all silver thatis marred. The lady of the house will be expecting questions, and should be asked to make this possible by showing where all pieces are kept which she wishes to have used. If objection be made, it is only necessary to say modestly but firmly that a contract which holds one responsible for all breakage makes it necessary that such a list should be made. The truth of this will at once be apparent and full opportunity given.
When finished, a copy of the list should be taken to the lady of the house, that she may compare it with the original and so avoid any mistake.
Next to making a list of the dishes should come a thorough study of the pantry. This it will not be possible to make all in one day. The new waitress will not be discouraged by anything that may be in the pantry, for what seems a defect the first day may prove a merit the next. Some things cannot be changed. The window, the sink, the shelves for dishes, are fixtures, and these are some ofthe things to which she must adapt herself. There are other things which may be made to adapt themselves to the new-comer.
When she finds something which she would like to have changed she should make a note of it, and not feel sure that she is right until she has tested it well. She should go on making notes until she has put down everything which in her judgment seems necessary. The list should then be well studied, and anything which cannot be remedied should be crossed off.
When she has been in the house long enough to know whether she is likely to please; when she has at least shown that she understands her business, she will show the list to her employer and tell her what things she would like to have in order to make her work more convenient. Possibly a lady may consider her pantry already perfect and be annoyed by any suggestion; but it is more than likely that she will be gratified to find that she has some one in her employ who really cares how and bywhat means the work is done. She will probably say that she is glad to see such a list; that the articles asked for she was careful to provide when she began her house-keeping, but she found they were neglected, broken, or thrown away. The list would probably be something like this:
Neat brass hooks for fresh white apron, brooms, and dusters.
Three new hand towels.
Zinc dish drainer.
Small towel rack.
Lamp in bracket, to throw light on dishes to be washed in the evening.
Two dozen towels for glass and fine china.
Two new salad cloths.
If the lady be a busy person she may imagine that some of these requests are unnecessary and therefore unreasonable; but she will go into the pantry to see what is already there. She will not be surprised to find her salad cloths with the silver cleaning materials, for she has had too much experience to be surprisedat anything. She will sort out the hand towels from the lamp cloths, and see that she needs new towels for silver and china. It is more than probable that the rack, the hook, and the drainer will be promised, although no time may be set for the fulfilment of the promise.
Now is the opportunity to prove that real thought has been given to the matter. The waitress should be ready to say, “To-morrow will be my afternoon out. If you like I will get the hooks; they will cost so many cents apiece. Where I get those I can get a small towel rack for so much. I have measured the sink and find that the drainer needs to be so long and so wide, and I know that the plumber three blocks away will make it for so much.” The amounts will be so small, while the convenience will be so apparent, that she will probably be commissioned to get them at once. She must be sure of her prices and in no case must she exceed them. She must not ask for one thing on one day and another thing on anotherday. All requests should be made at one time, and nothing further asked for until it becomes absolutely necessary.
When she has adapted herself to her pantry and her pantry to herself, so that she can do her work in the best possible manner, she may turn her attention more entirely to the peculiarities of the family which she has agreed to serve, for it goes without saying that they have their peculiarities just as she has her own. For instance, we will suppose that one of the gentlemen always wishes butter at dinner, no matter how many sauces have been provided. Half of the time he does not touch it; but he wishes it there. She cannot change that any more than she can make the near-sighted lady see by taking away her glasses. What she is to do is never to forget that butter. Some persons have a habit of saying, “No, thank you,” when a dish is offered, and asking for it the moment it has been set down. She can soon determine if any one who does this is at the table and need not be “upset” by the request.If she can learn to make a bit of a pause at the plate—not disrespectfully, but by way of suggestion that some of the dish may be cared for—she will soon have no trouble.
In every household there are some things that will puzzle an ignorant girl and some that may puzzle even a competent, well-trained waitress; but study and careful thought will make her find the best way to promote the general comfort and keep each person at table happy and serene.
Onereason of the lack of confidence which exists between mistress and maid is the constant change which takes place between the employers and the employed. If a remedy is to be found for this—and a remedy must be found—it will be necessary to know the reason why, with some exceptions, maids are seeking good places, and good places are waiting for the right maids to come and fill them.
Without doubt the chief reason is the lack of a clear understanding between mistress and maid at the beginning of an engagement. Promises are made very much at hap-hazard, and a contract entered into, the conditions of which are not fully understood by either side. To avoid mistakes it is necessary first to understand the meaning of a contract.
A contract is an agreement between two or more persons by which something is promised on one side in return for something promised by the other side. A contract is just as binding upon one party as upon the other. It is not something to be kept on one side, while it lets the other go free of responsibility. If responsibility be shirked by one party, then the other is at liberty to consider the contract broken, and decline to keep his part of it. For instance, a carpenter agrees to build a house for a certain sum of money. If he fails to build the house, the man for whom he agreed to build it does not feel bound to pay him anything for promising to build it. If a caterer agrees to furnish refreshments for an evening entertainment, and fails to send them, the person who had given the order would certainly not feel obliged to pay the bill, if presented.
In the case we are considering the contract is between two persons. It is an agreement by which a certain amount of service of aspecified kind is promised for a stipulated sum of money and a home.
Every maid who goes into a home says that she will do certain things, and that she will do them well. She claims that she knows how to do and will do her work in the best manner. On this understanding she is employed, and is promised a certain sum of money in addition to her bed and her board. Often a few days prove that there has been a mistake. In the first place, she does not know how to do her work in a first-class manner, and in the second place she does not try to do it well. Her employer talks with her about it, tries to show her better ways, begs her not to be careless, all to no purpose. After a fair trial she is told that she will not answer the requirements of the place. Does it ever occur to her to take less than the stipulated wages? By no means. She has not at all come up to the promises of her agreement; or, in other words, she has broken her contract. This would certainly justify the party on the other side in breakinghers to the extent of paying only for the kind of work that has been given, instead of paying for the first-class work that was promised. But ladies do not like to be called mean, and they pay out their money knowing that they have not received the value of it.
In order for a waitress to know whether she has fulfilled her part of a contract, and whether the blame rests with her, she will need to understand very fully what she has contracted to do.
Most important of all in this connection is the promise not to abuse the china and silver. We all know more or less about the china craze—the collecting of pieces of old china, some of it not so fine as may be bought in the shops to-day, but old. This old china has passed through a great many hands, and been washed a great many times. Some of it has passed from pantry to pantry, as it became the possession of one family after another, and a great deal of it is neither broken, cracked, nor chipped. This proves that somebody, or agood many somebodies, must have known how to wash china without injuring it in any way, and what has been done in this way may be done again. It will not be done by ignorant girls who have no idea of learning the best ways; but it will be done by the many who are anxious to do always what is right, even at some inconvenience to themselves.
Superstition must be gotten rid of in the beginning. Some persons say, “There! I have broken that; now I must break three things before I can stop;” or, “Now I have begun to break, there is no telling when I can stop,” as if they were not responsible for the damage done. For this there is one sure remedy, and possibly one only, which has been tried in a number of cases, and always with success. The person who breaks china or defaces silver must, so far as is possible, repair from her own purse the damage done.
But accidents? Yes, once in a lifetime a dumb-waiter breaks down, a cleat under a shelf gives way, or a child runs against a door andknocks a tray full of dishes out of a steady hand. All these are accidents. There is no question about them: they could not have been helped. When anything cannot be provided against it may be called an accident; when it happens from lack of foresight it may be called carelessness.
One point to be considered is that the articles which a maid destroys are often too valuable for her to replace. Even if she has the willingness, she has not the money to buy pieces of equal value. All the more should she provide herself with all possible safeguards against the destruction of other persons’ property. A contract might be entered into which would be something like this: A certain sum of money is promised to a waitress in return for work performed in an acceptable manner. If at the end of each month no china, glass, or silver is broken or defaced, then one-fifth or one-quarter of the sum promised is to be added to the original amount. If pieces are broken or marred, then the extra dollars areto go towards replacing what has been spoiled. That is, if the maid keeps her contract by doing her work in the manner she has promised, she will be paid for good work and careful management. If she breaks her contract by carelessness and heedless handling, there is some slight provision made against the damage done.
When the idea is once grasped that a contract is not a one-sided affair, when a maid realizes that she is as much bound by it as her employer, then she will think before she promises, and she will not undertake more than she has capacity and training to perform. Then she will not expect to be paid for what she has not done, and she will have too much self-respect to accept wages which she has not earned.
Another thing which will not fail to be discussed by reformers of this branch of household service which we are considering is the question of tips and souvenirs. We are told that the reason why the system of tips prevails on railway trains and in hotels is becausethe wages of the employés are not sufficient for their support. This is not true of all these workers; and if it be true of some, it need not be true of the household. A really good waitress can always command a proper return for her services. If she has brains enough to become a model waitress she will have sense enough to know what her services are worth, and her demands will be gladly acceded to when she has proved that her work is worth the price which she has placed upon it. This point being settled, she will be satisfied with the stated amount, and bend her mind to her work without any idea of attracting the favor of, or receiving tips from, any member or guest of the household. How else can she preserve her self-respect?
Souvenirs are not tips, and may be considered. The new order of waitresses will so conduct themselves that after a time no one will think of offering them tips; but there are occasions when souvenirs are quite suitable, and may be accepted with perfect propriety.
Suppose that preparations are made some morning for a child’s party to take place in the afternoon. A little guest confides to the waitress that she is going to wear her sweet white dress that was finished just before she left home. She begs her nurse to show it, and the nurse goes to a trunk to take it out. Alas for the child’s hopes! The sash, which is an important part of the dress, is hopelessly crushed, so that it is not fit to wear. Nurse is too busy to freshen it up; another dress must answer. The waitress may not half comprehend what a terrible disappointment this is to the child, yet she carries away the sash, and, long before time for the party, brings it back as smooth and fresh as it was in the beginning.
When the mamma returns she listens to a wonderful tale of distress and joy, and it means far more to her than to the child. When she is about to leave the house, if she wishes to show that she remembers how thoughtful the waitress had been, and offersher some pretty gift, there is no reason in the world why she should not accept it with pleasure.