It was not till later in the day that I had an opportunity of
continuing my conversation with Maud, and when I did I took it up
where we had left it, and said: "Well, at any rate there is no 'under
side' to the Miles 'pancake'! Miles, I should explain, is the
'Nanny' or nurse.
"Really," said she, "that is almost literally true. She is
wonderful."
"Why is it," I asked, "that we have never been able to get anything
like that at home? When I think of the Irish nurses who are kind and
faithful, no doubt, but quite untruthful, and speak with an
Irish-American accent which is making the English language, as spoken
in America, the most unmusical tongue in the world, and then see how
these English children are taught, almost from the cradle, to speak
clearly, softly, and musically, I am ashamed of the way in which we
have wasted our heritage. Why is it we cannot find women like our
trained nurses who would undertake the task of training the children
to speak the language of Shakespeare, of which we hear so much and
speak so little? Why is it not as interesting to teach good manners
to the leaders of our future society as to keep their pampered little
bodies healthy? Why are the girls who are starving on the pay of a
school-teacher unwilling to undertake the fundamental education of
the favored classes, not as menials, but as honored and respected
friends, treated exactly as our trained nurses are? Why is it?"
"For mercy's sake stop," cried Maud. "You make my head swim with
your 'whys'! If I try to answer any of your questions you will say I
am talking like Thomas."
"Never mind whom you talk like, if only you answer them," I replied.
"Well, I don't believe any one can answer them all, but one
difficulty in the importation of the 'Nanny' is that you do not
understand the secret spring of English life, _i.e._, of people of a
certain position. Of course a nursery like this cannot be found in a
house of people of small means. The head nurse is waited on by the
second nurse, and is obeyed by the other servants. She does not take
her meals in the servants' hall, but is served in the nursery. She
holds the position of an N.C.O. in the army. The whole American
household would have to be changed to make way for the English nurse."
"Very likely," I said, "but why should that not be done? Look how
the rich at home ape the English with their silly footmen and
insolent butlers! Surely they could find a place for such a nurse as
Miles, who would teach their children to be interested in simple
things and to use their voices so that speaking would be like
singing. Why, I know English children of nine years of age who have
a vocabulary which a sophomore with us might envy! Only yesterday
when I stopped Edward when he was on his way to work in his garden,
he said: 'Excuse me, Aunt Ruth, but my business is rather urgent!'
'Urgent!' Could President Eliot have said better? And yet he is far
from being a prig. Indeed, to speak frankly, he is a limb! I tell
you what the American home would have to do first: it would have to
dispense with the services of the trained nurse! I wouldn't admit it
to an Englishwoman, but the trained nurse is an American institution
because so many women 'enjoy ill health.' Think how many houses
there are where, if the mother needs a holiday, say for a week or so,
the trained nurse is installed, and the temperature of a healthy
child is taken three times a day! Think of the 'homes' where the
trained nurse is kept by the year! Is it any wonder Christian
Science makes headway? It is the inevitable reaction from all this
fussing about disease. I hope the day will come when it will be an
'unseemly' thing to speak of sickness. We spread contagion with our
tongues!"
"Whose talking like some one now?" said Maud. "You sound like John."
Then, when she had finished laughing at her own wit, she continued:
"After all, you are talking about a very limited class, what papa
used to call 'fluff.'"
"That may be; still there are many people who could well afford to
pay an English nurse what they are paying a trained nurse and save
money by so doing."
"Yes, but it is more than a question of money--indeed, money has
nothing to do with it. The truth is the 'Nanny' is the last blooming
of the feudal system. These women have the hearts of the old
retainers. They identify themselves with the families they serve,
and are as proud of the children as if they were their own. Can you
imagine Miles taking a place with the Rosenthals? No, she is a part
of this family, and the children no more think of parting with her
than with me. As long as she lives she will be a part of their
lives. The mails from all over the world bring letters to the
'Nannies' from men whose names the whole world knows. So, while you
might import Miles, you could not graft her into a social democracy!
A certain noble lord was once accused of being a 'snob.' He
laughingly replied: 'You should see my Nanny!'
"Then there is another difficulty--such people as Alice Burns and
Elsie Graham, who do not see their children once a week, who meet the
doctor, for whom the trained nurse sent, as they leave the house to
go to dinner or to the opera, and ask him if 'it' is contagious, but
are afraid to go and see for themselves, might be willing to have
such an one as Miles, if it became the fashion, but the typical
American mother would not allow another woman to have such authority
over her children as the English nurse has. It is she who decides
whether the children shall be dosed, whether they should be punished,
and whether their conduct has been such as to justify their
appearance at lunch, or, if so, whether they deserve 'sweets'! Can
you imagine Mrs. Sherburne allowing that--or Mr. Sherburne, either?"