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--not thrown 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 comes to 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
the merits 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 advantages to 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 employer wishes 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 for more
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 in habits 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 provision from 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 ordering meals, 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 be an 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 unusual privilege,
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 caused extra
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 by accident. 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
the maid 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.
VIII
A RECAPITULATION OF DAILY DUTIES
THE GENERAL-HOUSEWORK MAID
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 cloth and 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 on _evenly_. 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 mistress of 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 to second 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 butter is 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 will probably 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.
THE COOK
Rise at six o'clock and be down-stairs by six-thirty. Open draughts of
furnace and put on a little coal. Fill the kettle 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 probably be 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.
THE WAITRESS AND CHAMBERMAID