The evil of side doors--Difficulties with cooks--Who is to answer the
door?--Four classes of applicants--Arrangements for trades-people
--Visitors--Furniture of the hall--Warming the passages--Dirt and
door-mats--The door-step--Charwomen.
Many of the most respectable old houses in London and other large
cities have only one street door and no area gate; and this is a great
advantage, for of all inventions for the demoralization of households,
the side or servant's door is the one which does its work most surely.
There is no oversight of it; and neither master nor mistress can tell
what is going on below-stairs, or at the back of the house, when the
shutters are closed and the family are at dinner, or in the
drawing-room in the evening.
The side door had its origin in a pride, or false shame, which could
not bear to see a vestige of the working of the machinery of the house,
and in that tendency to separate the ornamental from the necessary part
of the household economy which has worked so disastrously for us all,
making us, first, unwilling to take a practical share in the management
of our houses, so widening the class division between mistress and
servant; and secondly, has thrown us into such a state of dependence
upon our subordinates that the boldest of us dare not venture into the
kitchen except at stated hours; and then, having received the programme
of the proposed arrangements for the day from the cook, we are expected
to go away and be no further hindrance to the eleven o'clock luncheon,
which is one of the five solid meals daily required to sustain life in
the hardships of service. Most ladies know what it is to wince under
the sharp tongues of their cooks, who "don't like to have missuses come
messing about in their kitchens," and their sarcasms upon "ladies who
are not ladies," etc., etc., until many weak-minded victims retire
before the enemy, and, giving up the vain pretence of ordering the
dinner and examining the kitchen daily, send for the cook after
breakfast, and get the interview over as soon as may be. It requires a
very strong sense of duty to make one go where one is so palpably
unwelcome, where one's most innocent looks are construed into a mean
peeping and prying, and the least remonstrance is met by insolence.
I have, as a rule, been fortunate with my servants, and of late years I
have successfully employed foreigners, who are generally more tractable
than English servants.
I carried my point, when living in a villa near London, and locked the
side door, retaining the key. I found great advantage in so doing on
comparing notes with my neighbours, who told me their servants had
threatened to leave directly there was a question of closing the side
doors.
But this is only a recommendation where servants are kept. A
responsible supervision of young servants is quite consistent with
allowing them due liberty. This should always be granted them, as a
dull imprisonment is misery to the young, and then they would not
endeavour to take it in a clandestine manner, and surreptitious
dealings with dishonest characters outside would be avoided.
To our present argument it matters little whether there be a side door
or not, except that it affords greater facility to burglars; so we will
treat of the principal door as the only one, because this is most
frequently the case in town-houses where there is no area gate, and the
use of that does not enter into our plan of proceeding at all.
One of the first difficulties that presents itself to the lady wishing
to maintain a small household staff is the opening of the front door.
The question meets us on the threshold, who is to answer the door? Who
will be the slave of the ring?
A lady-help does not like to undertake this office, and to the mistress
it appears still more unsuitable. But let us analyze the subject.
There are four classes of people who knock at our door: the family,
tradespeople, visitors, and casuals. The first division of the
difficulty may be easily disposed of. The master and mistress, for
these titles must be strictly maintained, have each a latch key; the
rest of the family may habitually use a particular knock agreed upon
between them, and then the person who happens to be nearest to the door
will open it.
Schoolboys and girls return at stated hours, and one is prepared for
their appeal. For several years past my family has used four single
knocks, which is a sign sufficiently unlike other knocks to be
recognized immediately.
The postman's knock is well known, and in families where there is no
great eagerness to get the letters, they fall naturally into the
letter-box, which should be made deep, and the slit large enough to
admit the _Times_ newspaper easily.
In Italy it is usual to write the word _fuori_ on a card, and stick it
in the door when one is not at home; and in this case visiting-cards
would also be left in the letter-box. We might adopt this method, or
even the Temple fashion of saying when we are likely to be home again.
The tradesmen are the most difficult to arrange for, and here invention
must be called into play. Tradespeople first call for orders, and then
with supplies.
Suppose we had our doors fitted with a kind of turnstile door,
something like the birdcage gates which used to be at the Zoological
Gardens, only with the outside made of wood, closely fitting, so as to
admit no draught. This, by a push, would allow the goods to be
deposited within the door, on the table upon which the cage turns
round. The opening should be of a size to admit a leg of mutton easily.
The goods, once deposited, could not be removed from the outside, as
the door only works one way.
Through this opening the lady-housekeeper might give her own orders
without their interpretation by an underling, and without being exposed
to the public gaze, as she would be if the front door were fully
opened, while the leg-of-mutton aperture would be sufficient for both
parties to see to whom they were speaking. In the case of a single
door, instead of the very general folding doors, it would be necessary
to have the cage made to fold back, and the table to let down with
hinges, to allow of the door being opened back against the wall; the
table might be lowered after midday. This arrangement would also
dispose of most of the casuals--the beggars, pedlars, and others who
haunt our door-steps--to the entire prevention of hall robberies.
And now we come to the last and most considerable division of the
subject--our visitors; comprising relatives, friends, and strangers. If
we lived in Arcadia, or in the Colonies, we should most likely be so
glad to see our friends that we should joyfully run to welcome them. Or
if we were very great people indeed, we should not mind doing as Queen
Victoria does, going to receive them at the moment of their arrival.
But as we are middling people, and neither shepherdesses nor queens, we
dread being natural for fear of being thought poor.
For people are very much more afraid of being thought poor than of
being poor, seeing how often they let themselves be dragged into
poverty by idleness and extravagance. The best remedy I know for the
fancied difficulty of opening our door to our visitors, is to have no
friends but those whom we are glad to see, and to begin every new
acquaintance by putting it at once on a footing of actual fact, letting
people understand that we try to make the best of our means, and live
within them. Then, if they will not take us upon our own terms, we need
not regret that they do not wish for our friendship.
We shall find, in actual practice, that it makes very little difference
to their opinion of us, if when we are at home we have the courage to
tell them so ourselves; or if a dirty maid-servant, after an interval
of waiting, receives their cards in the corner of her apron because her
hands are black, and says she will go and see if "missis" is at home,
or even if a neat parlour-maid fulfils the same office, and ushers
visitors into a brown holland-encased room, leaving them to remark the
time the lady of the house takes arranging her dress and her smiles
previous to appearing.
In whatsoever way the ceremonial may be performed is of importance to
none but ourselves. The visitor forgets it immediately, only retaining
a general impression, cheery or dismal, as the case may seem; and if we
are nice people and our visitors nice people, according to our
respective ideas on that subject, we shall cultivate each other's
acquaintance all the same.
It is immensely hard work to make five hundred a year look like a
thousand. The effort to do so is seen through in an instant by a
keen-sighted observer, and then it is ten chances to one if you get
credit for what you really possess. It is never worth while to pinch
and pare our everyday life for the sake of a few occasions of display.
Let us now go on to consider the best fittings and furniture for the
entrance-hall.
Encaustic tiles make very good flooring for a hall, and are very easily
cleansed with a mop or a damp cloth wrapped round a broom. A good thick
door-mat is a great temptation to people to rub their boots well. This
is really better than one of those delightful indoor scrapers all set
round with brushes, which are seldom used after the first few weeks of
their introduction. Mine is as good as new, and as highly polished, and
I have had it for years. A couple of good door-mats are much more
useful.
It is necessary to have a stand with a large drip-dish in a corner of
the hall, to hang up cloaks and mackintoshes, and hat-pegs of course,
but particularly a good-sized cupboard for boots, shoes, and goloshes,
so that the family may change them in the hall on entrance. A carved
_bahut_, or Italian linen coffer, is very useful in a hall for children
to keep their school and garden hats and bonnets in, the lid serving
for a bench; but many halls, which are often merely narrow passages,
would be inconveniently crowded by one of these rather ponderous pieces
of furniture; besides which, they are costly.
A deep bowl of Oriental china is as nice as anything for a card-dish,
and the hall is a more appropriate place for it than the drawing-room.
Where it is thought necessary to warm the house, hot-water pipes laid
from the kitchen are as cheap as anything. If the pipes are heated by a
separate gas-stove in the hall, they will supply hot water to the
bed-rooms also; but it is not a healthy practice to heat the passages
of a house: it causes the cold to be so much more felt on going out.
Where the influence of the stove is felt in the bed-rooms it often
prevents sleep.
In many houses which are kept too close and warm the families are
subject to constant headache, and in others to a perpetual succession
of colds; according to their temperament requiring more oxygen, or
their susceptibility to the sudden change from the heated to the
outdoor air.
Unpolished oak is the most usual and the best material for hall
furniture; it is cleaned by rubbing with a little oil, which shows the
grain and enriches its colour.
One rule which in practice saves more dirt in the house than any other,
is that no member of the family be allowed to go upstairs in
walking-boots. I have carried out this law for some years, after having
long been troubled by my schoolboys rushing up and down stairs with
their dirty boots on; and the saving to my stair carpet is very
considerable. Boys and girls do not run up and down so often, if
compelled to exercise a little attention beforehand.
But little boot blacking or brushing need be done in the house.
Gentlemen can easily have their boots cleaned out of doors, and ladies,
by the use of goloshes, may reduce this work for themselves to a
minimum, many kinds of boots being much better cleaned when sponged
over lightly than when they are brushed or blacked. Every member of the
family may not unreasonably be expected to take care of his or her own
boots.
The door-step, or flight of steps, which is such an affliction to
householders and such a joy to servants, may be kept sufficiently clean
by being washed by the charwoman who comes one morning a week to do the
scrubbing and scouring; which would be too menial--in other words, too
public and too laborious--for any lady-help to endure.
Hearthstoning the step seems a very useless practice; the grey stone
itself is a nicer colour, and only requires a mop or a broom to keep it
free from dirt, according to the weather. Much white dust is brought
into the house by the daily use of hearthstone, and precious time is
wasted in the operation.
It may be well to understand, at the outset of our description of the
work of a house, what parts of it cannot usefully or practicably be
undertaken by women who have been gently nurtured, before discussing
the portions which their knowledge and skill are best calculated to
perform. For although we may by forethought reduce within a small
compass the toilsome part of the duties, there will always remain some
functions which it would uselessly tax a lady's valuable time and
strength to perform. For, after all, the office of the mistress is to
raise housekeeping to the level of the fine arts, "where the head, the
hand, and the heart work together."
Incidental mention has already been made of the charwoman; she may be
employed for the harder work in the following manner:--
The charwoman should not have her meals in the house, but she should be
paid by the piece for certain work done; say, door-step, 1_d._ or
2_d._, according to size and number of steps; kitchen floor, 4_d._;
passages, according to size and requirements. Many charwomen would
gladly undertake work on this plan, and many poor women or strong girls
would rejoice to do a morning's work and get home early to their family
with what would pay for their dinner.
It is impossible to lay down fixed prices for piece-work, as this must
necessarily vary with the size of houses and the habits of the owners.
The charwoman can shake the heavy door-mats, and sweep out the kitchen
flue, if the species of stove used require sweeping--and most of them
do. She may also break the large lumps of coal into knobs of the size
necessary for the patent ranges needing fuel of a certain size, and she
might place the week's supply of coal in the fuel-box.
It would be better in many cases to employ for this hard work a strong
boy with a Saturday half-holiday. He could do it all quite as well as a
woman, and much more easily; but as we find we shall be taxed for a
man-servant if we employ any arms but a woman's, we must make the best
use we can of the worse means, consoling ourselves with the idea that
the woman will use the money paid better than the boy might do.