Care of Plate—Choice of Cutlery—Crockery, China,
Glass, Ornaments—Linen, Bedding—Uses for Old
Linen—Brushes—Miscellanies—Income and Expenditure—Mistresses
and Servants—Hiring Servants—Management of
Servants—Watchfulness a Leading Principle in Economy.
With regard to all those articles which fall under the general
denomination of “plate,” we should advise that all imitations be avoided;
let those who cannot afford silver or plated goods be content to use
simple metal, which does not pretend to be more than it really is.
All the imitations of silver will, even with the utmost care, betray
themselves in a very short time, and have a would-be-genteel-if-I-could
sort of air, which is far less respectable than the plainest of all
materials; besides, the money they cost would purchase a few _real_
articles, which are always worth their weight in silver, whereas the
imitations have only a nominal value, and lose even that as they become
discoloured and dull.
Metal tea and coffee pots may be had very good, and in very handsome
patterns, and they are far more durable than china, drawing better, and
retaining heat longer.
Cheap cutlery is mistaken economy. Good knives and forks will, with
ordinary care, last for years; common ones have no wear in them, and
never can be made to cut well.
Crockery, china, and glass, we need say little about, for they may be had
at all prices and of all qualities. The moulded or cast glass looks as
well as cut-glass, if not placed in contrast with it, and wears as long,
and costs considerably less. For dishes, jugs, butter-coolers, &c., we
should always use it; decanters, wine-glasses, and tumblers, do not look
so well in it.
As regards ornamental china, or glass, or what not, little can be said,
these things are so much matters of taste; but better have but one,
and let that one be really handsome and good, than have a crowd of
cheap, showy trifles; besides, these, again, are things which gradually
accumulate, and therefore it is always better to devote the money in
hand to necessary articles, and leave the more ornamental ones for after
consideration. A good clock for the kitchen, and a handsome one for the
drawing-room, are useful and necessary things, especially the former.
In household linen, again, it is false economy to buy common or cheap
materials. For sheets, linen, union, calico, and Swiss twilled calico
are used; these substances are now woven wide enough to render a seam
unnecessary, and all we have to do is to measure the width of the beds
and allow an extra half yard; the ordinary length of a sheet is three
yards and a half. The pillow-cases must be of the same material as the
sheets. Marseilles quilts are too heavy to be beneficial to health; any
industrious housewife may knit very serviceable and pretty counterpanes
in squares or shell-shaped pieces, during those periods when she is
chatting, or between the lights, or at hours when she would otherwise
most probably be doing nothing. It is for such useful purposes as these
we value knitting, crochet, &c., for they can be made the means of
economy and usefulness, instead of being, as they too often are, employed
on useless expensive trifles.
Table-cloths, tray-cloths, and dinner napkins will of course come
under the category of “linen,” and can be obtained at very reasonable
prices compared with what they were twenty years since. Towels, too,
are included in this list. In the case of chamber towels, again, comes
diversity of opinion, some preferring a soft, some a hard, some a rough,
and some a smooth towel; damask and diaper are not soft enough for some
delicate skins. For our own part we like towels which administer a
certain amount of friction to the skin, and all medical men agree that
this is requisite to health. For the kitchen, round towels, tea-cloths,
and glass-cloths, will be required, as well as dusters, pudding-cloths,
knife-cloths, house-cloths, and flannels for cleaning. These, although
they do not come precisely under the head of “linen,” will have, by
young housekeepers newly furnishing, to be purchased at the same time,
and therefore may as well be mentioned here. Old sheets make good
glass-cloths; old table-cloths make nice soft towels; all dresses of
cotton, or old dress-linings, will serve for dusters, and old blankets
for house-flannels.
Besides these, there are needed toilet-covers for chamber tables, chests
of drawers, &c., carpet covers, muslin for chamber window-curtains,
muslin for drapery for the toilet-table, coarse sheeting for
dusting-sheets to cover the beds or drawing-room furniture when sweeping
and cleaning; a yet coarser sheet to lay down in front of the stoves when
they are being cleaned, chamois leathers for cleaning the plate, brass,
steel, and windows; and bags for the best brooms.
Then we come to brushes, and their name is legion. Oh, this furnishing
a house is a serious affair! a carpet-broom, a short handled one for
the stair carpets, a hair-broom for the bed-rooms, and another for the
passages and kitchens; feather brushes, dusting-brushes, stove-brushes,
hearth-brushes, shoe-brushes, plate-brushes, paste-brushes,
clothes-brushes, a hat-brush, and a table-brush to remove the crumbs from
the table-cloth, are all needed; and these should be bought at a good
warehouse, and of good quality, if we would have them do us service,
and not fall to pieces, or lose their hair, as soon as they are fairly
brought into use.
There are many items yet unmentioned, but it will not be requisite for
us to waste our time, or that of our readers, by enumerating them all
seriatim; we will therefore proceed to other matters.
Supposing now that we have our house, and it is furnished, the next thing
to determine is how many servants can be afforded. Must we be content
with one, a “general servant;” or can we afford a cook and housemaid, or
even aspire to the gentility of a man-servant or a page? Beware of this
latter individual, young housekeepers, if you value your comfort; for
if you chance to get a quick, clever lad, he will have more tricks than
a monkey; and as for the stupid variety of the “genus page,” it is a
torment indeed.
The expenses must be determined by the sum which can, without incurring
debts, or living too closely up to one’s income, be devoted to
“housekeeping,” under which head we include rent, taxes, wages, and
every outlay appertaining to the house. Now, in reckoning the expense of
a servant, the question of wages is not the only one to be considered;
there is the board and washing; and £30, exclusive of wages, is the
lowest at which the keep of each servant can be estimated.
We know it is the fashion to speak of servants as “necessary evils,”
and to decry them as “a bad set.” Surely, if there is any truth in
old proverbs, there must be faults in the mistresses as well as the
domestics, for we have heard that “good mistresses make good servants:”
how comes it, then, that there are so many bad ones? Firstly, from the
defective education of that class whence female servants are generally
taken. Born in those miserable localities where poverty is compelled to
dwell; reared among scenes of vice, often in the midst dirt, misery, and
temptation; taught to read at some Sunday-school, the moral lessons of
which were but a feather in the balance against the worldly lessons of
the other six days; fed afterwards on that pernicious cheap literature
which puts all sorts of idle and vain follies, desires, and passions,
into the head, the girl is at fourteen hired for some trifling sum to
nurse a baby, and idles about the streets with others of her own age,
gossiping; or is errand girl to a dressmaker, and thus pursues her
studies of human life; or is engaged to help the mistress of some small
lodging-house, and generally works hard, and fares hard too, and gets
plenty of hard words. None of these people in general regard her as a
fellow-creature having, like their own children, need of teaching, of
guidance, of patience, and kindness; if she does pretty well, why, it is
her duty! if she does badly, she is discharged! Many a girl would have
become a valuable servant, a respectable and reasonable individual, if
in her first service she had found a mistress who knew what the duties
of a Christian woman at the head of a house were. Of course, there
are characters which no treatment, however judicious, can permanently
benefit; but still we ought to try what we can do ere we despair; and the
influence of a steady pursuance of duty is always, more or less, felt by
all within its power.
In hiring servants be particular in inquiring as to their characters,
and, if possible, learn something of the people with whom they have
lived; let all stipulations as to wages, extras, holidays, and such
matters, be clearly specified and rightly understood.
As a country cannot be governed without laws, neither can a household,
and the mistress should be as absolute in her own house as a sovereign in
her dominions. Order and regularity are the key-stones to comfort, and
our housewife must carefully arrange and digest her scheme of government
in the first place, and be always alive to any modifications which
emergencies, or prudence, or circumstances, may call for. And she must
_understand_ what she is about, or her scheme will be worthless; she
must be able to teach, nay, to demonstrate upon occasions; she must be
regular in her own habits if she would have those about her regular, neat
in all that concerns herself, attentive to the details of housekeeping,
economical, just, active, and considerate. She must neither hold the
reins of government loosely and negligently, nor too sternly, but must
quietly exercise a general and regular surveillance over every part of
her house and household; and this can be done without tyranny, without
vexatious interference, or ebullitions of temper. Let the servants once
feel that this is her habit, and they will act accordingly; and if the
place is good, conduct themselves so as to endeavour to please and keep
it. And it is the interest, as well as duty, of every mistress, to make
her servants comfortable, to see that they have a sufficiency of good
food, that they are well lodged, that they have time to mend and wash
their own clothes, nay, that they know how to do so, and do it.
A mistress need never forget herself, or weaken her authority, or
show any false indulgence; but in numberless ways she will have the
opportunity of endeavouring to guide, to advise, and to benefit those
dependent upon her; but she must be patient, if she would really do
good. She must remember what may have been the early education, the
trials and temptations, the experiences of those girls, and must not
expect too much from them. As we have before said, she must hold the
reins of government with a firm hand; she must not overlook neglect of
duties, irregularities of conduct, want of order or cleanliness, or
inattention to her commands; but she can notice these things quietly,
without loss of temper, and when alone with the offender; she can also
notice and praise neatness, attention, obedience, and such like, and not
accept the good as mere matters of course, and only mark the evil. She
should likewise endeavour to induce her servants, by example and precept,
to be regular in attendance on religious worship, and make Sunday to them
in some degree a day of rest instead of one of extra cooking and work,
and have a supply of those excellent little works to lend them, which are
published by the religious societies. While she inculcates economy in
things relating to herself, she should try to induce them to save, to put
by regularly a certain portion of their wages, and not be extravagant in
clothes, but make and mend their things properly.
There is little saved by giving paltry wages; a useful servant will not
accept them, and those who do, cannot clothe themselves respectably on
six or seven pounds a year, and will too often eke out their means by
peculation. It is well to begin with moderate wages, as nine or ten
pounds, and promise an annual increase, which promise both induces a wish
to please, and takes away one great excuse for leaving, viz., a desire of
“bettering herself.”
The amount of the income will determine what sum can be allowed per annum
for housekeeping, for besides, there will be clothing expenses to be
provided for, sundries of various kinds, expenses of illness, on which
we must all reckon, and there _ought_ to be a reserve fund regularly
laid by to provide for any unforeseen emergency, or form the “nest egg”
of a provision for a rising family. Well, suppose the sum determined!
the next question is, how to apportion it so as to combine economy with
comfort, and secure a regular and uniform style of living, not luxuries
to-day and parsimony to-morrow. Now, how can our young housekeeper do
this if she knows little or nothing of the prices of provisions; if she
scarcely remembers when things are in season and may be purchased at a
reasonable rate, and when they are actual extravagances; if she has no
idea what quantity of this or that ought to be consumed, by a family of
a certain size, per week or per month; and, above all, if she has little
aptitude for domestic management, and considerable contempt for all such
vulgar details? Few who have read that truthful sketch of Dickens’s, the
“child-wife,” will forget the pretty helplessness of Dora; but, although
this reads well in a novel, very few such girls, and there are many of
them, will meet with husbands as indulgent; for men do like to see their
home well ordered, and to feel the comforts of good management.
Every housekeeper should keep a strict account of all her expenditure;
should see that each bill be receipted when paid; and file all receipts,
and keep them for a year at least—we should rather say two or three. All
housekeeping bills should be paid every week, for it is easier to pay
small sums than large ones; and besides, then the correctness of the
bills can be ascertained. The mistress should look each one over herself,
as thus she will detect, and can check, any inaccuracy on the part of the
tradesmen, or extravagance on the part of her servants. Should she be her
own housekeeper, she should deal regularly with respectable tradesmen,
for they will rarely risk losing a good customer by selling bad articles.
Bargain hunting is always perilous, even to good judges; “cheap and
nasty” is perhaps a vulgar proverb, but it is a true one. Cheap tea,
coffee, sugar, &c., are all adulterated; cheap vegetables and fruit are
generally stale; cheap meat is that which has been sent ready killed to
the market, and, therefore, is by no means as fresh as might be wished;
and cheap poultry and fish are to be regarded with very great suspicion;
all, therefore, injure the health.
Those who have store-closets, will find their advantage in purchasing
some things wholesale. Candles should be bought in the latter part of
summer, when they are usually cheaper, and a store laid in, for they
improve by keeping. So does soap. Coals, too, should be ordered in
July or August, and if there is cellarage, a stock for the winter laid
in. Many articles of grocery may often be purchased in quantities at
considerable saving. The same remark applies to bacon, butter, and
cheese; but, unless there are good dry store-rooms, these latter cannot
be kept. It is useless to make pickles or preserves unless the house is
dry—in damp localities these things mildew and spoil; nor are we sure
that in small families it is economical to buy them at all, they can be
bought so reasonably now. All stores should be kept by the mistress, and
given out as required.
All good housekeepers will provide themselves with weights and scales,
and thus be prepared to check the _quantities_ of goods sent them by
their tradespeople, who are as liable to make errors in weighing as in
casting their bills. We cannot too particularly impress this upon the
attention of our readers, as an essential means to protect themselves
against errors in weight, whether arising from accident or design. Many
heads of families are exceedingly particular about the _price_ of their
purchases, who are utterly regardless whether or not they have the
_weight_ they paid for. Tradesmen are aware of this trust imposed in
them, and too often take advantage of it.