ALL WORK ❧ ❧
YORK HARBOR, _August 18_.
_Dear Penelope:_
Your ears must have burned this morning, for I have been thinking so
hard of you. It is an entrancing day after a storm, and the sound of the
slow, dreamy washing of the waves on the shore, as I sit here knitting
on the piazza, seem to carry me far away from everything about me to
your dear self. The girls came home yesterday from visiting Mrs. Gardner
with all the latest news of you, how sweet and pretty your surroundings
are, and, best of all, Tom’s devotion to you and your happiness.
“Spooney,” they called you both, but never mind, what do they know about
it? You and I understand,—that is enough, isn’t it?
Your little message to me showed that there was one annoyance, however,
weighing on you in the midst of all this bliss, the undercurrent of
worry from signs of discontent in the kitchen. When everything is so
bright and pleasant around you, and you are _so_ happy, why can’t the
maid feel so too? I am afraid it will be many a long day before I can go
down to see you, but I am so glad I have my hands and eyes and they
shall be devoted to you, dear child, this morning. The more I think
about the apparent discontent of your present maid, the more do I
believe that it is because you do not realize that a maid of all work
cannot do all that you expect her to do and also give the finishing
touches that give charm to the home. I know how you love everything to
be the pink of perfection, and it isn’t necessary for you to lower your
standards of refinement of living,—only to remember to be content to
live more simply or informally and that all the pretty little touches
must come from you. I have dined a number of times with a young couple
where the wife, accustomed to servants before her marriage, did most of
the housework, including the cooking, and only had a woman come in for
the rough work, sweeping, etc., and to wash the dishes when she had
guests. The table always looked refined and sweet and the little
apartment made you feel at once the interested touch of the family.
So don’t be discouraged because, after your servant dusts, everything
looks crooked and the rooms have a neglected appearance. It is simply
because you are asking too much of your maid, who has all she can do in
taking care of the practical side of the housework. When I spoke a
little while ago of living more simply, visions came before me of your
wedding day and the room, that looked like a miniature Tiffany’s, spread
out with your wedding presents,—silver, cut glass, and ornaments,—and
then I thought of your little maid and how impossible it would be for
her to keep the silver looking bright as it should, with everything else
she has to do, and how discouraged she would be at the very thought of
it. So my advice to you is to put all your silver away that you do not
need until you have enough servants to keep it bright without
overworking them. Your dining-room will look much prettier with a few
bright pieces than overladen with silver that is dull and gives the
impression of careless housekeeping.
You must remember that each of the servants you have been accustomed to
had her own especial part of the housework to do and plenty of time to
do it in. It isn’t so with the maid of all work. She has so much to do
that you really have to choose what of the lighter work you will find
the pleasantest to perform and do something yourself in order to make
her burden easier and have your rooms look homelike and attractive.
Suppose you decide to make up your own beds, do the dusting, and attend
to the lamps. That is all good exercise and you can wear a pair of
gloves to keep your hands nice while you are working. You can manage in
this way. If the maid gets up at six-thirty, dresses, throws her
mattress over the foot of her bed, and opens her windows to air her
room, she can be ready to start the kitchen fire, if there is a coal
range, and put on the cereal (which has been cooked the night before and
is much better for long cooking) by seven o’clock. She can then go into
the parlor, draw up the shades there and in the dining-room, rebuild the
fire if it has been used, and go over the floor with a dustless mop.
After that she can set the dining-table and cook the breakfast. (You
will have to put your beds to air yourself before you leave your room.)
When she has put the last of your breakfast on the table, you can wait
on yourselves, leaving her to get her own breakfast. (Just here I must
speak to you of the loneliness of the maid of all work having all her
meals by herself, because, when you think of this, and know that many of
them never even sit down to their table, I know you will try to
encourage yours to take proper and regular meals and will see that the
kitchen is made a homelike place for her.)
To return to the order of her work. When you have finished your
breakfast she can clear the dining-table, wash your breakfast things,
and straighten the kitchen. After that she should let you know that she
is ready to take your orders for the meals. Having finished your
breakfast and seen Tom off for his business, you might commence your
share of the housework by going to your room, making up the beds,
dusting it and all the other rooms and putting them all in order. When
the maid lets you know that she is ready to receive your orders for the
day, you should stop your work temporarily, if you haven’t finished it,
in order not to delay hers, which is more important. Then you should go
with her to the refrigerator and wire chest to see the left-overs and
plan the meals for the day, utilizing the left-overs and writing on a
small pad, kept for the purpose, the bill of fare for lunch, dinner, and
breakfast, pinning this up in the kitchen, to leave no excuse for
forgetting. All the orders having been disposed of, the menus of the day
before can be gone over, praising the successes and pointing out the
mistakes. This being finished, the maid can clean the bathroom and do up
her own room and be ready for the work of the day which can be arranged
in some such way as this:
_Monday_ Washing.
_Tuesday_ Ironing.
_Wednesday_ Bedrooms, one week;
dining-room and
living-room, next
week.
_Thursday_ Hall and bathroom,
one week; brasses,
next week.
_Friday_ Silver. Afternoon
out every week.
_Saturday_ Kitchen,
refrigerator, etc.
In the case of the maid of all work, _washing the windows_ has to be
done by outside labor, and the time to do it depends a good deal on wind
and weather.
One has to be very considerate on washing-day, planning ahead so as to
have a cold lunch if possible on that day and not to invite any one to
dinner. The “afternoon out” is another time when the maid must be
thought of, and nothing should be allowed to interfere with her having
this regular time to herself undisturbed. You and Tom will have, both of
you, to understand the necessity of this consideration so that he will
realize that he mustn’t bring friends home at these times unless it is
for such an informal frolic that your guests understand it too, and
enjoy what you can have on the chafing-dish. Don’t leave disorder for
her to clear up which would give her as much trouble as getting the
dinner. Lack of thought in ways like this often causes a servant to
leave, though she won’t give you the true reason.
Sunday is another time when she has to be thought of, to be sure to let
her have her time off so that she can get to church or to see her
friends. You will have to arrange all this with reference to the customs
of the place in which you are living or your distance from the center of
things. It is much better to accept the fact that this must be arranged
satisfactorily to you both than to make some arbitrary rule of your own
which will always cause trouble. If you compare notes with your friends
you will find plenty who don’t do this, but you will find plenty, too,
who have ceaseless trouble with servants.
Every day except washing and ironing day the maid can and should by
three-thirty o’clock be neatly dressed in black with a white apron, to
go to the door. Plain black sateen waists are cheap and wash perfectly
well, so that she can wear one while cooking, but I would advise you to
provide her also with turn-over collars that are rather low at the neck,
because if she wears the stand-up kind she will be pretty sure to take
it off so as to be comfortable when cooking and perhaps mortify you by
appearing at the door sometime collarless.
You will find that you can invite as many as four to dinner informally,
making six in all, with a maid of all work if you have some one in to
help her wash the dishes. I don’t mean for you to engage an expert for
this, for they are expensive, but some friend of your maid who enjoys
the sociability of coming with the prospect of a good dinner and a
little extra money thrown in. Of course you have to arrange to have
things that don’t take much time or can be prepared the day before and
that your maid cooks especially well, never trying a new dish at such a
time.
It can be a nice little dinner, nevertheless. Suppose you begin with
_grapefruit_, which you can arrange yourself, cutting out the center and
putting sugar in and setting it in the ice-box early in the day so that
the juices will be drawn out and it will be cold and delicious by dinner
time. Next, _a clear soup_, which can be prepared the day before or can
be a canned consommé of the best make, flavored with a little lemon, and
with a thin slice of lemon in each plate. (Even if your maid can make a
delicious cream soup I wouldn’t advise attempting it, since it takes too
much time on the day of the dinner.) Third, _a roast and two or three
vegetables_. For the fourth course _a salad_ which you can prepare
yourself, making the dressing. Next the fifth course, _ice-cream and
cake_, or some other bought dessert; and, finally, _coffee_.
All these suggestions that I have written you have actually been tried
and found practical and cause the least amount of friction, so I send
them to you to modify to suit your own case. That is where your genius
will come in—the modifications that oil the machinery of your house to
suit your circumstances and your maid’s particular characteristics.
I have only a minute before the mail goes to add another suggestion to
this long letter of advice, and that is that it might help you to look
into the question of the innumerable domestic labor-saving machines,
such as fireless cookers, bread-mixers, vacuum cleaners,
washing-machines, electric utensils of all sorts and kinds, and see if
there are any that could be used to advantage in your household. With
every wish that contentment may soon reign in your kitchen,
Devotedly yours,
_Jane Prince_.
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