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GUIDE
TO
HOTEL HOUSEKEEPING
BY
MARY E. PALMER
1908
Copyrighted 1908,
BY
MARY E. PALMER
THE TRIBUNE PRINTING CO.
Charleston. W. Va.
[Illustration]
CREDIT TO THE HOTEL WORLD.
The greater part of the contents of this book was published, in
instalments, in The Hotel World, of Chicago.
A FOREWORD.
My chief purpose in writing this book was to place a few guide-posts
along the route of hotel housekeepers to warn them against certain
errors common to women engaged in the arduous and difficult occupation
of keeping house for hotels.
If anything that I have set forth herein shall make the work of hotel
housekeepers easier, more inviting, or more efficient, thereby
contributing to the satisfaction of proprietors and to the comfort of
patrons, I shall feel amply repaid for writing this book.
MARY E. PALMER.
Hotel Ruffner,
Charleston, West Va.
March 1, 1908.
THE MANAGER AND THE HELP.
The average hotel manager is only too prone to complain of the
incompetency and the inefficiency of hotel "help."
It is true that it is difficult to secure skilled help, for there is no
sort of institution that trains men and women for the different kinds
of hotel work. Each hotel must train its own help, or obtain them from
other hotels.
Thus there is no uniform and generally accepted standard of excellence
in the different departments of hotel-keeping.
A good word should be said in behalf of the Irish-American girls, who
constitute a majority of the laundry help, waitresses, and chambermaids
in American hotels to-day.
With a high regard for honor and rectitude, handicapped by poverty, they
find employment, at a very early age, in hotels, and perform menial
duties in a manner that is greatly to their credit.
The Irish-American girls are not shiftless, remaining in one place for
years until they either marry or leave to fill better positions, which
is the privilege of every one living under the "Stars and Stripes."
Some improve their spare time in study, thereby fitting themselves to
become stenographers and bookkeepers. Some adopt the stage as a
profession, one instance being that of Clara Morris, who takes delight
in telling of the days when she washed silver in a hotel.
_An ex-Governor Peeled Potatoes._
Ex-Governor Hoard, of Wisconsin, boasts of the time when he peeled
potatoes in a hotel.
The success of hotel-keeping depends largely on the manager. He should
possess patience, forbearance, and amiability. He should know that the
best results are obtained from his help by kindness, and that good food
and good beds mean better service.
The manager should realize that the working force of a hotel is like the
mechanism of a clock: it has to be wound occasionally and set going. No
novice can operate this wonderful piece of mechanism; it requires a
skilled mechanic.
The proprietor of a hotel should be a good loser; for there are periods
of the year when the employes outnumber the guests, and the
balance-sheet shows a heavy loss.
One of the most successful hotel men of the writer's acquaintance is Mr.
Louis Reibold, formerly of the Bates House (now the Claypool),
Indianapolis, Ind. Mr. Reibold's fame rests in his liberal, kindly
treatment of his help. He never called them "help," but always referred
to them as "employes." Reception, reading, and writing-rooms were
furnished for their use, and he himself saw that good food was provided
and that the tables were spread with clean, white table-cloths once a
day.
He remembered his employes at Christmas, each one receiving a gold coin,
some as much as $20.
When a girl in his employ lost her arm in a mangle, he presented her
with a house and lot, provided her with ample means to furnish the house
and to keep her the remainder of her lifetime.
Mr. Reibold is a multi-millionaire, and he has the admiration and love
of every woman and man that ever worked for him.
FEEDING AND ROOMING THE HELP.
Employes, such as housekeepers, clerks, cashiers, stenographers,
stewards--though few stewards use the privilege--and bartenders, are
permitted to take their meals in the main dining-room.
Other office-employes take their meals in the officers' dining-room,
from the same bill of fare used in the main dining-room.
Chambermaids, bell-boys, and other "help," are served in the "helps'
hall," from a separate bill of fare. Their food is good, as a rule; when
it is not, the fault usually lies with the chef in the kitchen. All
proprietors want their help to have good food.
The housekeeper can do much to make the help comfortable. She can see
that their rooms are kept clean and sweet, and free from vermin. She can
give them soft pillows and plenty of warm covering. It is her duty to
add to their comfort in every way she can.
In a majority of hotels, the help are roomed and fed equally as well as
are the patrons.
REQUIREMENTS OF A HOUSEKEEPER.
Every profession or trade is made up of two classes: the apprentice and
the skilled workman. The young woman looking for a position as hotel
housekeeper should not forget that careful training is fully as
important and necessary in her chosen vocation as it is in medicine or
cooking; that she must learn by slow and wearisome experience what it
has taken years for the skilled housekeeper to acquire.
The apprentice may stumble on the road to success and may even fall by
the wayside. In order to succeed, she must give her time wholly to her
occupation. She must be thankful for the successes that come to her and
not fret over the failures, remembering that hotel housekeeping, like
all other occupations, demands experience, patience, and perseverance,
as well as skill, in its followers.
The profession is overcrowded with novices to-day; they are the ones
that have demoralized the profession--if the word, profession, may be
applied to hotel housekeeping. The failure of many housekeepers is due
to the lack of proper training; it is only the skilled housekeeper that
wins lasting approval.
A trained nurse must remain in a training school at least three years,
possibly four, before she is given a certificate to care for the sick.
The chef of the hotel kitchen, in all probability began his career as a
scullion, serving at least ten years' apprenticeship in minor situations
in the kitchen. The housekeeper must not be above gaining knowledge in
the laundry and the linen-room. A woman that is ambitious to become a
good housekeeper should first serve as a chambermaid. If she is wise,
she will secure the good graces of the linen-woman by offering to help
her mend the linen, hem the napkins, sort the linen, and mend the
curtains.
In this way, a clever chambermaid may learn many useful things that will
help her to a better position. From the linen-room, it is only a step to
the position of a housekeeper. When a housekeeper leaves on her
vacation, or is called away to fill another place, or drops out on
account of illness, the linen-woman may seize the opportunity of showing
her executive ability. After she has worked faithfully in the linen-room
for three years, there is not much danger that a linen-woman of ability
will fail to find employment as a housekeeper. If she should have any
trouble getting a situation, one way out of the difficulty is to offer
her services one month on probation to a hotel man in need of a
housekeeper; and, if she is granted a trial and mixes brains with her
enthusiasm, she will receive a housekeeper's salary at the end of the
month.
Just what a housekeeper's work should be is a vital question. We hear of
housekeepers meddling in the steward's department and with the affairs
of the office. This is, at least, no less wrong than the idea that the
housekeeper owes servile obedience to all other heads of departments.
The essential requirements of a housekeeper are the same, whether she is
in a hotel with the capacity of a thousand guests or in a hotel of two
hundred rooms. The young housekeeper, looking for a position in a
first-class hotel, should read the following requirements, which were
submitted to the writer by the manager of a first-class Western hotel a
few years ago:
_A Housekeeper's Requirements._
Must be morally correct.
Must have a dignified and respectable appearance.
Must have executive ability.
Must have a good disposition and try to get along with the help.
Must be a good listener and not a talker.
Must be quiet, giving orders in a firm but low tone.
Must be loyal to the management.
Must be courteous to guests.
Must not worry the management with small matters.
Must refrain from gossiping.
Neatness in dress is essential to the success of a hotel housekeeper.
She should take great pains to be always well groomed, and neat in her
attire. If she finds herself growing coarse or commonplace-looking, her
fingernails in mourning, and her hair unacquainted with soap and water,
she should at once set about to remedy the defects. It is her duty, as
well as her privilege, to dress as well as she can, not by donning all
the colors of the rainbow or by useless extravagance, but by modest and
harmonizing shades and by appropriate apparel. It behooves the woman to
make herself as good-looking as possible, for good looks pay. Obliging
manners are also a stock in trade. Grit, grace, and good looks can
accomplish wonders, especially the good looks.
Ignorance and ambition make an unprofitable combination. There are
housekeepers filling positions to-day that have never been taught to do
a single useful thing correctly; they can not darn the linens, they can
not sew, they can not upholster a chair, they can not wait on the sick,
nor can they settle the slightest dispute without sending for the
manager. The housekeeper should know how these things are done, in order
to impart her knowledge to others; for any housekeeper that has any
respect for her calling considers herself an instructor.
There is no special hour set for the housekeeper's appearance in the
morning. It is safe to say that she will make a greater "impression" and
last longer by rising at 6 o'clock. Late rising is one of the rocks on
which many a housekeeper has been wrecked.
_Cheerfulness and Good Manners._
Every housekeeper should make the "good morning" her bright keynote for
the day. She should not say, "Hello, Mollie," to a girl named Mary.
Though the girl may be only a scrub-girl, she knows a breach of
etiquette; and a girl that bears the beautiful name of Mary does not
want it changed to "Mollie."
A cheerful "good morning" should be the beginning of each day, by the
housekeeper. It makes everybody feel pleasant, and the maids can work
faster and easier when their hearts are full of pleasantness.
The successful housekeeper does not win her laurels by merely perfecting
herself in her work, but also by careful study of the lives of others in
her charge, and how to promote their happiness.
Getting along with help requires tact, poise, and balance. The
housekeeper should bestow praise where it is due. She may give a gentle
pat on the back to some faithful employe, and yet keep her dignity. A
hard task may be made lighter by it, and monotonous labor robbed of its
weariness. The old and persistent notion that housekeepers are an
irascible tribe--if it was ever true--is not true now.
The question here arises--What qualities of mind and heart should a
housekeeper possess to be successful?
Nobody has discovered a rule--to say nothing of a principle--whereby a
housekeeper's success may be determined. It is reasonable to claim that
the permanent success of any housekeeper lies in her skill and in the
confidence and esteem of her employer. She has learned that skill is
acquired by serving an apprenticeship, and that esteem and confidence
are won by character. Everybody who touches a sterling character comes
at last to feel it, and the true hotel man has come to know that the
housekeeper of skill and character is his friend. After the relation of
friendship has been established between the manager and the housekeeper,
a "go-between" has no place; to speak plainly, there is no legitimate
function for a tattler.
The young housekeeper should not become discouraged, excited, or
worried, but learn to "manage." She should sit down quietly and think it
over. She should have a system about her most ordinary duties, and never
put off till to-morrow what may be done to-day. Tomorrow may never come,
and, if it does come, it will bring other duties equally as important.
Every field of labor has its drawbacks. The greater the work, the
greater the hindrances and the obstacles seem to be.
THE HOUSEKEEPER AND THE "HELP."
It is a truism that there should be no hostilities between the heads of
the different departments of a hotel. Everything works more smoothly and
satisfactorily when pleasant relationships exist between the different
departments of any business.
A housekeeper feels stronger if she thinks that she is of sufficient
importance to her employer to have her views receive some consideration.
She takes up her daily tasks with an added sense of responsibility, and
with a desire to do still better work.
No housekeeper is perfect. It cannot be wisely assumed that any
housekeeper will possess all the requisite qualifications for successful
housekeeping, nor can she develop them all, no matter how ambitious,
industrious, and naturally fitted for the work she may be. But
"Knowledge is power," and she that has the most of it, coupled with the
greatest ability to utilize it, enjoys advantages that will contribute
largely to her success.
_Keeping a Position._
A housekeeper studies not only to secure a good situation, but also to
avoid losing it. "Good enough" is not her motto; "the very best" are her
constant watchwords. Some one has said: "A housekeeper is born, not
made." The "born housekeeper" is a spasmodic housekeeper. As a rule, she
is not evenly balanced. A housekeeper with plain common sense,
susceptible to instructions, willing to obey orders, is the housekeeper
that leaves the old situation for one of better pay. There must be, of
course, a foundation on which to build. The stones of that foundation
should be self-control, self-confidence, education, neatness in dress,
and cleanliness. None of these is a gift, but an accomplishment that can
be developed more or less according to the individual.
Good manners are very essential. Politeness alone will not bring about
the desired results in any profession, but it has never been known to be
a hindrance. Manners that will be accepted without criticism in one
woman, will be odious and objectionable in another. Too much familiarity
breeds contempt. An employer would better be approached with dignity and
reserve.
_The Charm of Neatness._
Few housekeepers realize the charm of the neatly dressed woman. The hair
should always be neatly arranged and not look as if it was about to fall
on her shoulders. The binding of her skirt should not show ragged in
places. These are little things, but they weigh heavily in the general
results. The well-groomed woman knows that the neglect of these things
is full of shame to womankind.
In regard to "bumping up against" the bell-boys, clerks, stewards, and
stenographers, the wise housekeeper is shrewd enough to "stand in." She
"turns the other cheek," which may sometimes be a difficult task to
perform.
Remember that no one on earth can ever succeed in life and hold a
"grudge." The inability to forgive his enemies lost James G. Blaine the
White House.
If a bell-boy is caught doing something detrimental to the success of
the management, the housekeeper should write a note to the clerk, or the
captain of the watch, and inform him of the bell-boy's misdeeds. This
will be sufficient from the housekeeper.
On assuming the duties of a new field, the housekeeper may remember
merely a few important duties; for instance, she must carefully
scrutinize the time-book and learn all the maids' names and stations.
Next learn the location of rooms and become familiarized with every
piece of furniture in them. Then, step by step, she should build up the
general cleanliness of the house. This is by far the most important of
all the requisites pertaining to hotel housekeeping. Guarding against
difficulties encountered with the employes and with the managers' wives
is secondary.
A housekeeper that can not take orders is not fit to give them; if the
manager asks for the removal of an offensive employe, the housekeeper
should immediately get rid of the objectionable person. If the
housekeeper fails in deference to the manager's wishes, is not that good
evidence that she is not a good soldier? She should be eager to maintain
the dignity of her position--must maintain it in fact--and do as high
service as possible for the management. Yet she can not always carry out
her own ideas. The manager has his ideas about matters, which right or
wrong, must be respected. The housekeeper carries out the manager's
orders. If the hotel fails to bring a profit or give satisfaction, the
manager alone is held accountable.
_About Hiring Help._
To dismiss a maid is a very easy matter; to obtain a substitute that
will perform the duties assigned her in a manner that will prove more
effectual, is not so easy.
To fire or not to fire, that is the question
Whether 'tis easier on the impulse of the moment
To suffer the terrors and exactions of the haughty maids,
Or take up arms against their impudence
And with pen and ink end them.
To lie, to sleep--
Worry no more, and by good management to dispatch
The cares and thousand little details
Housekeepers are heir to--'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished.
The employment-agency is the housekeeper's recruiting station. She gets
most of her help from this place. The housekeeper should always consult
the manager when other help is to be hired. Everyone knows that old
employes are always best, even if they do spoil the new ones. The
housekeeper endeavors to keep the help as long as she can, using
persuasion, kindness, and forbearance, striving to teach them the best
and easiest way to do their work, bearing with their imperfections,
overlooking a great deal that is actually repulsive, not expecting to
find in the hard-working individual the graces of a Marie Antoinette, or
the inherent qualities of a Lady Jane Gray.
The housekeeper should not only be scrupulously honest herself, but
should insist that the maids be honest. It is true that almost
irresistible temptations and opportunities to steal are constantly
thrown in the way of the maids; and those that are steadfastly honest
deserve great credit.
If a maid is neat and clean in appearance and does her work well--these
qualities cover a multitude of sins. From the standpoint of many
housekeepers, too much curiosity and gossiping are the chiefest and
quickest causes--next to the neglect of work--for a maid's dismissal. A
housekeeper is usually disliked by the maids that do not want to do
their work, just as a stepmother is hated by some stepchildren,
regardless of her kindness and her consideration for their welfare.
Employes in any business prefer to take their orders from the person
that pays them their money. For this, they are not to be blamed; but if
the proprietor or the proprietor's wife wishes to retain the services of
a good housekeeper, and be relieved of the trying ordeal of training the
help, he or she will not encourage tattling from the housekeeper's
inferiors.
THE HOTEL PROPRIETOR'S WIFE.
Implicit confidence should exist between the housekeeper and the
proprietor's wife. This does not mean that the proprietor's wife should
take the housekeeper automobile riding. Any proprietor's wife that
enters into such a degree of intimacy with any of her husband's employes
distinctly displays the hallmarks of plebeanism. The writer does not
want to become an iconoclast, but she believes that all business should
be conducted on a business basis. There must be an unwavering loyalty to
the interests mutually represented, at all times and under all
circumstances.
The proprietor's wife that goes to the help's dining-room or to the
laundry, presumably to press a skirt or a shirt-waist, but in reality to
see what she can see and to hear what she can hear, is disloyal to the
management. She will always have poured into her ears stories that will
annoy her and keep her worried. There are maids in a hotel always ready
to "keep the pot boiling." Such a proprietor's wife not only encourages
malicious slander and tattling, but she will soon be asking questions of
the inferior help about the housekeeper's management. Soon the
inferiors will be giving the orders instead of the housekeeper, and the
discipline will be spoiled. Besides, the proprietor's wife will be told
imaginary wrongs, and exaggerated stories concerning some maid employed
in the hotel, which will necessitate the maid's discharge. Whether the
story is real or imaginary, the proprietor's wife is not benefited by
the stories she has heard. She should ask herself: Is this loyalty?
Isn't it unmistakably the earmark of commonality?
No housekeeper will object to taking orders from the proprietor's wife.
The progressive housekeeper is always polite to her employer's wife,
though not to the extent of being deceitful. The housekeeper must bear
in mind that what is of vital importance to the proprietor of a hotel is
of equal importance to the proprietor's wife. The housekeeper tries to
work in harmony with them both, which means success of the highest
order. To do this, the housekeeper must retain her dignity, often under
the most exasperating circumstances. The proprietor's wife is privileged
to frequent any part of the hotel she may choose to, but how must a
housekeeper feel to see her conversing in the most familiar tones with
the waitresses and the chambermaids, and to know that she is listening
to malicious slander of the lowest kind. A housekeeper can have no
control over the employes where the discipline is thus ruined, or where
there is so much unpleasantness arising from unwise interference over
trifles, by the proprietor's wife, or from officious meddling by the
families of the prominent stockholders.
_Tact Can Not be Taught._
"Bumping up against" the proprietor and proprietor's wife or family is
one of the most perplexing problems that the housekeeper has to solve.
The ability to combat with such a problem can not be imparted by
teaching. It has to exist in the housekeeper herself, in the peculiar,
individual bent of her nature. No amount of preaching and teaching can
ever endow a housekeeper with the ever ready wit characteristic of the
"Irish tongue."
The savory reply, "O, Mrs. B., you are a dream of loveliness!" would be
sweet to some ears while to others it would be a "harsh discord." It is
impossible to teach which ear would or would not be the receptive one.
Any attempt on the part of the housekeeper to work up these qualities,
"by rule" would only be a failure Even the "Golden Rule" fails sometimes
to bring about desired results. The better plan, perhaps, for the
housekeeper to adopt is to live her own life, and not try to imitate
others. If she tries to be great, she will be nothing; if she tries to
be plain, simple, and good, she may be great.
CHARACTER IN THE HOTEL BUSINESS.
There is no royal road to success for the hotel clerk, steward, manager,
or housekeeper. The hotel business is peculiar in many respects; it
teaches conspicuously the great importance of character.
There is no ingenious system that the housekeeper may adopt to insure
her success. Getting into trouble or keeping out of it is largely a
matter of luck, influenced by the kind of help that she is able to
secure. But, first and last, her success depends on her character--her
own energy, industry, intelligence, and moral worth.
ROOM INSPECTION.
When inspecting rooms, the housekeeper will notice that the room is
completed with the following necessaries: One bed, one foot blanket. One
rocking chair and two straight chairs. One writing table and a scrap
basket. One cuspidor. One dresser. One clothes tree or wardrobe. One ice
water pitcher and two glasses on a tray. If there is no bathroom, or
stationary hot and cold water, there must be a commode, a wash bowl and
pitcher, soap dish and clean soap. One slop jar, one chamber. Four face
towels. If there is a bathroom, one bath mat and toilet paper in the
holder. One small mirror. One cake of bath soap and two bath towels are
needed. On the dresser in every guest room should be a box of safety
matches and a candle. Candles are so cheap, and candle holders may be
purchased for a trifle, which will answer the purpose as well as silver.
No one who has lived in hotels but knows how annoying it is to be left
in total darkness for half an hour, on account of a burned out fuse,
when they are dressing for the theatre and in a hurry to complete their
toilet.
The clerk in the office with the room rack in front of him has no
conception of the rooms except that they are in perfect order. Perfect
order does not only mean that the bed is neatly made, the floor clean
and all the furniture dusted; soap, towels, matches, candles and glasses
in their places, but everything must be in perfect working order. Let
the housekeeper's inspection begin then with the door. The lock must be
in order, and the key work properly. It is embarrassing to the clerk to
have to listen of a morning to such complaints as "my door would not
lock, and I was compelled to push the dresser in front of it to insure
safety." But this "kick" is often heard in first-class houses. The
transoms next should receive attention--see if they will open and close.
Next the electric lights; they must all be in order and burn brightly.
The dresser drawers must move readily, and be perfectly clean. The
windows must be carefully examined to see if they open and close easily,
and they must have no broken cords. A housekeeper's intelligent
attentions to these details will greatly aid the clerk in prompt service
to the guests, and will insure to the hotel the service that will be its
own best advertisement.
GOSSIP BETWEEN EMPLOYES.
There are only two classes in a hotel among its employes; one class is
quite perfect and pure as angels, while the others are black sheep and
altogether unspeakable. There is no transition, no intermediate links,
no shading of light or dark. A hotel employe is either good or bad, and
this rigid rule applies not only to moral character, but intellectual
excellence also is measured by the same standard. In a large hotel of,
say 250 employes, everybody seems to know everybody and everything about
everybody. Everybody knows that he is watched, and gossip, both in the
best and worst sense of the word, rules supreme. Gossip is, in fact,
public opinion, with all its good and all its bad features. Still, the
result is that no one can afford to lose caste, and everybody behaves as
well as he can. The private life of hotel employes is almost blameless.
The great evils of society do not exist; now and then a black sheep gets
in, but his or her life soon becomes a burden, everybody knows what has
happened and the employes, being on a whole so blameless, are all the
more merciless on the sinners, whether their sins are great or small.
What most impresses one in hotels is the loyalty among employes. No one
tells them what to do or what to say, or what not to say, or what not to
do, yet you will observe that one who professes to be your friend will
not say unfriendly things behind your back. This condition is noticeable
among those of inferior rank, as well as among managers, stewards,
clerks and housekeepers. As a rule, one table in the main dining room is
reserved for the officers, clerks, stewards, cashiers, bookkeepers,
checkers, stenographers and housekeepers. Most of them have been taught
a few rules of life wisdom by their seniors. At any rate, few of them
are seen with their elbows on the table. They are observant enough of
social forms to eat pie with a fork, and their teaspoon is always in the
saucer; they eat slowly and take time to triturate. There is always one
"wit" to make one sorry when the meal is ended. Many hotel employes
possess intellectual powers to a great degree. Many clerks are college
graduates. The housekeeper is not, as some have said usually a member of
the broken down aristocracy, some one who has seen better days, whose
duty it is to walk through the halls with a "persimmon" countenance, in
search of the evildoer; never was a statement more false. Hotels employ
a house detective to look after its morals. A housekeeper is more apt to
be an assistant, who has been promoted to the very responsible position
of housekeeper.
_Relationship Between Housekeeper and Women Patrons._
A simple acquaintance is the most desirable footing with all persons,
however desiring. The unlicensed freedom that usually attends
familiarity affords but too ample scope for the indulgence of selfish
and mercenary motives on the part of the women patrons. It would be safe
to say that the housekeeper owes to all women patrons the courtesy and
consideration due one woman from another. It has been said that woman's
inhumanity to woman makes countless millions mourn. But this condition
is happily fading away; within the last decade women have been improving
in manners and morals toward each other. The housekeeper should take the
initiative, consider the "roof as an introduction" and assume a kindly
interest in the welfare of the women guests.
Politeness is the sweetener of human society and gives a charm to
everything said and done. But a housekeeper may be called on to
sacrifice her duty to her employer. In this case she must not let any
weak desire of pleasing guests make her recede one jot from any point
that reason and prudence have bid her pursue.
_Birds of Passage._
One of the most striking conditions in modern hotel life is that few
hotels retain their heads of departments any great length of time, while
the inferior working class remains in one hotel for many years, and
often for a lifetime. This significant state becomes more marked from
year to year, and the question arises: What has brought about such a
changed condition? The traveling public surely is gratified to see a
familiar face behind the desk, in the housekeeping department, and also
in the dining-room. In days past, clerks, stewards, and housekeepers,
were identified with the same hotel until a retirement from all active
life would see them replaced by others. But of late they seem to have
earned the title, "birds of passage."
Temperament creates the atmosphere of your surroundings, and if you
would remain in a fixed place, you should cultivate the respect of all,
and, if possible, their love, also. A nervous man or woman speaks in
haste and uses a sharp tone of voice over mere trifles, which, to an
ignorant mind, may have a tendency to create dislike, causing results
that may prove distinct barriers to his or her success as a manager or
housekeeper, whereas a placid man or woman could bring about the same
result with gentler tones, thereby preventing useless friction and
hatred.
_Directing and Commanding._
Heads of hotel departments should cultivate their talents for directing
and commanding. Politeness, which belongs to all persons of good
breeding and is essential in the ordinary transactions of life, is so
minutely cultivated by the heads of hotel departments as to be
conspicuous in its absence; some are not even civil, which is the very
least that one person can be to another.
I do not mean to infer that an employe is to be forgiven if he gets
intoxicated and is late to his work every morning, nor that a sneak, a
thief, or an agitator should be excused. To handle help on the forgiving
plan in such cases, employers would become sentimental reformers and the
worst kind of failures. Sentiment may be comforting, but it is silly
when employed in business, under these conditions. Those that desire may
practice forgiveness, but when it costs time and money and brings gray
hairs to those that are doing the forgiving, it is better to keep as
near the line of sternness as possible. Everyone employing labor should
be very careful of his manner in expressing his disapproval of the
actions of subordinates. A reprimand should never be made in anger. If a
grave offense has been committed, reprimanding should be done with great
coolness and reserve, if you would look to future events and their
probable consequences. Impertinent and forward people may be checked by
cold reserve. Often the faculties for transacting business and the
talents for directing and reprimanding are considered by fond admirers
to be the gift of nature, when, in reality, they are the outcome of
self-control and education.
Chesterfield says: "If you are in authority and have a right to command,
your commands delivered in _sauviter in modo_ will be willingly,
cheerfully, and, consequently, well obeyed."
_Attention to Details._
Hotel housekeeping is a science. The crowning excellence, as all
acknowledge, lies in giving strict attention to small things. Successful
hotel-keeping is an artistic achievement in which everything is in its
right place, is of the proper grade, shade, quality, and cleanliness,
harmonizing in every particular.
Details are repulsive to the lazy or the listless. Let the housekeeper
feel the greatness of her position and the importance of her duties, if
she so desires to succeed. Enthusiasm is an element that can least be
spared--one that must accompany the housekeeper at every step.
The question has arisen whether the housekeeper should learn without
rules, by blundering experience, or should she take what the approved
experience of others has found to be the best. No one doubts the answer.
The true way is to submit to rules and regulations and methods of
experienced and practical hotel housekeepers that have made their
profession a life-long study.
THE PROGRESSIVE HOUSEKEEPER.
The ocean is an everchanging wonder of kaleidoscopic views and no eye
ever wearies of its beauty. The earth arrays herself in such gorgeous
costumes so pleasing to man's sight that few there are who want to leave
her to try another. The child tires of the old ragdoll and cries for the
"Teddy bear." Put a new dress on the old ragdoll and it will again
become the favorite.
If a housekeeper is not progressive, her employer will tire of her. The
onward trick of nature is too much for the average housekeeper, and
gladly would she anchor, but to do so means to sink. She must keep up
with the times, she must travel the pace of progress.
There is nothing new under the sun, but there is constant metamorphosis.
Time brings changes. Competition is strong and housekeepers must be on
the alert for any accomplishment that will aid in their calling.
In America, life is a universal race for exalted positions. Then get out
of the rut and keep up the long list of illusions, of which a rapid
succession of changes and moods and styles and ideas is the secret.
You must keep busy. There is only one sin that you can commit; that sin
is idleness. Polish the old things and make them look like new. Do not
let your footsteps become so narrow that they will end in a
turkey-track. Keep up your practice of thoroughly cleaning rooms,
overhauling furniture, and sending out a mattress now and then to have
it repaired. Take up a carpet and have it cleaned. Give the radiators a
coat of bronze. Have the ceiling lights cleaned. Paste up the wall-paper
that is hanging from the wall. Polish the brass on the stairs. Put in an
order for some new material of which to make dresser covers.
_Decorative Dresser Covers._
The writer has just completed some very pretty dresser covers for the
parlor floor rooms, en suite. The work is fascinating, and the
linen-room girls and parlor-maids can lend a hand at making them. Any
kind of linen material can be adapted that can be laundered with ease
and success. Plain white linen is a well-deserved favorite and makes
thoroughly useful, as well as fashionable, dresser-covers. A cheaper
material can be found in linen toweling--just as pretty and just as
durable as the plain white linen.
The dresser cover just covering the dresser and not allowed to hang down
is the favorite mode just now. It can be simply hemmed; but a charming
and more attractive pattern is with scalloped edges and elaborated
ends. These scallops are made with a spool, medium size, No 50 being
especially suitable. Put the spool on the edge of the material and with
a lead pencil, draw a crescent and then another, clear across the end.
Pad the scallops with common white darning-cotton, using the old
fashioned chain-stitch. Before putting the work in the embroidery-hoops,
sew a strip of muslin, about six inches in width to the edge of the
dresser cover. This will aid in getting the work placed in the hoops and
will enable you to do smoother and more satisfactory work.
Embroider the scallops with linen embroidery floss, size "D," using the
buttonhole stitch. An eyelet at the termination and just above each
crescent will add materially to its effectiveness. Rip off the muslin
and launder before cutting out the scallops. This will prevent the ugly
fringe seen on so many embroidered dresser-covers.
THE HOUSEKEEPER'S SALARY.
Too many housekeepers of the present day neglect the small things. They
want to draw large salaries and let the house take care of itself, while
they visit with the guests and gossip and have a good time. The clerks
are kind and do not report to the manager the little complaints that
come to the office every day; but the housekeeper's conscience should
tell her that she is not earning her money.
The housekeeper that is above her profession, is not interested in her
work, and that is trying to get into some church society, had better not
engage in hotel housekeeping, for her housekeeping duties will require
her constant attention at the hotel. There will be some difficulties to
settle at all times, which will require her presence. Maids work better
when they are conscious of a vigilant overseer. They take more pride in
their work when they know that every nook and corner is being inspected
by the housekeeper. Especially is this true if the housekeeper is
successful in commanding the respect of her subordinates.
The housekeeper that lays the blame of some grave mistake on her
assistants is not worthy of the name of housekeeper. Had she been there,
attending to her affairs, it would not have happened, for she would have
prevented or stopped it.
The housekeeper, by diligence, attendance to her duties, and by
economies, figures greatly in the success of a hotel, and makes her own
position. The position does not make her. Then it is fairly reasonable
to suppose that such a housekeeper should make her own salary; that she
should command and receive her price; that she should be paid according
to the amount she is really worth, and not the fixed scale that the
hotel pays. If a housekeeper can show by her books, by her management,
and by her economies, that she is worth more than her predecessor, she
is entitled to more pay, and by all means should receive more pay. The
average salary paid a housekeeper is not enough to properly clothe a
housekeeper. After her laundry bills are paid, what has she left to lay
up for the "rainy day," to say nothing of an old age, when parsimony and
incompatibility of temper and "set ways" make her, in any place, an
unwelcome personage.
_The Faithful, Efficient Housekeeper._
The housekeeper that sticks to her post and is always looking after her
work is surely worth more to her employer than one that has worn the
carpet threadbare in front of her mirror, or one that puts in a great
portion of her time at the bargain-counter, or the theater, or with a
novel in her hand. Surely, the hard-working housekeeper, the one that
makes her occupation a study and is always at her post, is worth more to
her employer than the housekeeper that is trying to do society "stunts,"
to ring in with people of fashion, to "out-dress" them. But the majority
of hotels pay much the same salaries to housekeepers, good, bad, and
indifferent.
The progressive housekeeper that thus looks after her employer's
business every day, always at her post in the linen-room, is
uncomplaining, shoulders the blame, and is not always knocking on his
private-office door and entering complaints about this or that, is
surely worth more than thirty dollars a month to any hotel man. If he
does not think so, he should not blame the progressive, faithful,
reliable housekeeper, if she promptly accepts a position with better
pay.
INSPECTION AND CLEANING OF ROOMS.
The housekeeper, or her assistant, should go through every room twice a
day. In the morning, the housekeeper should take the house-plan, inspect
every room, and check up the rooms that have been occupied. If the bed
in a room has been used, and if there is baggage, she should check this
also, and should turn the report into the office by nine o'clock. Then,
in the afternoon, when the maids are supposed to have finished their
work, the housekeeper should take her pencil and pad and thoroughly
inspect every room and the maids' work. She may find a ragged sheet or
pillow slip; if so, she should make a note of it. Some room may be short
of a towel, soap or matches; she should make a note of this also. Around
the gas-jets and in the corners, she may find "Irish curtains"
(cobwebs); in the commode, she may find a vessel that was forgotten; in
a dresser drawer, a man may have left his cast-off hose, and suspenders.
Some maid may have swept the center of the room, while under the bed and
under the dresser there may be dust of two weeks' standing; in another
room, the housekeeper may find a bathtub forgotten--all of which she
should write on the pad. This work will occupy two hours of her time in
a two-hundred-room house. When the maids come on watch at six o'clock,
each one should be given instructions to go back and finish her work. In
some hotels, the maids do not go off duty of an afternoon, but continue
working until six o'clock. In this case, the housekeeper should issue
her instructions at once.
HOW TO CLEAN A ROOM.
There are many ways to clean a room, but there is just one best way to
clean it thoroughly. "Dig out the corners" should be the watchword of
every successful housekeeper. She would rather the maid would leave the
dirt in a pile in the center of the room than fail to clean out the
corners.
If one word could be selected that means the most and needs the most
emphasis in the science of housekeeping, that word would be
"cleanliness." The first desideratum, therefore, of the chambermaid, is
the scrub-pail and a piece of oilcloth--some maids use a
newspaper--under it to protect the carpet. The first thing to do is to
clean the small pieces of furniture. If the furniture is new, it should
be only wiped with the dust-cloth. If it is old and marred, it should be
washed with warm water and soap, and oiled with a good furniture-polish.
It should then be set in the hall. The dresser drawers should be washed
and the marble cleaned with sapolio; the mirrors should be polished, the
windows washed, and the shutters dusted. The crockery should be cleaned
and put in the hall. The bed should be covered with a dust-cover. The
cobwebs should be swept down with a long-handled broom. The lace
curtains should be shaken, and either taken down or pinned up. The
closet should be swept out. The toilet-bowl should be scrubbed inside
and out with the toilet-brush, and a disinfectant powder put in. The
stationary wash-bowl should be scrubbed with sapolio, and the faucets
polished, not forgetting the chain. The bathtub should also be scrubbed
with sapolio, and the floor washed.
The door should now be closed and the sweeping begun. A very good plan
is to scatter wet paper over the floor to keep the dust down. The
corners should be dug out and the dirt swept to the center of the room
and taken up in the dust-pan. If the carpet is old, it should be sponged
with warm water and soap, to which a little ammonia has been added. The
carpet will look like new after this process. After the dust is well
settled, all the wood work in the room should be washed; the bed and
dresser should be washed and oiled, and all the furniture should be
symmetrically arranged, and the windows closed on account of storms.
One chambermaid can successfully look after eighteen or twenty rooms a
day. Not all of the rooms are occupied every night. The maid should take
advantage of the dull days to clean her rooms thoroughly; she should
clean one room every day.
THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD BEDS.
Competition is great, and success will come to the best and cleanest
hotel. The traveler loves to slip into a bed with perfectly laundered
sheets that do not look as if the maids had sprinkled, folded, and
pressed them between the mattress, as chambermaids ordinarily do in
hotels where there is a scant supply of linen.
Sometimes the chambermaid will ask the laundryman for a pair of sheets
to make up a sample-room, as the guest wants to receive a customer. The
laundryman replies: "Well, just as soon as the machinery starts again,
you may have them." There has been a breakdown; the belt is off; or
something has gone wrong, and they have sent for the engineer to fix it.
Then the housekeeper must go to some unoccupied room and strip the bed
and use the linen for making up the bed in the sample-room, while the
guest walks the floor and frets over the delay. Much time is saved if
the hotel is supplied with plenty of linen.
Sheets that cover only two-thirds of the mattress do not add to the
cheerfulness and comfort of the guests. Many well grounded complaints
are entered about this. Special laws have been enacted in some states,
within the last year, regarding the length of sheets.
Occasionally a guest finds it expedient to make his bed over, if he
would have any comfort. The maid has put the double fold of the blanket
to the top; it is a warm night, yet he fears to throw the blanket
off--he might take cold. So he concludes to make his own bed, putting
the single fold to the top, that he may throw some of it back.
HOW A BED IS MADE.
Good bed-making is the one trait par excellence in all good chambermaid
work. To make a bed artistically is one important feature, and to make
it so that the guest may rest comfortably is another, and, finally, just
how is the best way to make a bed is a question worthy of consideration.
In our big country of America, the traveler from Maine to California
sees many styles of bed-making. In New Orleans is seen the picturesque
canopy of pure white mosquito-netting tucked in neatly all around. In
Kansas City is seen the snowy spreads plaited half way to the foot with
numerous little folds. In New York is seen the pure linen hemstitched
sheets, turned back with a single fold.
To begin to make a bed, first, the mattress should be turned. The bottom
sheet should then be tucked in carefully by raising the mattress with
one hand and smoothing the sheet down with the other. The large hems
should always be at the head, in order that no one may be compelled to
lay his face where some one's feet have been. After the bottom sheet
has been tucked in at the head, it should be tightly drawn and tucked in
at the foot in the same way. Sheets should be long enough to tuck in one
foot at the head and one at the bottom. If it is a brass bed, the sheets
should be left to hang down.
After the bottom sheet is on perfectly, it is easy to make a pretty bed,
and one in which the guest may rest well. The top sheet should be put
on, and tucked in at the foot only. The blanket should be put on with
the single fold at the head. If the guest should get too warm, he can
throw half of the blanket to the foot and yet have sufficient covering.
After the spread is put on, a single fold as large as your hand should
be made, then another fold one foot in width should complete the
folding, and the spread should be neatly tucked in. The pillows should
now be smoothed evenly and placed up aright, and the bed is made.
HOW TO CLEAN WALLS.
To clean a painted canvas wall does not require so much skill as
patience.