SERVANT WORRIES AND THEIR REMEDIES.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1933, 5 May 1880, Page 3

SERVANT WORRIES AND THEIR REMEDIES.

[Prom the “Queen.”] Among the many worries that fall to the lot of housewives, servant-worries certainly rank very high, if not foremost. They would become unbearable if there was nothing to be done but to submit to them, or to send away the servant who causes these worries, probably only to get a more worrying one in her stead, and I want to suggest a few possible remedies for euoh worries as I have been subjected to myself, confining myself to those caused by women servants.

Number one is the servant who will not get up early enough in the morning to get through her work thoroughly and carefully by the time it ought to be done, thereby causing discomfort to herself and everyone else in the house. If it is the cook who is lazy, tho kitchen grate is not properly cleaned, the kettle is not boiling in time for the kitchen breakfast or the water hot enough for the baths, the hall is swept so hurriedly that bits of dust are floating about all day, the stops are daubed with hearthstone instead of being well washed and whitened, the kitchen and larder are loft untouched, and, in fact, all tho work either slurred over or left undone. If the housemaid is the offender, then it is the dining-rcom and drawing room that suffer ; the grates look dull, tho fireirons still more dull, the fires show signs of only just being lighted, and the rooms are quite cold. She calls one late in the morning, hoping by that moans to postpone the breakfast hour. In some houses all the servants take it into their heads to get into late habits, and not to see why they “ should get up much before missus does; ” then the discomfort and scramble that prevail is very great. One way I have of insuring the getting up of my servants is by having a cup of tea brought me at seven o’clock every morning; then I know they must be up by half-past six, at all events, to get the lire lighted and the tea made by seven, and there is no excuse for their not having time to do their work well before the half-past eight or nine o’clock breakfast in tho dining room. Some servants complain that they cannot wake, and this excuse seems I natural enough, for after a hard day’s work it is not astonishing that they should sleep heavily. Some people have a bell hung in the passage outside the maids’ rooms communioating with the room of the lady of tho house, so that she can pull it when it is time for them to get up. This is a good plan if the lady of the house happens to wake early herself, and if the bell is paid attention to; but both these ifs are likely to mar the plan. If servants are expected to get up early in the morning they must go to bed early, for it is quite necessary they should have a long sleep to fit them for their work. It is no wonder that servants grumble and are discontented with their lot in life when they are not treated with consideration, and are expected to go to bed late and get up early—in fact, are treated like machines instead of human beings. The next in my list of worries is the housemaid who is regardless of corners. Nothing gives such an impression of slovenliness in a house as uudusted or uuswept corners in a room. Tho middle of it and the principal objects in it may be as clean as possible, but it never looks really nice and well kept to anyone who is accustomed to look after her household, who knows how things ought to be done, and who detects in a moment the cornerless housemaid in a house. Such a housemaid requires constant looking after, and gives endless trouble. I find the only way to make mnie more careful is to send for her as soon as I have found out the deficiencies in her work, and make her fill them up there and then. This will make her more careful for some time ; but, if she is not a conscientious servant, the instant her mistress’s vigilance relaxes, she will again slur over what she imagines to be the unobserved part of her work. The top of the wainscoating round doors is a very favorite place to leave undusted, also the tops of the picture frames, and the lodges of the windows. I often have to call my housemaid in after she has given the room what she calls a “ good cleaning,” to put these finishing touches to it, and she is always surprised at my having found put they were dusty, and she does hot know that a little silk duster I always keep in the drawing-room, and which I twist round the end of a stick, does the service for eyes. I always tell her she knows the dust must bo there whether she sees it or not; and I have provided her with a long feather brush on purpose to dust things with that which are out of her reach. Another thing such a housemaid is apt to do unless she is found out is to sweep out the bedrooms without moving any of the furniture, leaving an unwholesome collection of dust under the bed, the washingstand and any of the furniture that has a space under it. As beds ai e generally upon castors, they are easily moved, so that want of strength need be no excuse, and a very slight moving will bo quite enough to allow the maid to sweep out all the dust that has collected underneath them. The result of my finding out this trick of my housemaid’s was, that she had to do all the sweeping, and consequently the dusting, of the bedrooms over again, and this extra work, which wos evidently very distasteful to her, quite cured her, especially as she knows I never miss making an inspection of each bedroom after its “ sweeping day.”

The spare bedrooms ia a house often come off badly. Visitors do not like to complain, and the housewife is apt to pass them over in her daily routine. Either the rooms are unoccupied, or she does not like to go into them if they are occupied. I speak feelingly of spare bedrooms, for in one house that I have stayed in, where everything is always beautifully clean and nice in the rooms occupied by the family, the visitors’ bedrooms are so neglected as to be quite uncomfortable. The mistress of the house, who is very particular, and has a well trained housemaid, who has been with her for years, naturally imagines that rll the rooms in the house are as well looked after as those she inhabits. Unluckily this well-trained and valued old housemaid thinks it quite fair that she and her colleague the under-housemaid should shirk looking after the spare bedrooms. Spiders are the only things that profit by this arrangement, and they certainly have a fine time of it, their cobwebs being interesting examples of the firm structures their owners can make if sufficient time and liberty are granted them. Such a state of things cannot exist if only the head of the household will inspect the spare bedrooms as well as the others, giving them a special inspection before guests arrive to make sure that they are thoroughly clean and well-aired.

There is one thing which housemaids, however particular in their work, can rarely be made to understand, and that is, that the registers in fireplaces ought always to be kept open. They with one consent insist on shutting them down the instant fires are no longer wanted. It is true that soot is apt to fall down the chimney, and grates have to be swept out frequently, but as it is necessary for the proper ventilation of the room that the chimney" should be kept open, housemaids must never be allowed to have their own way in this. There is always a close smell in a room where the register is down, which anyone can detect at once, and which is especially to be found in spare bedrooms, whore in summer the registers are generally down. A cook who ia not t lorough in her “ cleanings up ” is, if possible, a greater worry than such a housemaid. Looking after pots and pans, and such like kitchen appliances, is even harder work than peering into corners and under bods, and yet their cleanliness is still more essential to health as well as comfort. It is not only necessary to review the saucepans, &e., every morning, but if possible, before dinner as well. This is a very irksome task, and always resented by the cooks, but anything is bettor than having the dinner cooked in half-cleaned things. I remember on one occasion when a dish wo had had a peculiar and unexpected taste, and I told my cook about the next morning, and she immediately said, “ Oh yes, mum, 1 fried it in the same pan I fried the bacon in the morning, and I daro say there was some of the bacon fat sticking to it.” I never trusted her after that, much to her astonishment. The toast worry that cook caused me was never ending; it was useless to give her the excellent advice which I quote now from Mrs Warren’s book on how the lady help taught girls to cook and bo useful: —“ Hold the bread the length of your hand from the fire, that the moisture may dry out of it; when it is dry on one side turn it on the other, and in two or three minutes brown it on both sides of a nice golden color, and when you have done this, set it upright on a plate that it may keep crisp.” She would do it all right for two or three mornings, then went back to her own notion of toast —meaning, a flabby and tough piece of broad a little browned whore it was not burnt.