Ladies Column On the Treatment of Servants.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2036, 25 July 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Ladies Column On the Treatment of Servants.

Tije ohief error, says a lady contributor to the Belfast Gazette, which I think we housekeepers are in danger of falling into is that of treating our servants too much like machines and too little like human beings. We draw uncomfortable little lines about them, and make small restrictions for them, and the more olever in housekeeping we are supposed to be, the more we rub our servants up the wrong way. We want (if I may use the expression) to give them their heads more, to let their reins lie easily, and, so long as they go in a certain path, to permit them to feel free. We sever get the best work out of those who are •pending half their entrgio in trying to throw off the ourb. If, therefore, we want to make an improve* ment, let us direct our efforts towards making them feel the responsibility of their position, and so relieving ourselves of it. I know that immediately housekeepers will reply, " We would be only too glad to do it, but the girls will not take it ; they would only leave the work undone, and the house would go to ruin." This ii, no doubt, true of a few servants, but I think that by ezeroising a little tact and management, it need not be true of all. Ohe way of displaying tbo fact would be to give up " worrying," or as some call it, " nagging " the servants. What man would submit to be nagged as half the female servants of England are being continually nagged about little things not worth mentioning ? Trust the girls more; give them oredit for trying to do their best. When their work is superlatively successful, let them have full praise for it ; when it ii ordinarily successful, take it as a matter of course ; and above all so long as a girl has oommon sense, and shows signs of being willing to do what she can, do not follow her about and make her feel that your eye is upon her, and that you will be down upon her instantly if she turns to the right hand or the leit. Who could work under suoh conditions? lam sure that I could not. If I thought that I was being watohed at every step, and that some one was ready to have a few words with me if I turned my head, I should have a oontinual desire to do it. Yet hundreds of girls at the present moment in hundreds of homes, where servants are regarded as the greatest plague of life, are thus " looked after " or " kept up to the mark," and thefr lives are wearisome to them in consequence thereof. One way of preventing all nocepstty for this 11 looking after " servants is for the housedeeper to have herself, and to impart from the commencement of the engagement between them to her servant, a clear idea of what that servant's duties are, what privileges are to be permitted, and what are the possibilities of the situation. This arrived at, let her write down on paper, in black and white a dear statement of the oa«se, and give this paper to the girl, keeping n eojjy for personal reference. I believe this to bo an ezaellent plan, and in itself sufficient to do away with any amount of collision. In these days when the school-master is abroad and almost every one can read and write, it is quite possible. If that which is required is practicable, it will make things go smoothly. Girls like so much to know what is expected of them and when they have done. They will make haste and " get forward," and all sorts of things in the same way if only they can secure a little leisure nnd get a little rest when their task is accomplished. Having earned the rest and performed the ailoted duty they should be allowed tho full enjoyment of it and left alone. I believe that there are some mistresses who, if they ccc a girl sitting clown and resting, immediately conclude that they aro being defrauded and that they must look round and sco what has been left undone and set the girl to work. There is no occasion for this when a plan han been strictly followed. Let, however, a girl of ordinary intelligence and honesty understand that so long as the arrangements thus laid down is adherred to she shall be left alone, she shall never hear from her mistress, and already half the difficulty will ho mastered. I have known the work of a hou^e go on systematically, regularly, and thoroughly for months at a timo without any unpleasantnesses occuring between mistress and servant, and the key whioh has wound up the whole oonoern has been a plan of tho kind I have mentioned. Of course I do not wish to oonvey the idea that I advise a housekeeper to draw up a plan and then leave thiDgs to take their chance, to be done or left undone, as luck determines. On the contrary I would have her keep a copy of that plan in her own possession, and be most scrupulously direful that it is adherred to. The watch, howoyor, should bo maintained in a generous spirit and not in a buspicioua one. Looked at from any point of view, it will be acknowledged that housekeeping is a serious business. Hitherto we havo made tho mistake of regarding the house and its management as a detail, an annoyance, a trial ; we have not realised that it was a saared work. Yet never were truer words uttered than those of a great Amerioan writer. " The language of a ruder age has given to oommon law the maxim that every man's home U his castle :

the progress of truth will maice every hoina a shrine. She shall bravely »nd gracefully subdue the Gorgnn of Convention and Fashion, and show us how to lead a clean, handsome, and heroic life amid the beggarly el 3rnents of our cities and villiages ; who si ill teaeo u=! how to eat our meat and taVo our rapose, and deal with on" ano'hsr without n'tj shame and sorrow following, will re^tora tlio life of a man to splendour, and mako her name fragrant among her friends."