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Title: Letters to a Young Housekeeper
Author: Prince, Jane
Language: English
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LETTERS TO A YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER ❧ ❧
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LETTERS TO A YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER
by
JANE PRINCE
[Illustration: Publisher’s Logo]
Boston & New York
Houghton Mifflin Company
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1917
Copyright, 1917, by Houghton Mifflin Company
All Rights Reserved
Published February 1917
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TO
MY SISTER
AT WHOSE SUGGESTION THESE LETTERS
WERE WRITTEN FOR SOME
YOUNG FRIENDS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
❧ TABLE OF CONTENTS ❧
1. Economy in the Household 1
2. The Budget 17
3. Servants 29
4. Maid of all Work 57
5. Weekly Cleaning 73
6. Family Meals 85
7. Duties of Servants 103
8. Behind the Scenes at a 137
Dinner
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LETTERS TO A YOUNG
HOUSEKEEPER ❧ ❧
CHAPTER I ⬩ ECONOMY
IN THE HOUSEHOLD
YORK HARBOR, _June 20_.
_Dear Penelope_:
You have no idea how your plaintive little “wail” in the form of a
letter went right to my heart, or what memories long forgotten it
brought back to me of my early married life. You are perfectly right in
thinking that I too had my “experiences,” and I am so pleased that you
came to me to see if I could help you by recalling what I actually went
through myself and what those “experiences,” almost tragic to me at the
time, brought about in the way of remedies.
I have no doubt that it will seem “like a leaf out of your own book”
when I tell you that when we began housekeeping I started, as a matter
of course, in about the same way of living that I had been accustomed to
in my mother’s house. This was my standard and I knew no other. What was
my horror to find, when the end of the month came, that I was taking so
much for table expenses that we had little left for anything else. This
discovery nearly reduced me to tears, for we had both been brought up as
you have, with a great dread of living beyond our means.
Our first thought was to move into a house with lower rent, but, after
considering the question from all points of view, we decided to remain
where we were and find some other way of cutting down our expenses. This
was a difficult problem for any one so inexperienced and who had never
had to think much about economy, but it was the very same problem that
you are facing in very much the same way, and I did just what you are
doing, consulted a friend in whom we had confidence and who had had
years of experience. This consultation encouraged me to feel that there
were many changes I could make in our way of living, and I was honestly
amazed to find how much that seemed necessary for the table, just
because I had always been accustomed to it, was not necessary at all,
but that one was quite as well off without it.
I came home full of enthusiasm to see what I could do. Then came a
serious settling down to the subject and a careful looking into ways and
means. Together my husband and I talked over his income and decided what
proportion we should allow for the table. The next month was to be a
practice month, carefully watching how the money went, in order to make
a plan for other months. How interesting it seemed! It meant that I had
a vocation as well as my husband; that, by careful thought, I could make
him feel that it was worth while to work hard if what he earned went
just as far as it could and if when he came home tired he found my part
attended to so well that the home was comfortable and serene. For why,
if he went faithfully to his business daily, as a matter of course, in
order to give me the wherewithal to run the house, should not I do my
part as seriously and faithfully?
From that time economy and the management of the household took a new
interest, and what had been drudgery became a fascinating puzzle. I
plunged into the study of good cookery books, learning all I could about
the different cuts of meat, how to tell good fowl, etc., so that I could
choose well and make the money go as far as possible. In this search I
discovered that the cheaper cuts of meat are sometimes the most
nourishing and can be made tender by long cooking and very palatable in
various ways. I also learned a great many different receipts for cooking
the less expensive vegetables and serving them in an attractive way to
give variety with the least expense.
I then started with my practice month in this way: I bought groceries in
small quantities, only as much as we needed for a few days at a time,
asking the price of things and keeping an account of them to check off
with the bill when it came at the end of the month. Bills are a torment
with a small income, so, while I found the bills for staple groceries,
ice, and milk almost a necessity, I paid cash for all other articles of
food; that is, meat, vegetables, fish, eggs, butter, etc. I went to
market two or three times a week buying and paying for everything on the
spot and seeing everything weighed and measured that was sold in that
way. At the end of this practice month I made a list of what we had used
in groceries, ice, and milk, and also added together all the cash spent
on the other articles of food. With the grocery list in hand, at the
beginning of the second month, I laid in a complete supply of groceries
for the whole month, keeping it in a storeroom and giving out each
morning enough for the day’s needs. Of course some months we used a
little more, some a little less, but it averaged pretty even and was a
good guide. I laid in laundry soap by the box, because to keep a box
ahead, if you can, is the best economy, for it lasts twice as long if it
is stacked on shelves with spaces between the cakes so that it can dry
thoroughly before using.
The amount of groceries, milk, and ice we should use per month having
been decided upon as nearly as I could, we divided the _cash_ I had
spent on the other food during this practice month by 30, to see what
allowance this would give me per day. Then, when I went to market I took
with me in my marketing purse only the exact sum we allowed for the
number of days for which I was marketing. Otherwise I felt sure I should
spend too much, as the markets are so tempting and human nature so
frail!
Luxuries we did not have; we were young and did not need them and we
have never regretted that we saved them in order to have them in our old
age. Finding fancy groceries expensive, I did not buy them, but tried to
put the money we had allowed ourselves for the table into nutritious
food. Before going to market I used to make a rough outline ahead of the
meals and take with me a list of what was needed for them. One is much
more apt to have variety by thinking ahead, and taking a list to market
is an economy, for, while one may change it after getting there, and
substitute one article of food for another, still there is less
likelihood of getting unnecessary things.
Money spent on a few good cookery books is well spent, for without their
suggestions one is apt to fall into a rut, and this the family cannot
forgive. No cook left to herself does her best. She needs constant
supervision; to be told, “a little more salt here,” “more sugar there,”
“slower cooking,” etc., and also to be praised for what is good. If the
praise is not given, the cook gets discouraged; if mistakes are
overlooked, she gets careless. As some cooks don’t take correction
pleasantly, however well given, you will find that it works best to give
it at the end of your morning talk when all the ordering is finished.
In beginning with a new cook, it is well to explain at once to her that
you want her to lay aside everything that is left over, if only a
tablespoonful, putting it into the wire safe or refrigerator for you to
decide about the next morning. This is not generally done by American
housekeepers, so that, at first, cooks are apt to think you are mean
unless you explain to them cheerfully and pleasantly that it is in order
to have a greater variety and that this is one of the reasons that the
French cookery is so good.
You will find in some of your receipt books about the French
_pot-au-feu_ and can learn from this how to manage your own soup pot,
using the bones left over from roasts, etc., to start a stock and
varying this soup each day with left-overs, such as even a tablespoon of
peas or some spinach (strained), or string beans, tomatoes, shreds of
lettuce, or creamed oyster plant. This may not _sound_ especially good
to you, but my cook now makes soups that surprise me by their good
flavor and variety in just this way.
These left-overs also make good salads, sometimes the basis being
potatoes, to which is added a few beets, a little shredded lettuce, or,
in addition, some meat chopped up, each thing being too small a quantity
in itself for any one dish. Thus, a hearty and good salad or a hot dish
is evolved from what many people allow to be thrown away. I would advise
you to study some of the scientific diet menus that are published now
and find out the relative values in nutriment of the different foods.
Among the ideas of value to you you will discover that there are many
foods, such as cheese, peas, lentils, and beans, which take the place of
meat. As, for example, one pound of cheese equals two pounds of beef in
nutriment.
Eloise is at my elbow imploring me to stop writing and give _her_ some
advice about her dress for Mrs. Blake’s fancy ball, so I mustn’t run on
any more. Don’t hesitate to tell me anything that troubles you, for it
will be such a pleasure to me if I can help you.
Very affectionately yours,
_Jane Prince_.
P. S. Some days, when you don’t feel well, it is hard to think of the
menu, so I would advise you, whenever you have tried a receipt and found
it good, to write in a blank book, kept for the purpose, the name of the
dish, the title of the cookery book, and the page on which you found the
receipt; thus: “_Fish pudding_, Mary Ronald’s Century Cook-Book, page
123.” Before you know it you will have a book, not of receipts, but of
suggestions, which will tell you just where to look for the sort of dish
you want for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. In order to make it perfectly
easy to turn at once to any especial dish, divide the blank book, before
you make any entries in it, into as many sections as may be convenient,
leaving several pages to each section:
So many pages for _relishes_
So many pages for _soups without meat_
So many pages for _meat soups_
So many pages for _fish soups_
So many pages for _fish receipts_
So many pages for _entrées_
So many pages for _meats_
So many pages for _vegetables_
So many pages for _salads_
So many pages for _desserts_
So many pages for _lunch dishes_
So many pages for _breads and cakes_
So many pages for _eggs_
Can’t you imagine the relief such a book would be in an emergency and
how valuable it would become after a while because it has references
only to tried receipts?
Devotedly yours,
_Jane Prince_.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER II ⬩ THE BUDGET
YORK HARBOR, _July 30_.
_Dear Penelope_:
Your letter came this morning and you needn’t apologize at all for
writing me again so soon, for I am always delighted to hear from you. It
is very evident that you have an attack of the blues, so I am writing
you at once—now that I have a little spare time—to see if I can’t help
you out of them as quickly as possible. Being terribly busy this week
you must forgive me if I plunge at once into the subject and end when I
have said my say, without any bits of gossip to enliven the letter. I
will tell the girls to write you all the latest news.
It isn’t at all surprising that you feel as though economy were drudgery
when you are simply trying to live on just as little as you can with no
other object in view. What Dr. Richard Cabot says in his book that you
and I read together is so true, “_Work_ is doing what you don’t now
enjoy for the sake of a future which you clearly see and desire.
_Drudgery_ is doing under strain what you don’t now enjoy and for no end
that you can appreciate.”
Now that you tell me you have started the plan of laying aside a certain
sum for marketing and find it works well, and that it is interesting to
see how far you can make a particular sum of money go in this
department, I am encouraged to do some more suggesting along the same
lines. I would advise you to take a quiet time, when your husband is not
tired, and together think carefully over what all your other regular
expenses are, making a list of them something like this: rent; service;
lights; fuel; ice; milk; cab and car-fare; doctor’s bills and medicine;
postage; incidentals; presents; travel; charity; marketing; groceries;
your dress; your husband’s clothes; amusements. _Some of these items_,
such as doctor’s bills and medicine, belong to the unexpected and you
cannot make an allowance for them. _Others_, such as light, fuel, milk,
etc., after some experience, you can make an approximate allowance for.
_But there are some_, such as rent, service, charity, dress, etc., that
you have under your control and for which you can make a definite
allowance. Now, let us see if we can’t turn drudgery into pleasant work.
You have already put aside a definite sum for marketing; decide also
upon a definite sum, that seems reasonable and liberal to you both, for
some of the _other accounts that are under your control_, and think what
fun it would be at the end of the month to surprise your husband with
savings from any of these accounts and occasionally to use this money
for a little spree which you both can enjoy, or for some much-needed
article for one of you or for the house, or else to put into a nest-egg
for the future. You will find that you can do this if you “cut your
garment according to your cloth.”
Of course, in order to know just what you have saved on any one item of
your account, you would have to keep a careful record of everything that
you spend, and this you can do only by carrying a list with you when
shopping and writing down at the time the cost of everything you buy. At
the end of each month separate these expenditures, whether paid for by
cash or check, into their separate items, adding all of one kind
together under one head, thus:
Jany. Rent $45.00
Dress
Gas
Fuel
Etc., etc.
Keep this statement somewhere, either in the back of your account book
or in a blank book kept for the purpose, so that you can always tell at
a glance how much you have spent any month on any one item. This
memorandum is very important and should be a great help to you, for,
after several months of careful watching you will begin to know about
how much you really need for your different regular expenses. Sometimes,
after looking over the figures, you are led to feel that you have spent
more than you ought on some one account, sometimes on another, and then
the accounts have to be gone over to see how you have been careless.
Even now I find it of use to look back on this memorandum when money
seems to be going a little faster than it ought to. Each family has to
decide for itself what _proportion_ should be allowed for these
different expenses, but, with your income of $2200 a year, it is safe to
allow fifty cents a day per person for all food. The house rent, so
business men say, should not be more than a quarter of one’s income, if
possible a little less than that.
Neither of you will feel happy, I know, unless you lay aside something
for your church interests and also to help, if only a very little, some
of the public-spirited efforts for good. You can’t improve on the
Biblical proportion of a tenth of one’s income for this, or more if you
are prosperous. Some people could get almost that from the waste in
their households. You can see how you could enjoy giving when you knew
just what you had to give and were not worried with indecision.
Above all things, be very frank with each other in money affairs. Lack
of this frankness is sometimes responsible for a man’s getting into debt
because he can’t bear to deny his wife what she wants and she doesn’t
know that he is living beyond his means to get it for her. I hope you
won’t think me cruel when I advise you to keep away from shops unless
you have something to buy; in fact, waiting until you have quite a list,
for if one doesn’t see the fascinating things one doesn’t feel the need
of them. Bargains are a snare and a delusion, and, depend upon it, one
spends less money by getting something at its regular price when one
actually needs it than in getting something very cheap to lay by for a
possible need which may never come.
I can understand your feeling perfectly well that economy seems so mean,
but all danger of its being mean is removed if you waste nothing on
yourselves or your household in order to be able to do something better
or wiser or more generous with your money. We have nothing but
admiration of the French thrift (we don’t call it economy), and why
should not we Americans follow their example?
You may have an income of your own some day, and I shall venture to
advise you about that even if that beloved husband of yours is looking
over your shoulder! I hope you won’t fall into the mistake, on account
of the love and confidence you have in him, of putting it into the
common purse for regular expenses. It doesn’t reflect at all on that
confidence to keep your own accounts separate from his. The most devoted
of husbands and wives often differ in their ideas of what they want to
spend money for, and many a good and kind husband would soon begin to
feel a right over his wife’s money if it went into the common purse, so
long as he was spending it conscientiously in the way he thought would
bring her the most comfort. In the first glamour you can imagine how a
wife would enjoy the sacrifice of giving freely all her possessions into
her husband’s care to control as he thought best, but later she might
awaken to such a sense of the responsibility that the possession of
money entails that she would feel that she ought to decide for herself
how it should be spent. To make the change then would be likely to cause
hurt feelings or even a misunderstanding. For a woman to keep her
accounts separate need never interfere with her helping out at any time
when she saw the need of it, and that would be a genuine pleasure.
If there is anything else you want to talk over with me, now is the very
best time to write, for _all_ my children are going off on visits and
the house will seem so lonely that I shall be more glad than usual to
devote some of my time to you.
Very affectionately, with apologies to Tom for the last part of my
letter,
Your friend,
_Jane Prince_.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER III ⬩ SERVANTS
YORK HARBOR, _August 10_.
_Dear Penelope_:
It has been so long since your last letter that I feared you were ill
and was at my desk starting to write you when yours came and explained
the whole situation. What a picture of misery, and to think that that
nice-looking Mary turned out so unsatisfactory and that you have had
such a succession since her departure! So you feel degraded and as
though there was something the matter with you personally, do you? Well,
there is nothing the matter with you, and you are the same dear girl
that you have always been, and with your willingness to give the servant
question all the thought that it needs, these very experiences will help
you to cope with it more wisely. It made me laugh to hear how disgusted
your husband was because your present housemaid was such a fright! Don’t
let that worry you; just provide her with neat white aprons and a cap
and he won’t know her. Tell him I wish he had seen the little apparition
that came to me, when we were first married (we were living in the South
at the time), in answer to my advertisement for a housemaid. At least
forty-eight tiny little braids, each about four inches long, stood
straight out from her little black head and she was clad in bright red
plaid from top to toe, her face beaming all over with good nature. She
looked clean, as you say your new maid does, and the transformation was
complete when later, with hair smoothed out, and in a neat calico dress
and white apron, she stood before me for inspection. Since then, you can
imagine I have had all sorts and kinds and so many experiences that I
have gradually grown to look at domestic service in a broader way.
You have had enough discomfort already to make you feel that it is a
serious problem and I am so glad that what you have gone through has
only determined you to come out victorious in the end and not to follow
the example of so many women who go into apartments to get rid of
household cares. Undoubtedly they do reduce the number of their servants
and their worries in this way, but the family also loses much of the
home feeling. What would we think of our husbands if, when the men in
their employ gave them trouble, they said to us that they could not
manage their employees and would have to get rid of most of them which
would necessitate their reducing their business and our living in less
comfort in consequence? Wouldn’t we in our hearts think they were
failures in their vocations? And yet we women are just as much failures
in our vocation when we give up the privacy and comforts of home to go
into an apartment because we cannot manage our servants.
Every woman who tries to bring about a better understanding between
herself and her servants helps every other woman to make home life more
comfortable, so it really isn’t a little thing to do. On the contrary,
if enough women try, they may bring about great results. Nothing is so
absolutely destructive to an understanding between mistress and maid as
the habit, so common and so catching, of looking at servants as a class
by themselves, unlike other human beings and antagonistic to their
mistresses. What we should do is to try to get into a sympathetic mood
by remembering that human nature is the same the world over and in all
classes, the great difference being in education, early surroundings,
and training. If we only keep this in mind, while it really seems almost
impossible to understand the ignorance of many servants and to see
things from their point of view, yet we may at least realize that it
would be a disgrace if our ideals of conduct were not higher than
theirs.
When I tell you that you will need nearly every known virtue to keep
house well, you will expect to come out of the experience a piece of
absolute perfection! Certainly PATIENCE is one of the foremost needed.
It is so easy and natural for us to scold a servant when she has
neglected her duty or done something stupid, instead of patiently
following her up every time she neglects anything and with a pleasant
but decided manner seeing that she does it. And yet I know, from
experience, that the scolding produces no result except to make her
angry, while the other method will have one of two results; she will
either get into the habit of doing her work well to save herself the
mortification or irritation of being corrected or else she will show you
that she isn’t worth training and that you might as well let her go.
One’s patience, however, may cease to be a virtue in the case of a
sullen servant. I would not keep such a one, no matter how good her work
was, if after having spoken to her about it she did not change, for
nothing will wear you out sooner, and to no purpose, than having to
contend with that kind of a disposition. Tell her the reason that you
part with her and perhaps she will do better in her next place, in which
case you will have helped her and her future mistress.
UNSELFISHNESS—there’s plenty of opportunity for a mistress to show if
she is sincere in her desire to be fair. Just one instance: It isn’t
very pleasant, to say the least, if, after one has trained a servant to
be skillful and she has stayed for several years so that one has grown
dependent on her, she leaves for higher wages. Yet in every other
calling people are praised for what is called their ambition to rise,
and if we can’t pay high wages, how can we expect to keep the most
skillful servants? And why should we make them feel as though they were
not behaving well when they leave for more money?
How much WISDOM and THOUGHTFULNESS, too, we need to keep all the
different dispositions in the house in harmony, to know just the right
moment to correct and the time when extra work or a rainy wash-day or a
headache make it wisest to delay correction.
And then MORAL COURAGE—it is wonderful how that often will win the day.
It is fatal to be afraid of servants. If you have to reprove one of them
that you like and do not wish to lose, it is a good thing to fortify
yourself with the thought that it would be better to lose her than to
give in to any unreasonableness, for that would certainly put you in her
power. You will be surprised how the calm firmness that this thought
will give you will generally win the day, if it is backed by the fact
that the maid knows she is in a comfortable home and has a considerate
mistress.
But I know you want me to talk about your particular troubles, when
there _was_ a comfortable home and a considerate mistress. I can readily
believe how interested you were in making Mary happy and that you wanted
her to feel that your house was her home, and I can just picture how
sweet and nice your kitchen and her bedroom looked with everything so
neat and new. It was disappointing, in return for all your
thoughtfulness of her comfort, to have her show that all she apparently
wanted was to get away from her work as quickly and as often as
possible. And then after her departure to have such a series of
incompetents in quick succession, each with some new demand, was
perfectly disheartening. I do feel so sorry for you, for I know just how
discouraged you must have been. Of course I have no way of divining what
the cause of dissatisfaction was, but we always have to bear in mind
that there is so much of the antagonistic spirit between mistress and
maid that those of us who do not have it, but who want to be kind, have
to suffer for those who are unjust. At any time a maid may come to us
direct from a home where she has had a hard mistress, who gave her her
outings grudgingly, didn’t like her to have her friends come to see her,
and perhaps, while giving her an almost luxurious room, rarely spoke a
kind word to her and took it for granted she would be faithless and
perhaps even dishonest.
Or, she may have come from some good-natured but thoughtless mistress
where her room was miserably uncomfortable and where possibly she had to
share her bed, washstand, and bureau with a girl whom she had never seen
before or who wasn’t clean. From such places she would come to you
naturally in an antagonistic mood, and, suspecting that she would not be
looked out for, make demands for even more than she really wanted. She
would make the mistake that I have just advised you to avoid, of
classing all mistresses together as unkind or thoughtless. Of course it
is very unintelligent to do this, for we might as well class all lawyers
or all bankers together and expect no good from any of them because some
have such low standards. And yet we can hardly blame her when we
ourselves have heard so many mistresses talk of servants as though they
were all worthless. You seem to think you might have come to some
agreement with Mary if you hadn’t been so indignant at what seemed
ingratitude after all you had done for her. Possibly that is true, but
it is past now and it is useless to cry over spilt milk. What you can do
is to start out differently with your new maid in the light of your past
experience.
I think you will find yourself much happier if you don’t look for
gratitude, for it isn’t to be found very much in any class of life.
Above all things, don’t let what you have gone through make you
distrustful, for it is the part of wisdom as well as of kindness to let
the new maid feel that you expect well of her. If she has good stuff in
her, that is the way to bring it out. We ourselves show our best side to
those who believe in us.
You seem to have a vague feeling that Mary’s leaving you had something
to do with the outings she wanted. That may have been so, for very few
of us can enter into servants’ lives enough to realize the vital
importance of their outings to them. I can understand your being a
little distrustful of her when she wanted to go to a dance, for I used
to feel that way myself, but I don’t feel so any longer. Through
interest in social work I have learned to appreciate how important
recreation is to all classes and how natural is the taste for dancing
and the theater. Of course, if a maid wanted to go often, that couldn’t
be allowed, for it wouldn’t be compatible with good work.
While most of us are interested in helping to give recreation to the
less fortunate classes, we have hardly awakened to the fact that there
is one class, that of our servants, who are ridiculed if they want it.
It is really quite pathetic to think how little appreciation we have of
their need of amusement, and how many jokes are made at the expense of
those who want occasionally to go to a dance or to the theater. You and
I know some people who don’t even want to let them have their friends
come to call. If we desire good work from servants we shall have to be
more human and show them that we take an interest in their having a good
time.
Perhaps we have had such easy lives ourselves that we have to go back to
our childhood to remember the delicious sense of freedom from restraint
when school was out, in order to form some idea of the pleasure a maid
feels on her “afternoon” when she leaves all duties behind her and gets
beyond the sound of the bell. As a well-trained maid, she always has to
go about the house noiselessly, never raising her voice in speaking
unless spoken to. Perhaps she doesn’t like the other maids and longs for
some congenial friend and to talk and laugh unrestrainedly. Is it
surprising that she forgets that she doesn’t have to pay her board and
lodging as the girls do who are otherwise employed than in domestic
service, and that she only thinks of their greater freedom? She
naturally longs for that freedom and for some time that she can surely
call her own.
If any trouble crops up with this new maid, don’t (because you are so
sorry that you let the other one go) offer her higher wages or urge her
to stay. It will give you backbone to remember that she will be useless
if she stays while dissatisfied and also that offering her higher wages
when you are paying enough is only a bribe and simply makes her feel
more essential to you than she really is. It wouldn’t remove the cause
of her dissatisfaction but only delay its coming to the surface again.
Sometimes by a quiet talk you can find out what the trouble is and if
the complaint is reasonable you can remove the cause.
A case in point is an experience that I myself once had when there was
dissatisfaction among some servants whom I really liked. It was after I
had, with a great deal of trouble and study, tried to arrange all their
afternoons and evenings out and their Sundays to be, as I thought,
convenient for myself and comfortable for them. I was indignant at first
at what seemed ingratitude and felt ready to dismiss them all. But, on
sober thought, the idea occurred to me of trying to get at the bottom of
the trouble by calling them all together and letting each one in turn
tell me what was her cause of discontent. At the same time I told them
all that, while I might not be able to do what they wanted, still, as my
only thought in arranging their outings was to give them rest and have
them enjoy themselves, I was ready to consider making some changes so
long as they would not interfere with the proper and regular running of
the household. It seemed quite a new idea to them that their mistress
was really interested in their pleasure. They were nice women and with
the prospect of a sympathetic hearing, their antagonism seemed to pass
away.
To my surprise I found that it was not more outings that they wanted (in
fact they proposed fewer), but to be away from the house longer at a
time. I promised them nothing at the moment because I feared that I
should say something unwise, but impressed it upon them that they would
have to work together and help one another if they wanted these changes.
This conversation resulted in my arranging a programme that was
satisfactory to them and perfectly convenient to me, and one that I have
not had to change for years.
It may help you very much to find out what I learned from this
conversation, so here it is. _The first point was that servants need
their regular outings to be longer than they usually are_, because it
takes them so much longer than it does us to get dressed and to reach
the more remote parts of the town where they usually go. This seemed to
me reasonable as I thought over the work of the different servants.
Instead of just putting on her hat and coat as we do, a maid has to
change everything to make herself neat and fresh to go to church or
shopping or to visit her friends. If she has the ordinary two hours’
leave, in most cases she would have to turn around to come back almost
as soon as she reaches her destination. If she goes to church we know
the service will not be out till after twelve-thirty or even later; so
that in order to return in time to set the table by one o’clock, she
must leave the church instantly without a moment’s chat with her
friends. The waitress cannot get her breakfast things finished before
ten o’clock in many households and with the common habit of irregular
Sunday breakfasts generally it will be much later. With the chambermaid
the situation is probably worse if there are a number of rooms to make
up, and it seems almost impossible for the cook to get to morning church
unless some special arrangement is made for her.
_The second point was that servants would like to be able to count on an
absolutely certain, specified time to leave the house and to return_,
both on Sundays and week-days. This they cannot do if some of the family
stay in bed very late, if there is an invalid in the house, or if there
are extra people at the Sunday lunch, unless the mistress makes a very
definite plan for the servants to relieve one another, so that their
free time of going out or to church will not be interfered with and the
regular work will still go on.
_The third and last point that I can remember is that most servants
really do not care to go out so frequently_, but that, on the contrary,
they would sometimes rather stay at home on their day out if they could
be sure of the time to themselves and that they would not be called on
for work.
_These three points are always carefully conceded to them in hotels_,
and consequently hotel service is much desired by maids, as housekeepers
in small towns find to their great inconvenience.
This experience of mine may let light into your situation and give you a
basis for a good programme. In working it out it is necessary to be
careful not to make things comfortable for the servants at the expense
of the family. As the two points of making the outing longer and
starting at regular hours can only be accomplished by one servant taking
the duty of the other in her absence, it is important to impress on
their minds at the outset that these duties must be performed so well
that the household will not be inconvenienced. Since it is a fair
exchange, maids are usually contented to do this, and it is the duty of
the mistress to train them and to see that each servant carries out the
idea, doing her fair share of the work. Where there is more than one
servant, these outings can easily be arranged, even with a family of
irregular habits, so that they all will be able to get off promptly and
stay out long enough, without any inconvenience to the household. In the
case where there is only one maid, who does the cooking and all the work
of the house, the household is, of necessity, run more informally, and a
chafing-dish meal can take the place of one of the Sunday meals in order
to let her off. But if the mistress feels that she must have her meals
go on just as regularly on Sunday as any other day, she should hire some
one to come in for the time the servant is out. You can readily see that
she should not expect one servant to keep up the house unaided in just
the way that two or three servants do it.
I have heard nice women say, “I have only one servant, so of course I
can’t let her go out.” This is really cruel, though not intentionally
so, because, if the maid has all the work to do, she needs a complete
and regular rest all the more. The mistress should look upon the money
paid to some one for taking her place as one of the regular necessary
household expenses.
Whether there is one servant or many, each one is entitled to some
regular time to herself and if housekeepers were more careful about this
there would be less discontent among servants, I am sure. As I said
before, we need to be a great deal more human in our relationship with
them. How reasonable, for example, these three points seem when we take
the pains to see the servants’ point of view, and how easy it would be
to misjudge the situation otherwise. What most of them really want is to
have some time that they can actually call their own. You would be
surprised to know the calm that settled down upon my family and how much
more home life there appeared to be in the kitchen after I had arranged
a new programme of work and given them these three points that they
wanted. Just try it and you will see for yourself, and I am sure too,
that you will be glad to practice every virtue that good house
management requires if, in that way, you can bring about peace instead
of that uncomfortable atmosphere which constant dissatisfaction among
the servants causes. If a home is unhappy downstairs you can always feel
it upstairs, and, in fact, sometimes at the front door.
I believe I will enclose the plan for the outings of three servants that
has worked so well in my case. A simpler plan can be arranged for two
servants because they alternate. I have already said what I think is our
duty in case of one.
What a long letter I have written you! I send it on the “wings” of the
first mail hoping that it will reach you in time really to help you in
your present situation.
Affectionately yours,
_Jane Prince_.
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CHAPTER IV ⬩ MAID OF
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_.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER V ⬩ WEEKLY
CLEANING ❧ ❧
YORK HARBOR, _August 27_.
_Dear Penelope_:
Your sense of the ludicrous is going to be of the greatest help over
rough places, for often little troubles seem to vanish if we can only
laugh over them. I was very much amused with your clever devices to
cover up from your maid the fact that you could not remember in what
order her work ought to be done. It is surprising, isn’t it, how we can
go on living for years in our mothers’ well-ordered households without
ever thinking what the method is that makes everything go so like
clockwork?
But it is the experience of most of us, and this letter shall go off at
once to you hoping to reach you before the next sweeping day, for, as I
understand it, that is the vital question for the moment. Without any
preamble I shall plunge right into my subject. With two or three maids,
of course, every room should have its regular weekly cleaning, but where
there is but one she can only manage to sweep each room once in two
weeks, you arranging the order of her work as I suggested to you in my
last letter.
I will give you two methods of cleaning, one with a broom, and the other
with a vacuum cleaner, but I strongly recommend the cleaner as it raises
almost no dust and makes the cleaning much easier. You can buy a kind
now in the department stores that is no heavier than an ordinary carpet
sweeper, is used the same way by hand, does not require electricity in
the house, and is comparatively inexpensive, ranging from six dollars
up.
_The following is the order for the thorough weekly cleaning with a
broom:_
Before beginning run the shades up to the top and open the windows at
the top keeping them shut at the bottom. The rising hot air will then
carry the dust out of the window, while, if the window be open at the
bottom, the cold air, which falls, will blow the dust in.
Take small rugs out to be shaken.
Brush window sills and lower part of blinds.
Dust each small piece of furniture and take it out of the room.
Shake out of the window all table covers and take them out of the room
while the cleaning is going on.
If it is a bedroom, cover bed with dusting sheet.
Brush hard all upholstered furniture with a whisk broom and cover with
dusting sheets.
Dust all ornaments laying them carefully under dusting sheet on sofa or
bed.
All little things being out of the room and large pieces of furniture
covered, sweep carpet or rug, and then, with dustless mop, go over the
floor, being careful to clean under heavy pieces of furniture that
cannot be moved, rubbing the floor well, but not using oil, as it soils
light dresses, or water, as it takes the polish off. Once a month or
oftener wax the floor and polish it with a soft cloth on your broom or a
polishing brush that comes for the purpose.
_Clean mirrors_ by washing with water that has a little ammonia in it.
Wipe and polish with a lintless cloth or newspaper. Newspaper is always
on hand and makes a fine polish.
_Wash the gas globes_ if they are dirty (probably about once a month),
being careful not to screw them on tight when they are put back, as that
makes the globes crack when they get hot.
_Take away_ all soiled bureau and sideboard covers. Lay the fire if it
has been used, and wash up the hearth.
_Laying a coal fire in the grate_: Put the blower on to prevent as much
as possible the ashes flying about. Shake the ashes down through the
bars of the grate with a poker. Remove them from the pan with the shovel
and put them in the coal scuttle. Take the ash-pan out and brush under
it. Take the blower off and twist newspapers in loose rolls and put them
in the bottom of the grate. Lay kindlings crosswise on top of the paper
with spaces for draughts in between. Put coal on top of the kindlings.
When the fire is wanted, put the blower on, and light the fire from
below. When the coal is well caught, take the blower off.
_Laying an open wood fire_: Place a large log close against the back of
the chimney, another in front, leaving a space between. In this space
between the two lay lightly pieces of newspaper twisted loosely; on top
of this paper place kindlings crosswise resting on both logs, and far
enough apart to let the air through; then one or two other sticks on top
of the kindlings bark side down. Do not remove the ashes from a wood
fire, as it burns better on a bed of hot ashes.
If soot should ever fall from the chimney on to the rug, sprinkle the
place thickly with corn meal and brush it up. This removes at once what
otherwise would be a bad stain.
After the fire has been laid, _empty all_ scraps from scrap baskets into
a receptacle and take this and also the hod of ashes, if the fire was of
coal, downstairs.
_Close_ windows, pull shades down half-way, arrange curtains, take
covers off furniture, bring chairs back. Put clean bureau and sideboard
covers on, and put the ornaments back in their places. Fold up dusting
sheets and put them away.
If brasses are brightened once a week, they remain bright with less
effort, but if you have a good many it is best to reserve one morning
for this, as it is dirty work. A pair of large old gloves should be
provided to keep the hands clean when doing it. Just as with silver,
with only one maid it is better not to have too many brasses out, unless
you can hire some one to clean them.
When I tell you the order of cleaning a room by a hand-power vacuum
cleaner that is made only to sweep the carpets and rugs, does not go by
electricity, and has no attachments, you will see that it saves you the
most troublesome and heaviest part of the work of sweeping day and that
two or three rooms can be cleaned in the time it would take to clean one
with a broom. By the following order of work you get the best results
and do not have to go a second time over any of your dusting. No dusting
sheets have to be used, rugs do not have to be taken up nor furniture
and ornaments removed. Of course, before beginning to clean you open
windows and arrange shades in the same way that I described when
preparing to sweep a room with a broom.
_The weekly cleaning of a room with a hand-power vacuum cleaner_:
Brush window sills.
Brush hard all upholstered furniture with a whisk broom.
Shake out of the window all table covers and take them out of the room
while cleaning is going on.
Go over carpet or rugs with the vacuum cleaner and then the bare floor
with a dustless mop. (Sweeping with a vacuum cleaner is supposed not to
make any dust, but as it isn’t perfection there is a fine dust that
rises from it; so all the dusting should come after the sweeping.)
Dust every piece of furniture, shaking duster out of window.
Dust all ornaments and shelves.
Clean mirrors and do all the work coming after this in the same order as
described in cleaning a room with a broom.
With the more expensive electric power vacuum cleaners the order of work
is the same, but there are all sorts of attachments to clean floors,
upholstered furniture, curtains, etc., that any of their agents would
explain to you.
I am speaking from experience when advising a vacuum cleaner, because,
after using an electric one in town, I bought for use here, where I
haven’t electricity in the house, the hand-power kind, as I couldn’t
stand the dust made by an ordinary broom. If you decide to get one, do
let me know how you like it.
Your practical but loving friend,
_Jane Prince_.
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CHAPTER VI ⬩ FAMILY MEALS
YORK HARBOR, _August 28_.
_Dear Penelope_:
After I sent off my letter to you, I turned over your last page and
found a scrawl that I didn’t notice at first,—a polite little request
for the details of serving one’s every day meals. Why, of course, I will
give it to you, and shall take it for granted that your maid’s mind is a
perfect blank on the subject. So much the better, for now you can put
into it just what you want her to have there.
I would begin by impressing on her how important it is to have the
tablecloth smooth with the creases running straight down the middle and
everything set evenly on the table. Show her yourself how neat it looks
when done in this way and how badly when the things are crooked. If she
hasn’t a straight eye, the only way to do is to give her a foot-rule and
have her measure distances at first until her eye is trained. Don’t
attempt anything elaborate and be content to use your simple china which
can be easily replaced, so that when, in her awkwardness, she breaks it,
your heart won’t be broken too. Perhaps you can find some old
china-cabinet with glass doors in which you can keep those beautiful
plates that were among your wedding presents, and be able to have them
to look at without their being any care. If the maid hasn’t too much to
attend to, she will be able to do what she does do, well, and if you
have your meals served nicely every day, then, when you have guests, she
will not be confused by some new order of things, but will be perfectly
natural and serve them well as a matter of course. Your own meals, too,
will go more quickly and easily and be more appetizing if always served
carefully and regularly.
Let us take a perfectly simple family dinner: First course, soup; second
course, roast and (two) or (three) vegetables; third course, salad or
dessert; fourth course, coffee; and begin to train her in this way:
See that the canton flannel undercloth is perfectly smooth on the table.
Over this place the tablecloth with the crease going exactly down the
middle.
Make sure that whatever glass, silver, china, knives, etc., is to be
used on the table is bright.
Put a dinner plate for each person at even distances apart from one
another.
To the right of each plate place as many knives as you need with their
sharp edges turned toward the plate, then next to them the soup spoon
with the hollow part of the bowl of the spoon turned up.
Put the napkin at the right of the soup spoon, folded over neatly once,
as it would take up too much room square, and lay on it exactly in the
middle a piece of bread cut about three inches long by one and a half
thick and two inches wide, or else a roll.
Place a tumbler at the point of the knives.
At the left of each plate lay as many forks as are needed for the meal,
with their prongs turned upward and placed in the order in which they
are to be used, the fork for the first course being on the outside and
farthest from the plate.
Exactly in the center of the table put your plant.
Place a salt cellar and a pepper pot in each corner of an imaginary
square of which the plant is the center.
Arrange the side-table—or sideboard, if you have no side-table—with
everything extra on it that will be needed during the meal, so that you
will never have to open a drawer while you are serving it.
Put on this table, in nice order, so that it will look attractive, the
dessert plates, on each of which is a finger bowl with a doily under it;
also any cold plates such as salad plates, if they are to be used, and
any extra forks, spoons, sauce ladles, etc., that will be required.
Fill the finger bowls a third full of water and place a fork and a spoon
on the doily, one on one side, the other on the other, of the finger
bowl.
Have also on the side-table a plate of bread, the pieces all cut the
same size as those already on the dining-table.
Set a pitcher of iced water in a convenient place in pantry or
dining-room.
Arrange a tray with the after-dinner coffee-cups on it and the bowl of
lump sugar and sugar tongs in the center. Put an after-dinner coffee
spoon on each saucer. Have this in pantry.
(The only spoon that is ever put with the forks and knives by the plates
on the table is the soup spoon. Teaspoons for grapefruit, for bouillon,
tea, coffee, etc., are always put on the plate or saucer on which these
foods and drinks are served.)
When the dining- and side-tables are set and the first course ready to
come into the dining-room, fill the tumblers with iced water.
Go into the pantry and pour each soup plate half full of soup.
If it is the custom of the family to use a musical Japanese gong to
announce meals, strike it two or three light taps. If they don’t use
one, then go to the mistress wherever she is and say quietly, “Dinner is
served, Mrs. ——.”
When every one is seated, take a plate of soup in each hand and place
each plate in turn in front of each person, laying it on the dinner
plate that is already there, serving the older members of the family
first, if there are children, otherwise going right around the table,
always laying it down from the right side of each person.
When the soup course is finished and the second course is in the pantry,
bring a hot plate in your left hand and, taking up the serving plate,
with the soup plate on it, in your right, replace it with the fresh hot
one, doing this from the right side of each person; going, in this way,
all around the table till all have hot, clean plates.
Then bring in the platter of meat, placing it in front of the carver
with the carving knife, which has been sharpened before the meal, at his
right and the fork at his left side. Put the gravy boat and ladle at his
right.
Stand at the left of the carver with an extra hot plate in your hand
and, taking the plate with meat on it, put the empty, hot plate in its
place. This gives the carver time to cut another slice and have it ready
when you come back with the next empty plate.
Now go right around the table putting a plate of meat before each person
and taking up the empty plate till all have been served. Put down and
take up from the right side.
If there is jelly or any small thing to pass, put it on a small tray,
having first placed a spoon in it, and, taking the tray in one hand and
a vegetable dish in the other, pass them all around the table, stooping
a little as you first offer one, and then draw back and offer the other
on the _left_ side of each person.
(It is a good rule to remember in serving a meal that everything that
admits of a choice must be _passed_ at the _left_ and that everything
that does not admit of a choice must be _placed_ from the _right_.)
Next take the remaining vegetable in one hand and a plate of bread in
the other and pass them to the left of each person all around the table.
Watch carefully to pass food again before any one has a chance to ask
for anything and see that all have water and bread throughout the
dinner.
When every one has finished this course, remove first the meat platter,
being careful that the carvers and spoon are secure so as not to drop
off. Then remove gravy boat on a small tray. Take out vegetables, bread,
etc. Remove the used plates, one in each hand, never piling them on top
of each other.
Bring a tray and quietly remove peppers and salts and any knives and
forks remaining on the table and take them into the pantry.
Bring a plate or small tray and with a napkin remove the crumbs.
From the side-table bring a dessert plate in each hand until you have
given one to each person, always going to the _right_ of the person to
set it down.
Put the dessert in front of the mistress, the spoon to left, and sauce
boat with spoon on her right side.
Stand by her with an empty dessert plate and pass the plates as in the
other courses.
After the dessert is finished remove dessert and all the plates, and,
after having filled the cups with hot coffee in the pantry, pass them
around to the family, either at the table or in the parlor, whichever
your mistress desires. If the coffee is taken in the parlor, bring an
empty tray in later and take away the coffee-cups.
Always remember that everything belonging to one course must be removed
before serving another course.
If the last course is salad instead of dessert, then, as you take off
the used plates of the meat course, replace them with cold plates, bring
the bowl of salad on and do not remove crumbs, salts, etc., until this
course is finished. If your mistress prefers to make the salad dressing
herself, put the bowl of lettuce in front of her, and at her right hand
the oil, vinegar, and condiments she desires, and a small bowl and a
tablespoon to mix the dressing in. When she has made the dressing and
mixed it with the lettuce, quickly remove, on a tray, the oil, vinegar,
etc., and pass the salad bowl around to each person, offering with your
other hand a plate of crackers. This course being finished, remove
salad, then plates, then peppers, salts, small silver, and then crumbs
as described before. After that bring on finger-bowl plates. Then coffee
as before.
If your mistress prefers not to serve a meat course, such as chops that
need no carving, or a dessert course, such as berries that are easily
served, you can pass them around without setting them on the table.
Having now explained the method of serving the family dinner the
following few suggestions will be sufficient for breakfast and lunch:
If your mistress does not use a tablecloth for breakfast, place the
centerpiece exactly in the middle of the table and in the center of this
the plate of fruit (or the plant if there is no fruit). Have the
under-plate doily at each place and on it put a fruit plate on which is
a finger bowl one third full of water, with a fruit knife at the right
of the bowl and a spoon at the left on the plate. To the left of this
put a small plate for bread and butter or muffins. Knives and forks are
placed the same as for dinner, just as many as you need for the meal.
In front of your mistress place the breakfast tray for coffee-urn,
hot-water kettle, hot-milk pitcher, and sugar-bowl, but do not bring the
hot things in till the family is ready to have breakfast.
Arrange the side-table with any extra things that will be needed.
Keep the butter cool and bring it on at the last moment and place it on
one side of the table opposite the bread, which has been freshly cut.
Leave the rest of the loaf of bread in the pantry on a bread-board with
the bread-knife ready to cut more slices if needed.
See that the newspaper is ready for the master of the house where he
likes to have it.
Look around to see if the sideboard drawers are all tightly closed so as
to look neat and trim.
Touch the gong lightly to announce breakfast.
Bring on hot coffee, hot milk, and the hot-water kettle.
When all are seated, pass around the fruit, then stand at your
mistress’s left with a small tray and taking the coffee-cups as she
fills them, place them in turn at the right of each person.
When the fruit course is finished, remove the plates, putting fresh hot
ones in their places in the same way that you do it at dinner.
Put the main dish of the breakfast in front of your master and the
others square and opposite one another on the table.
See that every one has water in his tumbler and then go to get your own
breakfast.
Family lunch is served much as dinner is served unless your mistress
prefers to have it as informal as the breakfast.
At either lunch or breakfast, when you pass hot muffins, bread, hot
cakes, or pancakes, always pass the butter on the same tray so that no
one will have the disagreeable experience of a muffin almost cold before
the butter reaches him.
I am afraid, Penelope, that you may think these directions that I give
you for your maid are very detailed, but my experience with the
untrained servant has taught me that you can never tell what unpleasant
surprises she may give you in her way of serving your meals, if you
haven’t forestalled her by telling her every minutest detail. You can
see that I think that with a maid of all work the breakfast and lunch
should be very informal meals, and that with breakfast you should wait
on yourselves after she has placed the main course on the table.
There is a very nice English contrivance for the breakfast and lunch
table that I should think you would find convenient in the case of your
maid of all work when you want to dispense with her services as much as
possible. It is a small, low, revolving table to set in the middle of
one’s dining-table on which are placed muffins, butter, etc., and which
by the slightest touch is made to move around so that anything on it
comes in reach of all at the table. I have seen only handsome ones in
mahogany, but I am sure they must come in other kinds of wood if that is
not what your table is made of.
Another piece of furniture that I should think you would find useful is
a “dinner wagon”—a tray on wheels that can be rolled from one room to
another. After the family have left the table the maid can clear it much
more quickly by using this tray to remove the things to the pantry.
I haven’t said a word about your centerpiece, but I have a suggestion
for that too! Ferns are very pretty for the center of the dinner table,
but you will find it quite expensive to keep them always fresh, whereas
if you plant some grapefruit seeds in a pot, you will have a charming
little growing plant like a miniature orange tree with pretty glossy
leaves which will last and give a very attractive air to your table.
I also think you will find candles for the dining-table cost too much
for every day, but can be an additional touch when you have guests. I
wouldn’t advise you to try to follow every fashion on a small income. It
will take away spontaneousness and give a strained feeling about what
you do. No matter how rich you may become in the future, there will
always be some one who has still more, and is able to live more
luxuriously, so cultivate independence of spirit if you want
contentment. People who are always straining to have what they cannot
afford, in order to keep up with those about them, can never be
satisfied, and have nothing in the end but disappointed hopes.
Now, Penelope, dear, I haven’t stopped to take breath since I started
this letter, and I am tired, so no more until the next snag you may
encounter. With the firm conviction that all your friends will try to
vie with you in your good housekeeping,
Very affectionately yours,
_Jane Prince_.
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CHAPTER VII ⬩ DUTIES OF
SERVANTS ❧ ❧ ❧
YORK HARBOR, _September 30_.
_My dear Penelope_:
Since my last letter to you Eloise has begged me to write out the duties
of three servants,—chambermaid, waitress and cook,—for a very
inexperienced friend of hers, Hope Conroy, who is well off and expects
to begin housekeeping soon; so you see what trouble my letters to you
have brought on me! It occurred to me that you might like to have these
notes for future reference when Tom has reached that pinnacle of success
which we all predict for him, so I am enclosing a copy of them in this
letter. You don’t need them now, but why not tie all my letters on this
subject together and make a book to keep, for easy reference, in a
convenient place,—that top bureau drawer, for instance?
You remember meeting Hope Conroy, I am sure, when you were visiting us
last year, and have probably heard that she is to be married next month.
It has made Eloise, who is practical, and who simply adores her, quite
unhappy that Hope seems to think it so amusing that she knows nothing
about housekeeping. With all Eloise’s brothers she has had a chance to
understand men pretty well, and she thinks, with me, that there would be
fewer divorces if young girls only knew how much a man cares for his
comfort. So, in view of this, I felt I must yield to Eloise’s request
despite the amount of writing it entailed at a time when I was quite
busy with other things. I think I have just barely alluded, in some of
my letters to you, to my method of recording the servants’ duties, but I
know I haven’t explained it at all so I will now give you just what I
wrote to Hope without any further comment:
_Extract from my letter to Hope on the duties of three servants_
It was after I had been married for several years and had become weary
of recalling afresh for each new servant the details of her work in
order to train her into my ways of doing it, that I decided to write a
small blank book for each one of them, containing her daily duties, her
weekly duties, the arrangement for her Sundays and her afternoons
out—something that I could keep permanently and thus save myself much
trouble. If you dislike detail as much as I do these books will help you
too. When the servants first came I read them to each one letting each
keep her own while she was with me and taking the precaution to have a
copy of them all in my housekeeping book in case any misunderstanding
should arise.
Realizing that much of the _general duties_ must be different in every
household, according to the number of the family and the number and
arrangement of rooms, and whether they live in an apartment house or
not, I shall only attempt to give you an idea of how these books were
written, just enough to help you make out your own books to suit the
requirements of your family. This is the reason I describe the _general
duties_ only in a _general_ way, and the _daily duties_ (where the
manner of doing the work is practically always the same) I describe in
_detail_, addressing the maids directly as I did in the books which I
made for my own servants. Although the instructions to the maids are in
some cases identical, yet, in order to make them clear, I repeat them in
each case, even though it seems unnecessary. It would be my advice to
you in making your book to arrange the daily duties of the servants so
as to insure the early starting of the household. For instance, let the
chambermaid wake you on her way downstairs at a specified hour, and, at
the same time, let the waitress come to get the silver. If you have a
safe for your silver, you could leave out just enough for your breakfast
and have it brought to your room at night so that she would stop and get
it in the morning.
It is also a good plan to let the servants have their breakfast before
the family except in the case of a maid of all work, when this is almost
impossible to arrange.
Then, about their Sundays, I think that church can’t do us much good if
we don’t give the servants an opportunity to go, too, if they want to,
or if we make it a hard day for them. Though it requires special
arrangement, their Sundays should be made a day to look forward to with
pleasure when each one can be sure of getting out, at some part of the
day, to church, or to see her friends. The Sunday morning that the cook
goes out, the lunch should be one that can be quickly cooked or her
outing would be too short. In the case of the waitress and chambermaid,
if, on their Sunday morning out, they waited to finish their work, they
would get out so late, in most places, that it wouldn’t be worth while
to go at all. This explains why, in the plan that I shall give you, it
is arranged that, on their Sunday mornings out, the chambermaid and
waitress stop whatever work they are doing promptly at 10 A.M., and get
ready to go out, the one who is _in_ taking the work up where the other
one has left it and finishing it in addition to her own. You will also
see that, with the following plan, you can take your choice of having
late dinner every other Sunday (when the cook is at home) or every
Sunday if your waitress is sufficiently expert and your cook prepares
some of the dinner dishes before going out. Sometimes it is the
chambermaid and sometimes the waitress that can cook best and likes the
afternoon all to herself. It doesn’t matter which you choose for that
duty; you simply use tact in this as in all your housekeeping.
As for giving them any freedom in the evenings I think you will find it
a good plan to let the chambermaid and waitress alternate in going out,
provided their services are not required; this insures one always being
in the house so that the cook never has to go to the door. It is rather
an understood thing that the cook can go out any evening after her
regular work is done, of course, if her services are not required.
With regard to the cook’s weekly duties I have never found that they
could be laid down as definitely as those of the other servants on
account of dinners and lunches coming in, when all her time has to be
devoted to the cooking. Therefore the washing and ironing (if it is done
in the house), the weekly cleaning of the kitchen, the hall steps, etc.,
semiweekly cleaning of refrigerator and keeping the shelves and closets
clean, all have to be fitted in when she can manage them. On this very
account the mistress, in her morning visits to the kitchen, should look
around carefully to be sure that nothing is neglected, for everything
about a kitchen should be very clean if you want it to be sanitary.
_Description of the chambermaid’s book—Her general work_
Under this head was told, in paragraphs, thus dividing the subjects so
that they could be more easily seen and understood, what rooms, halls,
stairs, etc., she had charge of, whether she made up the rooms of the
other servants, washed her own clothes, bed-linen, etc., or had any of
the duties of a lady’s maid, such as mending, brushing, and taking out
or putting away her master’s and mistress’s clothes, or washing their
brushes and combs (which she can do if the family is small), or
polishing her mistress’s boots. As to her neatness,—what she was
expected to wear, and what her mistress provided her with, and about
asking her mistress for anything needed in order to do her work well.
The same instructions were given her about waiting on the door that were
given the waitress, telling her that when workmen, inspectors, and such
people had any work to do in her part of the house, she should accompany
them around wherever they went.
Doing her work quietly and noiselessly was emphasized, especially the
opening and shutting of blinds, windows, and doors, and just how a
window should be opened top and bottom when airing a room, so that the
hot air could go out above and the fresh cold air come in below, thus
insuring good ventilation. It was impressed upon her that the doors of a
room should be shut while the windows were open so as not to chill the
rest of the house.
Her duty with regard to trays was described,—that when any member of the
family was unable to come down to a meal she would be expected to take
the tray up so that the meal of the family would not be disturbed by the
waitress leaving the table to do this; also that she would prepare and
bring up breakfast trays where needed and that she should always hand
anything on a tray, even if it were only a paper of pins. Her duty on
the arrival of guests was explained: that she should be ready to carry
their bags upstairs, but that she should not unpack their bags without
asking if it was desired. It was made clearly understood that, when her
mistress had guests to dinner, she was to assist in the pantry, and when
there were many, she was to help in the dining-room and also to help
departing guests on with their wraps when they left the house. That she
was to do the duties of the waitress when the waitress was out was
explained to her, so that she would perform them without awkwardness.
_Her daily work_
Be up early, throw mattress and bedclothes over the foot of your bed to
air.
After dressing, open windows top and bottom in your room, put pillows
near window to air, closing the door of your room and always of any room
you are airing (if the family is up) so as not to chill the rest of the
house.
On your way downstairs open the windows in your halls top and bottom to
air. If desired, wake your mistress at the time specified. Have your own
breakfast.
If none of the family rooms are vacated when you have finished your
breakfast, brush down the stairs and do up your own room; otherwise put
all the family rooms to air, ending with guest room so that you can go
right on with that room and finish it first.
When beginning a room draw back the curtains, pull the shades up to the
top, open the windows top and bottom. Open closet doors and keep them
open while room airs so that they won’t get stuffy.
Shake pillows and put them near the window, but so they won’t show from
the street.
Put two chairs at foot of bed, draw blankets and sheets over them, turn
the mattress over the foot of the bed so that the air can go over and
under it.
Put soiled clothing in bag or basket provided for it.
Hang or fold and put away clothing or dresses.
If there has been a coal fire remove ashes, make fire up ready to light,
wipe hearth; if a wood fire, leave the ashes.
Empty slops, if there is a wash-basin in the room, clean bathroom,
washing tub and basin with hot water and soap or a cleanser, such as
Dutch Cleanser, and dry them with a soft cloth.
Wash out soap-dish and other crockery and always see that there is soap
in the dish. Wash bowl of w.c. with a stiff brush that comes for the
purpose.
Dust chair and woodwork and see that there are no spots on the mirror.
Remove soiled towels putting clean ones in their place. Take great care
not to let anything go down the pipes that would clog them.
The bed having now had a chance to air, turn mattress over and make up
bed.
If there are any scraps on the carpet, brush them up with dust pan and
brush or carpet sweeper.
Dust furniture.
Empty scrap basket and put contents in bag to carry downstairs.
Shut windows, draw shades down half-way, and arrange curtains to hang
smooth; then go to next room.
After the bedrooms are finished, begin the special weekly morning work
for that day, sweeping rooms or cleaning bedrooms, silver, or brasses,
or whatever it may be.
After the morning work is over, make yourself neat and be ready to
assist at lunch table, if there are guests, or to go to the front door
while waitress is serving lunch or dressing for the afternoon or is out
or serving dinner.
In arranging the rooms for the night, first close the blinds, if
desired, then draw down the shades, put soiled clothes in hamper,
hanging up clothing in closets, putting back in its place anything that
has been disarranged and leaving the room in order.
If there is a washstand in the room, remove waste water and fill
pitchers.
If night pillows are used, remove day pillows and shams; if same pillows
as day, take off shams, fold them carefully in their creases, and lay
them where they will not get tumbled.
Remove bedspread, fold smooth. Open bed-clothing, turning down the
corner on one side, for one person or on both sides for two.
Lay night-clothes neatly folded on the turned-down corner, placing
wrapper at the foot with slippers by it.
If there is company be ready to assist the waitress.
The weekly duties in detail, such as the thorough cleaning of each room,
bathroom, halls, bedrooms, silver and brasses, also the Sunday
arrangements and afternoons and evenings out, should appear here at the
end of the chambermaid’s book, but I cannot put it in for you, as it
varies in different households and localities.
_Description of the waitress’s book—Her general work_
Under this head she was told what rooms, halls, stairs, etc., she had
charge of (so that there could be no discussion between the maids);
also, if the vestibule was under her charge, she was reminded that, as
the entrance is the first impression people get of a house, nothing will
make them think the waitress incompetent so quickly as an untidy
vestibule and front hall, and that every morning the doormat should be
shaken, the floor brushed clean, and the woodwork dusted; also the
brasses rubbed up if they have become dull in between the weekly
cleanings. It was made clear to her whether she made up her own room,
washed her own clothes and bed-linen or aprons, or had any part in the
family washing and ironing. Neatness in her work and person was spoken
of—wearing checked gingham apron over her white one when doing such work
as cleaning brasses and silver, so that if she had to go to the front
door or answer any bell, she could slip it off easily and appear
properly dressed with clean white apron; how necessary it was to have
clean hands when waiting on the table and handling food; also about what
she was expected to wear and what her mistress provided for her, and
about asking her mistress for anything that she needed to do her work
well.
Doing her work noiselessly was emphasized, especially opening and
shutting blinds, windows, and doors, and how the windows should be
opened top and bottom when airing to insure good ventilation, and that
the door of the room should be kept closed during this airing in order
not to chill the rest of the house. She was reminded that the
dining-room needed more airing than any other room and should be aired a
few moments after every meal, and also that the crumbs under the table
should be brushed up after each meal.
The use of a tray was explained to her: that only _small_ articles
should be handed and removed on a tray when _waiting on the table_, and
that at other times she should always hand things on a tray, if it were
only a paper of pins. That promptness was necessary in answering bells,
especially the front doorbell, cautioning her as to whom she should let
in and who should wait outside the door, and that when any workmen,
inspectors, and such people had any work to do in the house she should
accompany them around wherever they go in her part of the house, and if
they should go to other parts of the house call the chambermaid or cook
to accompany them; also that she should not allow anything to be taken
out of the house unless she had been told to do so by some member of the
family.
It was impressed on her that she must find out, _before going to the
door_, whether her mistress was in or out, so as never to keep any one
waiting, and that she should open the door wide to let visitors in and
then stand back to allow them to precede her, carrying a tray to the
door for the cards, and, if they have no cards, offering a pencil and
pad, which should always be kept in the front hall, for name or message.
It was also impressed upon her that when waiting on the table she should
not speak unless spoken to, except when having a message to deliver; and
in case of an accident, such as dropping a knife, fork, or plate, she
should pick it up and take it into the pantry, immediately replacing it
with a fresh one. She was directed, should anything be dropped on the
carpet to wipe it up at once, or if water or wine should be spilled on
tablecloth, to dry it without a word, covering the spot with a fresh
napkin. She was told that in case of a wine or fruit stain on tablecloth
or napkins she should draw the spot tightly over a bowl, as soon after
the meal as possible, while the stain was fresh, and pour _boiling_
water through it and thus remove the stain at once, and that the water
must be really _boiling_, as hot water would only set the stain. She was
also told how particular she should be when setting the table not to get
finger marks on china, silver, or glass, and that if she should see
holes in tablecloth or napkins she should call her mistress’s attention
to it before letting them go to the wash; that when the table was set
she should see that no drawers or doors of sideboard or china closet
were left open, to look disorderly, and also that it was her duty to see
that the carving-knife was sharp and that plates used for a hot course
should be warm, and for a cold course, cold.
Leaving her pantry in nice order after every meal was mentioned, and
that she should not let soiled towels collect there, but every day wash
out the towels, dish cloths, and mop and hang them up to dry, once a
week thoroughly washing, scalding, and ironing them, always keeping
fresh ones on hand to take the place of soiled ones.
The importance of letting the chambermaid know when she went upstairs to
get dressed for the afternoon or to go out, and also of telling her at
the same time what message was to be given at the door, so as not to
keep any one waiting, was impressed on her.
She was told that she should rise when spoken to by any of the family or
guests; also it was explained to her that she was to do the duties of
the chambermaid when the chambermaid was out.
_Her daily work_
Be up early, throw mattress and bedclothes over the foot of your bed to
air.
After dressing, open windows top and bottom in your room, put pillows
near window to air, closing the door of your room and always of any room
you are airing (if the family is up), so as not to chill the rest of the
house.
On your way downstairs open windows top and bottom in the part of the
house which is in your charge, closing them after your breakfast in time
for the dining-room to get warm for the family breakfast.
Your breakfast being over, set the family breakfast table, and if there
is not time for dusting before their breakfast, quickly put back into
place anything that has been put out of order the night before and make
the room look comfortable.
If there has been a fire the night before, lay a fresh one ready to
light and brush up the hearth.
Set the breakfast table, announce breakfast at the specified hour, and
serve it.
When breakfast is over, wash all breakfast things and leave the pantry
in perfect order.
Then begin the care of the rooms under your charge.
Pick up any scraps on carpet with carpet sweeper and go over the wooden
floor with a dustless mop.
Dust window sills and all pieces of furniture, using two dust cloths,
one to hold the furniture so that your hand will not leave a mark on it,
and the other to dust with.
Empty scrap baskets and take contents downstairs.
If there are lamps, trim and clean them, wiping carefully the outside of
the lamp and burner with damp cloth so that no oil will be left to make
it smell.
Brush down stairs, holding dustpan under each step and wiping woodwork
carefully.
Then begin the special morning work for that day, such as cleaning
parlor, dining-room and pantry, silver, halls and library, or brasses.
This work should be accomplished in plenty of time to set the lunch
table without hurry.
Announce lunch at the usual hour, and after it has been served and you
have had your own and washed the lunch things, dress yourself for the
afternoon in a neat black dress with fresh white apron and plain linen
collar and be ready at three-thirty to wait on the door.
If you haven’t had a chance before this, polish the steel knives with
knife polish and board that comes for the purpose so that they will be
bright for dinner.
Be ready to serve tea promptly in the afternoon if desired by your
mistress.
As it gets dark, draw down the shades, light the regular lights that
your mistress has specified, and set the table for dinner in time to do
it nicely, announcing it at the appointed hour, waiting on it, and then
taking your own dinner. After your dinner, remove whatever is left on
the table; take off, fold up, and put away tablecloth; wash the dishes,
and leave pantry in nice order.
If there are no guests, take in the doormat, close and lock front door
and any windows desired by your mistress, at the hour appointed by her.
_Miscellaneous notes for the waitress Washing dishes, etc._
In washing the dishes, always do the cleanest things first, in this
order; glass, silver; then cups and saucers, plates, and other dishes.
Empty every glass and cup, and scrape clean every plate or dish (with a
plate scraper, that comes with a rubber edge and is consequently
noiseless), before putting them in the water. Don’t let pitchers or
glasses stand with milk in them, but rinse them at once before putting
them in the water so that it will be easy to wash them. Don’t put many
things into the water at a time or different kinds of things, such as
teapot, sauce boat, and dinner plates; for the water will cool too
quickly when so full and the plates will get chipped and spouts broken.
Change the water frequently. When washing the silver, always include
trays in daily use even if they do not seem soiled. Use plenty of fresh
very hot suds, and, after washing the silver well, put it on the drainer
and pour boiling hot water over it. This heat will almost dry it, then
rub _quickly_ with clean dish-cloth and put all the pieces at once where
they belong before they can get spattered; setting them down with a dish
towel to prevent finger marks. This will keep the silver so bright that
the weekly cleaning is a much easier matter. The china should be rinsed
just as you have the silver, only not using such very hot water.
Remember that silver and brasses cannot be made bright by slow rubbing,
but that you must rub them briskly.
_Care of the dining-table_
If the dining-table has a high polish, be careful always to put a tile
or tray or a linen mat lined with asbestos under anything that is hot,
otherwise a bad spot will be made. If the table has an oil finish heat
will not injure it and a damp cloth will remove any spot. Two or three
times a week such a dining-table should be rubbed over well with a soft
cloth on which two or three drops of boiled linseed oil have been put.
Too much oil will only make the table sticky and in condition to catch
dust. But just a very little, rubbed in well, will, in time, give it a
high polish of which you will be proud. These oiled rags are very
dangerous to keep in the house, as they catch fire of themselves without
any flame coming near them. Either keep them hanging on a clothes-line
in the yard or else indoors in a metal box.
* * * * *
The weekly duties in detail, such as the thorough cleaning of
dining-room, parlor, pantry, halls, silver, brasses, etc., and the
Sunday arrangements and afternoons and evenings out, should appear here
at the end of the waitress’s book, but, as I said before, I cannot put
it in for you because that is something you have to arrange for
yourself.
_Description of the cook’s book_
_Her general work_
Under this head the cook was told definitely just what rooms, closets,
halls, steps, etc., she was expected to clean; whether she was expected
to put any coal on the furnace or look after its drafts between the
visits of the furnace man; whether she had any washing and ironing to
do; how careful she should be to scrub out every part of the
refrigerator once or twice a week with soda and hot water, household
ammonia, or some such thing, airing it well afterwards and taking the
opportunity before a fresh piece of ice was put in thoroughly to clean
out the ice compartment; also the drain pipe for that compartment with a
brush that comes especially for this; also that she should be careful to
empty the pan under the refrigerator frequently to prevent its
overflowing and rotting the floor; that the milk and butter should be
kept in a compartment by themselves, and no food with strong odor, such
as pineapples or melons, be put in the refrigerator with it as their
flavor would be absorbed by the milk and butter which would taste bad in
consequence; also that no hot food or articles wrapped in paper should
be put into the refrigerator. She was cautioned not to let any scraps
get into the sink pipes, but to scrape clean all plates, pots, or dishes
after each meal, into a strainer kept for the purpose in the corner of
the sink and frequently emptied into the garbage, and that once a week
she should wash down the pipes with boiling water and lye. She was
reminded that the kitchen towels should be washed in hot suds every day
and thoroughly boiled once a week; that the pudding-bags or any
straining-cloths should be washed after each using and put away dry and
clean.
It was especially impressed upon her to keep the dumb waiter shut and
any door that would allow the kitchen odors to get into the house.
The signals to the waitress during the serving of the meals were
explained to her (for instance, one bell for taking course off the
range, two bells to send to pantry) to prevent delay between courses;
also she was told that hot food should be served on a warm platter and
cold food on a cold one. In order to serve the meals promptly on time,
she was reminded to see every day whether her clock agreed with her
master’s. The fact that the ovens would not bake well unless the flues
of the range were cleared at least once a week of all ashes, and that
this should be done in the morning before the range fire was hot, was
explained to her; also that when a hot fire was not needed for immediate
use the dampers and drafts should be closed to prevent waste of coal and
kindlings. She was cautioned not to waste anything, but to lay aside all
left-over food for her mistress to see and decide about; also not to use
the nice china when putting food away in the refrigerator, for fear it
might get broken. The importance of being neat and clean both in her
cooking and person, washing her hands before handling food, and wearing
neat cotton aprons and dresses was emphasized. She was told that no
visitors should be allowed in the kitchen during meals and that she
should not let workmen, etc., go into the house except by permission of
her mistress and accompanied by one of the other maids whom she should
notify; also that the responsibility of keeping the outside kitchen door
and gate locked was hers as well as the locking-up of her department at
night.
_Her daily work_
On getting up, throw mattress and bedclothes over the foot of your bed
to air.
After dressing, open windows top and bottom in your room, putting
pillows near window to air and closing the door of your room so as not
to chill the house.
Have the range fire going in time to have plenty of hot water for the
family baths.
The range fire burning brightly, prepare the maids’ breakfast (if that
comes first) and put the family cereal on to cook during your meal and
anything else that requires long cooking.
Cook the family breakfast.
After both breakfasts are over, put the kitchen in order and be ready to
take your mistress’s orders for the day, going with her to the ice-chest
and showing her the left-overs there and in the wire safe.
When your mistress comes into the kitchen, rise and remain standing
while she is there.
When her visit is over, make your first duty the preparing and serving
of food well and on time, the other duties being fitted in between, till
the last meal is over and the time has come to arrange the kitchen for
the night, when you should put away all food in the refrigerator or wire
safe, wipe the tables off, brush up the hearth, and leave nothing to
attract mice or water-bugs or near enough the stove to catch fire.
If the range fire is made new every day, place kindlings, coal, and
paper in a convenient place ready for use before going to bed, to avoid
delay in the morning, and before leaving the kitchen see that all
windows, doors, and gates in your department are securely locked.
_Miscellaneous notes for cook—Making the range fire if it is never
allowed to go out_
About half an hour before leaving the kitchen for the night, put coal
on, open the drafts, and, when the fire is hot, fill up well with coal,
then check the drafts and leave them checked so that the fire will
smoulder all night. In the morning, open the drafts, shake down the
grate, put on a little kindling and fresh coal, and the fire will burn
brightly in a short time.
_Making the range fire if started fresh every morning_
Shake the ashes out thoroughly, picking out pieces of coal only partly
burned to be used again and putting ashes in ash can to be taken away.
Put loose rolls of paper in, then kindlings laid crosswise and far
enough apart for a draft of air to go through freely, then light the
papers, turning the dampers to make a draft. When the kindlings are
burning well, put the coal on in small quantities at first, adding more
when this is well started.
Before starting the first fire after the house has been closed, burn
newspapers in the range to warm the chimney and thus prevent its smoking
by starting an upward draft.
Sunday arrangements, also afternoons and evenings out in detail, should
come here.
SUGGESTION FOR ARRANGEMENT OF SERVANTS’ SUNDAYS
_First Sunday—Morning_
Cook is in, gets lunch and prepares as much of the dinner as she can.
Waitress is out from 10 A.M. till time to wash lunch dishes.
Chambermaid is in and in addition to her own work does any of the
waitress’s work that is left unfinished after 10 A.M. and serves lunch.
_Afternoon_
Cook is out, after she has washed up lunch things, till 11 P.M.
Waitress is in, prepares and serves dinner.
Chambermaid is out, after she has served lunch, till 11 P.M.
_Second Sunday—Morning_
Cook is out, after washing up breakfast things, till time to cook lunch.
Waitress is in, and in addition to her own work, does any chamberwork
left unfinished after 10 A.M.
Chambermaid is out after 10 A.M. till her lunch time.
_Afternoon_
Cook is in. Cooks dinner.
Waitress is out, after she has washed lunch dishes, till 11 P.M.
Chambermaid is in and serves dinner.
The third Sunday is like the first.
The fourth Sunday is like the second.
And so it goes on in twos, each servant having every other Sunday
morning out and every other Sunday afternoon and evening out.
Well, Penelope dear, I had almost forgotten I was writing to you, these
extracts from my letter to Hope have become so voluminous! It is
fortunate that they need no comment, for I could not write another line,
since it is the middle of the night and I am perfectly exhausted and
disgracefully sleepy.
Very affectionately your devoted friend,
_Jane Prince_.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER VIII ⬩ BEHIND THE
SCENES AT A DINNER ❧
YORK HARBOR, _October 15_.
_Penelope Pennington_!
What is this that you tell me! _You_ are to have charge of a formal
dinner for your Aunt Sally! How perfectly dear it is of her to give one
to Mr. and Mrs. Winslow in appreciation of Tom’s promotion. I have been
to many of your aunt’s dinners in the past and know how smoothly she
will want everything to go, so I am not surprised at your excitement at
the thought of making all the arrangements for her, and I am very glad
that she feels strong enough to be present herself. I understand from
your letter that you do not wish for a menu, as you want to choose that
yourself, or for any directions about wines, as you can find all that in
cookery books, but you do want to know about preparations “behind the
scenes,” as it were, to make everything go like clockwork. First,
foremost, and last I am evidently to drop everything and write you at
once! Do you realize, dear child, that I am off, in a few days, on that
motor trip through the Berkshires about which I wrote you? But since it
is for _you_, I will stop my preparations for a little and write this if
it takes me all night!
To set a household like your aunt’s going for such an affair, after it
has been shut off from social life for so long, is almost like starting
with untrained servants, so I shall give you directions in minute
detail. Since you can’t tell yet whether it is to be a dinner of eight
or twelve, I will write a description for one of eight complete and then
describe in general terms the difference between the two.
It will be delightful to engineer the dinner without a moment’s worry
about expense, knowing that your aunt is so perfectly well able to
afford it. People who make such attempts when they cannot afford it
deserve all the worry that they suffer. Others always know that they are
attempting something beyond their means and they lose, in a measure, the
respect of the very people whom they have tried to impress. About the
only difference from one’s everyday dinner is that nothing is served on
the table and the courses are more in number, and it is well to impress
this on the minds of your aunt’s servants. Don’t let the thought of a
dinner mean only hard work to them, but let them feel sure of having
plenty of ice-cream, cake, candy, etc., afterwards, so that there can be
a festive feeling downstairs as well as up. There is a good deal of
extra work, and also late hours, in connection with a dinner of this
kind and the servants deserve some encouragement and reward.
Several days before the dinner make out the menu from the dishes that
the cook makes the best, not attempting anything new. Give her
confidence by consulting her a little, and also encourage her by
praising the way she cooks these special dishes, at the same time
cautioning her on the necessity of great care on such an occasion and of
keeping her reputation up. See that she has the proper kitchen utensils
needed in good order for use. Then go over each dish in a good receipt
book putting down on a writing-pad exactly what is needed for each
course, how much milk, butter, eggs, cream, seasoning, vegetables, meat,
etc.
Your menu having been decided upon with the cook, then go over, with the
waitress, the china, glass, silver, etc., to see if there are eight of
everything unbroken for each course. Jot down on a memorandum what
broken pieces, if any, have to be replaced. Go over the silver and
decide how you will use that. Don’t make a great undertaking of this,
but do it quickly. It won’t take long. Decide, at this time, what
flowers you will have and what color scheme, and see if the candle
shades are in good order and that there are enough candles. Once having
done all this, should your aunt want you to take charge of a dinner for
her again, the waitress, if she is reliable, can do this part herself
and report to you if anything is needed. See that the broken china and
glass are replaced several days before the dinner.
Now that you have decided on the menu, and what china, glass, silver,
and candle shades you intend using, you can write out the directions for
the waitress for serving the dinner, putting opposite each course what
plates and platters you want used for that course and have these
directions ready to pin up in the pantry. I cannot say too much about
getting everything off your mind that you can the day before the dinner.
On this day, in order to keep the cook calm, see for yourself that all
the necessary articles, except very perishable ones, are in the house,
and have her prepare the clear soup and anything else that she can on
that day. Take this time to tell her (or to show her pictures from
cookery books) how you like to have the dishes decorated, and also
remind her that one signal (or bell) from the pantry means to dish up
and keep a course hot, and two signals (or bells) to send it up to the
pantry, and caution her how a few minutes’ delay in the kitchen seems a
long time in the dining-room, so she has to be quick. Write out the menu
very clearly for her and pin it up in the kitchen, and then decide on
the platters and dishes to be used. In fact, have all your conversation
with her about the dinner the day before. Write the place cards. (Plain
blank cards are dignified and answer the purpose just as well as fancy,
elaborate ones which are expensive, and the money saved can go toward
pretty flowers that will really add to the beauty of the table and the
pleasure of the guests.) Find out the day before the dinner just how
your aunt wishes the guests to be seated and write this down, so that it
will only take a moment when the table is set to put the cards at their
proper places. (Of course Mr. and Mrs. Winslow being the guests of
honor, Tom will take in Mrs. Winslow, who will sit at his right, and Mr.
Winslow will take your aunt in and sit at her right.) At the same time
address the little envelopes that come for the purpose, one for each man
guest, and slip into them the card with the name of the lady he is to
take in to dinner. Keep all these things in a sideboard drawer to be on
hand when you want them.
In the case of this first formal dinner with your aunt’s present
servants, you will have to be on the spot most of the morning if you
want to take a rest in the afternoon. You can give the dining-room up to
the dinner that day and lunch at a side-table or in the library. After
your short interview of encouragement with the cook, you read to the
waitress and chambermaid the directions for serving the dinner and see
that they understand their parts in it, and try to make them ambitious
that everything should go well and be a credit to them. You then pin
these directions up in the pantry. These directions can be used for many
dinners until they are worn out. After this you superintend putting on
the under-pad and then the tablecloth which must be very smooth. The
chambermaid must help the waitress, as it takes two to put on a large
cloth without mussing it. Watch the waitress put the eight plates around
the table, to be sure they are evenly spaced (two on each side, if the
table is wide enough; otherwise with eight there must be a gentleman at
the head and another at the foot in order not to have two gentlemen or
two ladies side by side). Next have the waitress set one place
completely, under your directions, with small silver, glasses, and
napkins as in the family dinner (only more, as the courses require[1]),
so that she can set all the places like it without your being there to
direct her. Leave her to put fresh candles in the candlesticks, and a
final polish on the china, silver, and glass that are to be used during
the dinner, while you arrange the flowers. No matter how nicely any one
keeps house, there is a great deal for the servants to think of for a
dinner, and as they have never served one for you before, should you get
the impression in the morning that things are not going on very well,
you will have to be in the dining-room a good deal, quietly seeing that
no time is lost.
Footnote 1:
If you don’t like so many forks and knives on the table at once,
put enough for the first three courses and have the others brought
on with the plates of each course as in the case of dessert.
After the lunch things have been cleared off and the servants have had
their lunch, you superintend the setting of the side-table with the
extra things that will be needed during the dinner, such as the plates
for cold courses, any small silver that may be needed, a plate for the
extra bread and rolls, and all the plates for the last course, on each
of which is a doily, and a finger bowl one third full of water. All
these things should be prettily arranged in a symmetrical manner, and if
there isn’t room on the side-table some can go on the sideboard, as they
must all be convenient.
After the side-table is set, you can go with the waitress into the
pantry and have her send down to the kitchen all platters, dishes, etc.,
that are to be served from there and arrange, in a corner of the pantry
out of the way and in piles, the plates for the different courses,
putting on each pile a slip of paper telling what course it is for, so
that the servants won’t get confused. See that the tray of after-dinner
coffee-cups is arranged in the pantry with a spoon on each saucer, and
with the sugar tongs on the bowl of sugar. Then go and rest and come
down later when the waitress reports to you that she has finished
setting the dining-table. You will probably find that it doesn’t look to
your satisfaction, but don’t put the servants out of temper with
criticisms. Take it for granted that they have done their best, speak
well of what is right, and straighten out what is wrong with
explanations, giving the finishing touches yourself. Then should your
aunt give any more dinners under your supervision, her servants could do
most of this themselves. After the dinner is over, and the guests are
gone, be generous in your praise to the servants of everything that went
well and wait for another time to show how to correct any mistakes that
were made. They will probably go to bed very tired that night, but happy
because they have pleased you.
Here are the details for the dinner:—
When you post your written directions in the pantry, it is well to
underline the _waitress’s_ with red pencil, the _chambermaid’s_ with
blue, so that each can see at a glance where her duty comes in.
The signals to be used to send the courses up at a dinner have to be
carefully understood beforehand between the servants in the dining-room
and kitchen. Generally it gives the cook about the right time if, when
the first guest has finished, the chambermaid rings one bell for her to
dish and keep the course hot, and when more than half the guests have
finished, two bells to send to the pantry. This depends, however, so
much on the quickness of the servants, etc., that they have to learn
gradually, by experience, the proper time interval between bells. The
standard of perfection to aspire to, is no waiting between courses and
no hurrying during courses.
After the first two courses I will give you but few details, because in
serving every course the following general method is to be observed:—
The same signs and signals are passed at the proper time between
waitress, chambermaid, and cook for removing and bringing on every
course.
In _every_ course where there is a main dish and two other dishes, the
chambermaid (after having taken all the soiled plates from the waitress
and in return given her all the fresh ones) gives the main dish to the
waitress and then follows her all around the table with a dish in each
hand offering first one, then the other, to every guest.
Soiled plates are _always_ replaced with fresh ones from the _right_
side of each person, and all foods are _always_ offered on the _left_
side. The lady on the _right_ of the host is served first.
During _every_ course, where there is but _one thing_ to pass, the
chambermaid remains in the pantry, handing out and taking in plates and
keeping the pantry in order.
One course is _always_ entirely removed into the pantry before another
course is brought on.
Let us take the following dinner as an example:—
First course, canapé.
Second course, soup.
Third course, fish.
Fourth course, entrée.
Fifth course, roast and two vegetables.
Sixth course, salad, etc.
Seventh course, ices and cakes.
Eighth course, candies.
Ninth course, coffee.
You can omit either canapé or entrée or both if you prefer.
DINNER OF EIGHT SERVED BY THREE SERVANTS
_Directions for the two dining-room servants_
_Fifteen minutes_ before the hour for dinner, the chambermaid, in neat
black dress, with cap, plain white collar and cuffs, and apron, all
immaculately clean and fresh, sees that the lights are lighted in the
dressing-room, and stands ready to help the ladies off with their wraps.
When they have all arrived and have left the dressing-room, she turns
down the light and goes right to the dining-room ready to help the
waitress.
_Fifteen minutes_ before the hour for dinner, the waitress, after having
lighted the lights on the parlor floor and in the front hall stands at
the front door watching to open it promptly to prevent any guest from
having to ring the bell. She helps the gentlemen off with their coats,
hangs up their hats, places their canes in the rack, and hands them the
tray on which the card envelopes have been placed. When all the guests
have arrived, the chambermaid signals the cook this fact, then fills the
glasses with iced water, while the waitress lights the candles on the
dining-table. Then both bring in quickly the plates of canapé, placing
them on the serving plates already at each place.
The chambermaid then goes into the pantry. When this is done, the
waitress gives a last look to see that nothing has been forgotten and
that the candles are all burning well, and goes quietly into the parlor
and says in a low voice, “Dinner is served, Mrs. ——.”
_First course—canapé_[2]
Footnote 2:
This can be brought in after the guests are seated, like the other
courses, if preferred.
which is on the table when the guests come into the dining-room. When
the first guest has finished this course, the waitress makes a silent
sign to the chambermaid, who is in the pantry, and she signals to the
cook (one bell), which means that the next course is to be dished up and
kept hot. When more than half of the guests have finished, the waitress
makes a silent sign to the chambermaid again, who signals (two bells) to
the cook, which means to send up the
_Second course—soup_
When the soup comes into the pantry the chambermaid fills all the plates
half full and hands a plate to the waitress, who comes to the pantry
door for it. The waitress takes the plate in her _right_ hand and goes
to the _right_ side of the lady on the _right_ of the host,[3] and
picking up the used canapé plate with her _left_ hand, replaces it, on
the serving plate, with the plate of soup. She then watches and, as each
guest finishes, she replaces the canapé plate with a plate of soup, the
chambermaid standing inside the pantry door ready to take the used plate
and to hand her the soup plate. As soon as all have soup, the waitress
passes any accompaniment, on a small tray, all around the table, while
the chambermaid remains in the pantry to straighten and keep it in
order.
Footnote 3:
Many people have everything passed first to the hostess. This is a
matter of taste.
_Third course—fish in ramekins on individual plates_
This is brought on and served the same as the soup, but in removing it
the waitress replaces each fish plate with an empty hot plate, and then
the
_Fourth course—the entrée_
is brought on by the waitress who holds the casserole or platter with
both hands under it and passes it in regular order all around the table.
This course having been removed and fresh hot plates having replaced the
used ones, the
_Fifth course—the roast_
is brought on. The waitress passes the roast all around the table and
the chambermaid follows with a dish of vegetables in each hand, which
she offers on the _left_ side of each person in turn till all have been
served. Anything else in this course is passed all around in the same
way by the chambermaid. If the dish is large, it should be carried in
her hands; if small, on a tray. The waitress then watches to fill
glasses and pass rolls. Having done this, the chambermaid returns to the
pantry and when the roast course has been removed and fresh plates have
been substituted for used ones, she hands the waitress the
_Sixth course—the salad_
following her all around the table with whatever accompaniment there may
be and then returning to the pantry. In removing this course the
waitress takes two plates at a time, one in each hand (_never_ on top of
each other), and does not replace them with other plates. When this
course is completely removed, the waitress brings a tray and, going
around the table, takes off peppers and salts and any small silver or
knives that are left there, and takes them to the pantry, being very
careful not to make the slightest noise. The chambermaid follows with a
folded napkin and silver tray and removes the crumbs. Then the
chambermaid returns to the pantry, and the waitress, bringing in each
hand a dessert plate with fork and spoon on it; places them in turn
before each person, setting them down from the right side. She then
takes the dessert platter from the chambermaid in the pantry and brings
on the
_Seventh course—dessert_
and passes it all around the table, the chambermaid following with cake.
When this course is removed and the dessert plates are replaced by
plates with finger bowls, the waitress passes the
_Eighth course—candy_
placing the little dishes of different kinds on a tray. While the guests
are at this course the chambermaid sees that the fire in the parlor
burns brightly and the lights are all turned up, and when all have
finished dinner and have gone into the parlor, she passes the coffee and
cigars to the gentlemen in the dining-room or library, while the
waitress passes the coffee to the ladies in the parlor. When the
gentlemen, after smoking, join the ladies in the parlor, the waitress
passes, on a tray, glasses which she fills with ice-cold Apollinaris or
White Rock, and offers to each guest. When the guests are about to
leave, the waitress, on the first signal of the parlor bell, goes to the
front door to help the gentlemen on with their coats, hand them their
canes and hats, and open the front door, while the chambermaid is in the
dressing-room ready to help the ladies on with their wraps.
_Special notes for chambermaid at dinner of eight_
After having helped the waitress put the canapé on the table, return to
the pantry, where your duties are:
To signal the cook when signed by the waitress to do so.
To keep the pantry from getting into confusion, by piling used plates
out of the way and sending platters down to the kitchen.
To be ready to take used plates from the waitress instantly and hand her
the ones for the next course, and where there is more than one dish
served at a course to hand the main dish to the waitress and follow her
into the dining-room with the lesser dishes, passing them around just
after the waitress and then returning to the pantry.
To see that the plates are warm for hot courses and cold for cold ones.
To follow the waitress when she is removing salts and peppers, and take
up the crumbs.
To go into the parlor while the guests are at the last course and see
that the fire burns brightly and that the lights are turned up.
To return to the pantry, and when coffee comes up to pour it into the
cups and give one tray to the waitress to serve the ladies and take the
other yourself to the gentlemen.
To help the waitress wash up the dishes after the dinner.
To answer the doorbell should it ring while dinner is being served.
To be ready on the first signal of the parlor bell to go into the
ladies’ dressing-room and help them on with their wraps.
_Dinner of twelve_
Should the dinner turn out to be one of twelve instead of eight, it will
make a difference in your arrangements, because, while the preparations
made before and after the actual dinner are identical with those made
for a dinner of eight, yet certain changes are necessary in the service;
namely, the chambermaid should be relieved that day from doing her
weekly cleaning, and, as soon as the bedrooms are finished, she should
help either the cook or waitress as they may need her; also some one
will be required in the kitchen to assist the cook, and some one to come
about half an hour before the dinner to stay in the pantry and do there
what the chambermaid did in the dinner of eight, except that she does
not come out of the pantry during the dinner, and therefore the two
waiting on the table are not obliged to go into the pantry. The courses
are passed and removed in the same way as in the dinner of eight, except
that there are two to do it instead of one, and therefore to avoid
collision it is well for one to take one side of the table and the other
the other side, in the courses where this is possible. In the case of
the entrée or dessert, two platters are often used to make it go
quicker, the waitress beginning with the lady on the right of the host
and ending with the hostess and the chambermaid beginning with the guest
on the right of the hostess and ending with the host. After the dessert
all the arrangements are the same as in a dinner for eight.
_Directions for the maid in the pantry at a dinner of twelve_
_Fifteen minutes before_ the dinner, go into the pantry, shut the door,
and fill the sink with hot water, so that in case you need to rinse
anything off during the dinner you can do it without noise. Remember
that every sound can be heard in the dining-room, so be very careful not
to make the slightest noise in handling the silver and china and to move
the dumb waiter up and down very quietly and slowly. Be ready, when the
waitress hands you the plates that have been used, to hand her back
instantly the fresh plates for the next course till all are handed out,
and to ring one bell to signal the cook the first time the waitress
makes a sign to you to do it, and two bells the second time she gives
you this sign. When you have handed all the plates out for a course,
give out the main dish for that course at once, handing immediately
afterwards the dishes that go with the course; as, for example, fresh
hot plates first, then the roast, followed quickly with the two
vegetables, always putting on each platter and in the vegetable dishes
the necessary spoons, forks, or knives. Remember that hot dishes must
have warm plates and cold dishes cold ones.
As soon as you receive from the waitresses the platters and dishes of
any finished course, send them down to the kitchen and occupy any time
that you have, while a course is going on in the dining-room, in piling
plates out of the way in order not to have them litter up the pantry
where you will need all the space you can get during the dinner. Don’t
let this or anything else interfere with handing a course promptly. When
the coffee comes up from the kitchen, fill all the cups on the two trays
and hand them to the waitresses.[4]
Footnote 4:
It is best to have the soup sent from the kitchen to the pantry in
a pitcher, as it keeps hotter and can be more quickly poured into
plates.
I am afraid, Penelope, that you will think there is a great deal of
detail in these dinner directions, but my own dislike of detail is just
what leads me to write it out so fully for you, so that you can have it
on paper, in your housekeeping book, instead of keeping it in your mind.
My experience, too, is that you cannot be too explicit when instructing
servants to whom you are not accustomed, and these very details, once
written out and left for them to consult, will enable you to make all
your preparations for other dinners with ease before the day and leave
you on that day free to pay your visits and lead your normal life, only
coming in toward the end of the afternoon to make a final inspection to
see that everything is right. You can see how confident I am that your
aunt, once having felt the pleasure of opening her house again, will
want to do it frequently.
* * * * *
What a variety of subjects we have been over together in these letters!
I can’t imagine what next you can ask me unless it be advice on the
management of a young and attractive husband, and happily I shall escape
that by flight! Don’t imagine, Penelope, dear, that I think I have
smoothed out the whole domestic situation for you, for I cannot do much
more than try to give you principles to work on, hoping that you and
your bright young women friends will discuss it rationally together in
order that you may meet the problem more wisely and broadly and in a
more human spirit than our generation has done. The world moves and we
must move along with it, but we can have no better rule to go by in
facing _any_ conditions than the one given us over nineteen hundred
years ago, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do
ye also unto them.”
_Au revoir_, dear; think of my actually being able to go off on a
pleasure trip! You can imagine how full of excitement I am over it, for
I couldn’t have done this a year ago, and couldn’t now if it weren’t for
my delightful relatives who are making everything so smooth and easy for
me.
_Au revoir_, love to Tom and success to that exciting dinner. I shall
hope to hear all about it when I come back.
Very affectionately yours,
_Jane Prince_.
THE END
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS
U · S · A
------------------------------------------------------------------------
● Transcriber’s note:
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
when a predominant form was found in this book.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Letters to a Young Housekeeper" ***
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