WOMAN'S WORLD.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 136099, 25 April 1908, Page 7

WOMAN'S WORLD.

GERMAN SERVANTS

By Mrs Alfred Sidgwick (London "Daily'Mai!..")

A Gorman lady wlhoso uncle at ono time occupied an important diplomatic poet in London told mo that her aunt was immensely surpraad to find thai every ono of her English servants knew his or her work, and -'did it without supervision, but iHaat none of them would do anything else.

This lady, not knowing English ways, used to make tiho mistake at first of asking a servant to <k> wfoat she wantc<l clone instead of what the servant had engaged to do;.but she soon found ihat the first -housemaid would rather leave than fill a match-box it was the second liousemaid's "place" to fill; and wha.t surprised her most was to find that her English friends sympathised ivith the- housemaids and not with her. "We believe in everyone minding 'his own, business," they said. THE SERVANT'S BOOK. In most German households there is no such thing as the strict division cf laoour insisted on here. Your cook wil.l be delighted to make a blouse for you, and your imrso will turn out the dining-room, while your ob-amber-maid vri\\ take tho child for an airing, if you order it 60. They are more human in their relation to their employers. The English servant fixes a gulf between lierseLf and the most democratic mistress. Tho German brisij"* her intimate joys and sorrows to a- pood I-lerrsehaft, ajwi expects their sympathy.

When a girl has bad luck and engages with a bad Ilerrschaft, sho is worse off than in England. because she is more in tho power of lit-r employers and of the rolice than she. •would bo hero. Sho has to have n. Dicnstbuch, an official l>o:k in which her age and personal appearance are registered. in this lxx>k her employers writ© her character. It is under the control of tho police, and has to be shown to them when she leaves awl when she -enters a situation.. It is hardly n<ecessar.v to say that when a .girl does anything seriously bad, and her employers record it in tho book, the book gets "lost." Thon the police interfere, and mako it oxtremp.lv disagreeable for the girl. A i'rie-iid told mo that in the confusion of a removal her own highly valued servant (cert her Dienstbuch. of, rather, my friend loet it, for omplovers usually keep it whrlo a girl is in their service; and though she took tho blame on herself and explained that the book was lost, the "police were most offensive about it. Germans havo often told mo that eerrante. as a cla.=s, have good reason to complain of police- insolence and brutality. I have hi my possession the exact copy of the ontnea in a Dienstbuch that belonged to a girl who had been in several situations. Xone of them tell anything of her qualiti-es and krvowk-dge, but ono mistress oamplains that Anna Schmidt's behaviour did not .please her. Anna Schinidtfa present mistreee assured mc that this meant that a «xn of the house had annoyed the girl with Iris attentions

j had in conseouence treated and ene « a « * Krn«mi«frie. But when FEES. .Sco tho -last lady yitfc vb£> f.* v Ins lived Thov odvorfcieo, or tAcy go to a S&bT olfc. -here «>™^ r^ overv iiKTd Jiwso eoeme to be a registry ofSw. and wul»ar as nrany comp.ainte. of t** who k«*p them as ywi hear hefe. So tic Govermnsenthas so. .m a large Public Registry i» Chariot-, where both sides can fi** vriiao tJwv want irrt'hcmt ]>aying fees. Wares aro innci -lower in Germany thsu here. Some years ago you could got a ffood'oook for from £7 to £12, but those da-vs aro past. Now you h<?Ar ot a ."Ciioral een-ant {jetting from £10 to £V 2, and a ?ood l*i»in cook from £lv upwards. 'fiieso aro ecrvante wlio would get from £22 to £30 in England and more in America. But the wagew c: German servants o.ro cupplemeateti at Christires by a. &yst<c<ta of tips a-nd pro;cn',3 th.Tt is neither ono cf freegiit nor of bus:i!tx3.>-liko payment. . (Jorniars groan ii-ndw it. but ovory nation knows how. hard it Js to do-part froni one of tJi-ciic traditional, indoiinite cus-

to Ilijt. In a household .account-book that- a friend showed mo I fotrad tho following entry:—'Christ-nuts present fer the30 marks in money. Hew? Imipji, 9m. oOpf. Pioi-oii&hioiu, lon S»i>f. Fivn small proscate. In ail i*2 marks. Was not oojitcntcd." My fri<Mid told u;e that Gorman eerroTits now p?ni>e< , t to &e<b a. quarter of their wages in ir.oney and prct»nts at Christmas. lineji. is often given, because, a G«nnain girl in service is alwaj's eavins with aiid main for Imr wedding outfit.. .In Germany the bride buys hath furnnturo end linen, and in the noorer clji&s«3 about £30 is consitlerod sufficient for isu& purpceo. Domestic servants in Germany also come unyjrr the law that obliges all below a certain i,ncomo to j).-ovide. for their old iwje. Tlio Post Offico isei:ee cartls and stamps, and one of ihese stamps must bo dated and affixed to the card every Monday. Sometimes tho employers buy the cards and stamps and show them at the Post Offico once a month; sometimes they expect tho servant to pay half tho money required. Women who go out by the day get their stamps at the house they work in cv Mondays. If a girl marries she may cease to insure, and may have a gum of money towards her outfit. lii that cpso she wiOl receive no old-age t>eniskm. But if she goes on. with her insurance she will have from 1 15 to 20 m,arks a month from tho State after tho ago of seventy. COMPENSATION IN ILLNESS. In cases of illness employers, are legally bound to provide for their domestic servants during the term of notieo agreed on. At least, this, is so in Prussia, and the term varies from a fortnight to three months. Most householders in Germany subscribe to an ineuranco company "that provides medical help, sends a patient to an infirmary when necessary, and even pays for -wine and food ordered by; its own doctors.

A Gorman kitchen is marvellously bright, and clean, , but it is not as comfortably furnished 1 as an English kitchen, aior will a German servant, as a rule, set the table for tidy kitchen meals. . Her morning meal* will consist of coffee and ryebread without butter, but in tho middle of the morning sho will expect a second breakfast of ryebread and meat or sausages. Sho will bo allowed coffee and beer or wine with her meals, but not tea; and, except for tho scarcity of butter in nuddlo-class households, she' will,, as a rule, live very well. Some years ago German servants ninde no attempt to dress like ladies, and even now what they do in this way is a trifle compared to" the extravagant "get-up " of an English cook or parlourmaid on her Sunday.out. ,A German girl is not ashamed, of being r. sc-rvant, and on weekdays she goes to market with a large baskets and an umbrella. but witJiout a hat. ' Iβ Hamburg girls who waited at table used .to wear light cotton gowns with elbow sleeves, but nowadays Hamburg has adopted our English livery of a black gown with a white cap and apron. In most German cities meid-eervants wear what they please, and I have myself dined with people whose silver. gißns, and food , were irreproachable, while tho young women who waited on us wore decollete tartan blouses, large, cheap lace collars, and brooches of sham diamonds. Some ladies keep smart whito aprons to lend their servants on state occasions, but the laciest apron will not do much for a girl in a sloppy coloured blouse and a plaid necktio with floating ends. \ ,

But these f6ame girls who dress so abominably always have 6tores: of strong, neat body linen and knitted stockings. A girl knits the stocking* herself as she stands at tho street door on summer evenings, and gossips with her friends.