A PICTURESQUE TURN

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 110, 10 May 1923, Page 11

A PICTURESQUE TURN

In some of the smart houses of Toorak the^ duties of the female domestics nro taking a picturesquo turn, says a writer in the "Western Mail." The cook and laundress combination seems as extinct as the dodo; and the washerwoman called in with expensive regularity, is looked upon by the domestics as belonging to a much lower plane of civilisation than themselves. There is a new duty, however, that the cook is not above assuming. And in the assumption that she is earning the malevolence of tlje hitherto arrogant, indispensable chauffeur. She will cheerfully drive her mistress's car. Mistresses hail the concession gladly. Lately, chauffeurs have shown a tendency to steer th 9 wheel too much in Ji.eir own favoured direction. If the mistress has wanted an extra rubber of bridge at her club, they have resented the time of waiting. Now, Smith feels he is being passed over. For when the mistress expects to overstay what has arbitrarily become her time limit, she takes Jane with her Smith is left fuming. Soon he will be left out of the pictures altogether. The cook-chauffeur is cheerful and efficient. The absolute change of duties is beneficial. One of Toorak's most successful did fine work during the war, when she drove a Eed Cross car over every obstacle in her path.