SERVANT OR LADY

Evening Star, Issue 15513, 8 June 1914, Page 6

SERVANT OR LADY

THE CASE OF THE GIRL AT THE COUNTER. In each one of the many popular restaurants scattered over the city there site at the receipt of custom a Young Lady with a head for figures, whose duty it is, during one of the busiest hours of the day, tc divide half-crowra into fractions, to appo>--tion shillings in change here, sixpences there, and to he certain, whenever she is given a piece of to ring it on the counter, so that there should be no mis take about it; or else to Ray "Haven't you anything smaller?" to the thoughtless customers who never by any chance bring the exact amount. And wher this Young Lady i» not thus taking money she is taking orders, for she only sit* at the desk during an- interval f the rest of the day she is trying to remember what th« city clerk wants for his lunch or for his tea. True, she often gets it wrong, and brings to the hurried roan who asked f<>r a ham sandwich and & glass of milk a hath bun and a cup of tea, as- being better for him. But that is little to the point, sine* it has never yet been proved that the strain of getting & thing wrong Is any ka" exhausting, at least in a restaurant, tha' that of getting it right. —What She is Paid.— And what does she get paid? Immediate, necessary point! If she's paid suiti ciently, "it is worth while" to her. Her pay varies from place to place. But the typical Young Lady we are instanciii<_' would receive about 8s a week—" fixed." The rest she would make up, if she could, on ■commission. She is induced by this system to ply the city" clerk with bur? and coffee, or, better, with beef and pork, and thus the more she "takes" —or the more he eats—the more she makes at the end of the week. For the rest, her "linen"—cuffs, collars, caps—are sa\i\tWA her, within a rigid limit. It is understood that if she soils a cuff or loses a cap s=he has to replace it herself. And the commission T Well, hers, we will suppose, happens to be a busy shop, arid she hap pens to he a busy person, and she make*, on the average, from 15s to 20s a week —"aJl told'—fixed wage, commissi')! , everything. To one of these, thus sitting. thus' receiving, thus unarmed, aw tim other day a very pleasant Old Lady and an ielderly man, who wanted "plasse to speak to her"' about something. About. what? "About a better place f<>* yon. my dear. We want you to come to u.*." And they explained. It was a question of a superior sort of parlormaid—a sort -if director of parlormaids—a person wh ■ should prowl about while others worked—turther, a confidential, kindly -treated, cordially-esteemed parlormaid, for vlv: i/i all this was being done because (tii« elderly people said) they liked the Youdj: Lady's manners, her looks, her obviont industry, her good temper. She would 1-? paid £6O a year at the start. She wou'j have her Sundays, and another on! a week. She would have good holidays. She would have liberty within hrr <rm sphere. Would s»he come? —Temptation Resistol.—

It may eeem remarkable that ahe i«?-fue-ad—after a certain reasons given for her refusal illuminate the dark mystery of the servant problem—reasons, we* suspect, however, familiar to all housewives. "It -would be too dull." Yes; sho would b© paid better. She would have comfortable quarters. JS'o doubt they lived in a delightful house. Tt wasn't enough. ITiree things, above all, she would miss; and more money and a more comfortable home could not replace them : her illusory and so limited liberty in the eyenincs; the sight of so many people coming and going; the fact that in the city she was—even to millionaires—a Young Lady. She was "Mi«s" to those men for whom, had she been a servant, she would scarcely exist at all, except as Something to hand a hat to. All day aha saw the men coming and going, asking for buns or putting down change. She grew to know many of them in time. Mild flirtations, daily salutations, jokes about it* change, mild sarcasm over the food; it all meant "excitement." In conteast, domestic service would be dull. The elderly aixj crafty, then, need not hope to rare tin Young Lady, from the coonW—.fican th« change, from the buns—by o*ers of comfort or more money. She is, precisely, a lady, and wishes to raraain one o» verylittle money, if need be; bat -with "life, with variety, with many faoes of men, with many possibilities of people thr<nrn in to balance the account.—Pivm *Th* Times.'