"NO FEATHERS OR FURS”
Conditions in which domestic Servants m some households lived 35 years ago were recalled by Miss 11. D. Dedmun, in her presidential address to the annual conference of the National Union of Women Teachers. Contrasting the conditions of those days with the improved com forts and salaries of the present, Miss Dedman read extracts from letters written to a young girl applying lor a domestic post in 1901. One extract read:— “The family consists of Mr and Mrs V—, two sons and 15 servants to wash for. Wages, £2O a year. All maids must wear bonnets with strings, neat dresses, no feathers, (lowers, veils or furs, and no fringe whatever.” Another letter to the applicant for a post ran : “All maids have to be up at 6 a.in., but of course, your time is your own when done. The wages are good, £26 it year, all found except beer, 1 am eoneluding that you are a member of the ( hureh of England. Wc have often had minds who provided themselves with beer or some stimulant. Would you like to do this?’’
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NEM19370605.2.32
Bibliographic details
Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 5 June 1937, Page 4
Word Count
185"NO FEATHERS OR FURS” Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 5 June 1937, Page 4
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