MISS ELECTRICITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14835, 11 November 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

MISS ELECTRICITY.

THE IDEAL MAI D-OF-ALL-WORK.

> SCIENCE AND THE SERVANT PROBLEM.

Science has solved the servant problem,

There is now in London, awaiting engagement, a cook-general who can turn her hand to gardening, has no objection to doing the washing, and in her spare time is quite capable of playing accompaniments at her mistress's musical evenings.

From all the imperfections, veal or imaginary, of the average domestic she is entirely free. Sho cannot, and will not— Bo impudent, Be noisy, Be unsober, Bo tired, Become engaged to the milkman, Bo untidy or dirty, Listen at keyholes.

She cannot get up late, for she never goes to bed. Sho could not possibly have any followers. She never wears her mistress's new hat, and she is quite willing to work for no —just her keep. She answers to the name of Electricity, and a model house has been_ built at the Electrical Exhibition at Kensington to show this prodigy among servants and her working methods. It is—or would bo without the wonderful domestic— everyday kind of house — hall, dining, and drawing ,rooms. bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and scullery, with a laundry attached. Yet when Electricity, cook-general, enters it sho makes it a palace of leisure. Everything that master and mistress require she supplies. This is a typical diary of their day with this treasure in the house:—

8 a.m.—Alarm clock goes off. Cup of tea from the electric kettle.

B.3o.—Master disinclined to get up. Bed tilts and throws him gently out. He takes a warm bath (steaming hot by electricity in 10 minutes). Shaves, using the electric shaving pot. Wife arranges her coiffure with electric curlers.

9.o.Master puts on his boots, cleaned by tho electric boot-cleaner, comes down to breakfast—late. But " the coffee and sausages plates all hot, having been kept so by the electric pote, dishes, and plate warmers. 9.30.The master strolls on the lawn, and superintends the model domestic doing a little gardening. Electric pump raises water for the hose. Electric roller and lawn-mower put the garden in trim. 10.0.—Master brushes his silk hat with the electrically-heated pad, and goes to business, while the mistress sees to the house work. Carpets are swept, curtains cleaned, furniture dusted, and every nook and cranny rcoured by the electric vacuum cleaner; while in the laundry the electric washing machine is doing the washing and the electric flat-irons are polishing up the shirts. ' ■

3.0.— caller rings the clectric boll. The mistress touches a button. The front door opens and closes quietly behind the caller. They settle down to tea (electrically made), and talk. If it is hot, electric fans are at work •in every room. It it is cold, a log fire, heated by electricity, burns brightly. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, the knives "and forks are being cleaned by electricity. V s.o.—The caller gone, the mistress, having ordered provisions by telephone, cooks the dinner, all by electricity, and while it is cooking does some needlework with her electric sewing machine. 7.30.—Th0 master returns, warms his feet on the electric foot-warmer in the diningroom, and . sits down to his electric dinner, afterwards listening to a few favourite airs on tho electric piano. 10.30.—And so, as Pepys says, to bed — previously made cosy by electric bedwarmers, safe in the assurance that if a burglar opens any window or any door every , room in the house will blaze with light, and bells will ring. It only remains now for those who are worried k by the servant problem to engage Electricity. She can serve in any number of places at once. Though it is convenient to have, say, a maid to superintend her doings, she las made the whole day's work so easy , that the mistress, if she is so disposed, can do it all and still have more leisure than she usually has ; now. ,