A SOLUTION OF THE SERVANT DIFFICULTY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1610, 7 January 1903, Page 23

A SOLUTION OF THE SERVANT DIFFICULTY.

‘Yn America,” says a contributor in "Gossip;” "I am told, when any extra household work is on hand, the host and hostess invite their friends to come and help. The guests, instead of spending their time sitting about in chairs,, or walking up and uown the ‘garden, take off their coats, put on aprons*, and fall to work upon the furniture and carpets* This custom is explained in America by the dearth of servants. It is so difficult to get these things done for you that you have perforce sometimes to do them for yourself. What, however, I was interested in learning was that these parties enjoyed an excessive popularity, that they were eagerly participated in, and that more fun and gaiety were found to he derivable from this co-operation m needful household work than in the usual occupations invented solely to kill time. In England also we hear, and every year hear more, of the servant difficulty. My own secret hope is that this difficulty will go on increasing until we are driven by actual necessity to occupy ourseLves, at least to some extent, with household duties and the work of the home. Nop doubt we shall find, as the Americans have found (for there it is quite a usual custom even among well-to-do* families l to keep no servants, or but one), that all necessary housework is in itself pleasant and delightful/’