SERVICE FOR OTHERS

NZ Truth, Issue 1206, 10 January 1929, Page 17

SERVICE FOR OTHERS

Human Efficiency In Modern Tea-room " \

We accept the essentials of life with the calm assurance that j we are hut getting what is due to us, and m the matter of food | the mere male accepts his with the equanimity;, of an overlord. Step off your exalted plane, though, the next time you saunter into a tea-room or restaurant and place an order with the hurrying waitress for a plate of simple sandwiches.

DID you ever give a thought to the girl — and there are hundreds of them — who scurries hither and thither at your beck and call, has to smile back sweetly at the habitual scowl you wear when suffering from a bad liver and has to be polite and docile irrespective of her own aches, pains and heartburnings. Many a" habitue of these dining-halls In any large city might well bear m mind the lines: "The thing that goes the farthest towards making life worth while, which costs the least and does the most, is just a pleasant smile." We expect it but very rarely give it when the giving would help break the tedium and the monotony of a tea-room waitress's humdrum existence. She is as essential a link m the scheme of things as my lord the chief director of Thingamees Corporation. Don't gallop away with the false sdea that their life is gay and diversified. Certainly they see a never-end-ing stream of changing faces, but the

very fact of their changing m time becomes a monotony. " . ■ '. In sunshine and rain,' through high day and holiday, these girls hand out the victuals for the gratification of our hunger. When everyone else does the round of shops and gaieties during < the festive seasons, theirs is the lot to pander to our likes — m cold drinks and flavored ices. ■' \..' : . If you think their job is a sinecure just sit ye down, and coldly cogitate for half an hour.. Try to figure out — if you can — how many miles a day their active feet skip blithely over the floor, backwards and forwards attending to the wants of customers. In the tea-rooms, laggards are not wanted and only physically fit and active girls can hold their end up. They're not .allowed to tire — it's not good for custom. Next time you sit-down to devour a plate of ham sandwiches, give a thought to the girls .who, when/they're not. "on the run;" during rush hours)' are busily engaged slicing, -cutting and seasoning those edible cubes for your delectation. •• < >.• , ■ And if, when' by chance she should place the wrong order m. front of you, don't get hot under-; the collar ; . and grapple for a rebuke. If, the, "retort courteous" ypu get. back isn't just .what you 'expected, bear m- ''mind the -fact • that you: yourself are not infallible" arid , that, this is the occasion when you ''-. ; practice a little forbearance. ! . : -, Schoolgirl? YOUR skin cannot be : trusted to • look after itself, and to recapture its first beauty you need to discipline it— and yourself. Here's how. First look to your diet.. Rich foods; pork, bacon, cakes carrying their weight m icing or cream; drinks—that odd spot— and ..bolting your food must all go by the board. Shake up your circulation by taking on some exercise that ' Avill give a new lease of life to your blood stream. A j skipping x'ope used regularly works i wonders. Always wash m tepid water, '.: which is juat as cleansing, as hot, and ' not one tenth as destructive, and finish ofC the washing process by vigorous ' sluicing with water as cold as possible, i Better still,- if ice is on hand, rub . it over your face three or four times after the. tepid water. While on the subject of packs: The clay and meal mixtures, so beloved of the beauty parlor experts just now, are not auite so quick m results as, ice, but, undoubtedly, they work wonders for coarse-grained skins if used con- -, dstently. A good pack is made i by. r mixing almond flour and oatmeal to. a \ 'paste with peroxide or witch hazel- \ Ah occasional l ice pack works won- £ •Hers m keeping your pores fine and your muscles young. • ? Do not over do the astringent busi- 1 ness. Admitted that astringents keep the : pores .minute, it is not "generally known that the use of a too- potent as- * tringent brings wrinkles m its wake. r Never, never go to bed without re- J moving every vestige - of the day's ? make-up.- . -. '" ■'• . .''■■'•,""'.' '. • J Procure a good cold cream, Use it . plentifully; then .remove with a soft I linen: cloth or any of the more handy ;i paper, napkins, that are sold for that 1: purpose. Cream of this sort is twice t as. efficient as soap and water," ' h