THE MISTRESS SPEAKS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume 1, Issue 8, 14 February 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE MISTRESS SPEAKS.

TWO VIEWS OF THE DOMESTIC JPROBLEM. [Specially wsitten for The Sun.] It's as old as the hills and as new as yesterday—the problem of domestic service. Many a mistress has grown grey in grappling with it—many.a maid has, figuratively speaking, beaten her heart out against the bars of domestic servitude —and to what end? "We are apparently no "forrader" with a solution. '' Why do girls dislike domestic service so much f" helplessly and hopelessly queries the lady who simply thirsts, for a competenti maid. They don't! It's only the conditions that they rebel against. The wail of the mistress is loud in the land. One speaks.' "Domestic servants, indeed," she! says, snapping up a blind, which action ! shows the undusted condition of the room and the withering flowers on the mantelpiece. "Domestic servants, indeed!" she repeats with withering scorn. V There, aren't any. Girls to assist,'lady helps, companions, and all of that -ilk,, maybe. But the real, genuine species of general domestic servant is gone—^vanished-—de-parted—extinct as the dodo, whatever that may be," ,„ Mrs Suburbia,'the lady who speaks, feels most strongly on the subject. She has a long and apparently un-ending procession , of maids trooping through, her kitchen—one. goes and another comes, and, according to her, each only stays long enough to make a whirlwind upheaval of everything, and then ihey depart full of impudence and abuse, and Mrs Suburbia has an attack of nervous prostration until she is able to rise and face the problem of another. '' Why, then, do you keep/or rather attempt to keep them?" I naturally enquired. Mrs Suburbia gazed at me in considerable amazement. The idea of banishing them altogether had evidently never occurred to her. "Why, one —one must!" she answered. '' They are made of faults, certainly, but if one didn't keep them, who would do the housework, I should like to know!" "Then they do accomplish something useful,'' I said triumphantly, and Mrs

Suburbia conceded reluctantly, '' After a fashion. '' For she bitterly grudged a single word that could be construed to the favour of the Procession.

Just then the Current Number, if I may so allude to the maid that just then graced the„Subu.rbian domicile, brought in the tea equipage, and arranged it on a table. My hostess watched her down her nose —an attitude specially designed by all the imps of wickedness for the discomfiture and utter confusion of the watched one. I felt that if I were the Current Number I would throw the fray at least at Mrs Suburbia, and admired her self-control in not doing it. When she had arranged everything she turned to leave the room. Mrs Suburbia called her back at the door.

"Wait a moment until I see if you have everything here that I want. Nodoubt you've forgotten something." The Current Number waited, the light of rebellidn smouldering in her eyes, while Mrs Suburbia carefully inspected the tea table, at both long and short range. With an obvious air of disappointment she remarked ungraciously, "It will do. You may go." She went—thankfully, no doubt. Said I to my hostess: "Do you ever give p maid any praise if she does anything specially well f" and she replied with much astonishment, " Praise'? Good no! They've had enough aS' it' is—what they would be v if I'praised them heaven only .knbwsv*. , She dropped two lumps of*, sugar, in.her cup, and repeated that heaven, arid heaven only, was possessed of sufficient insight into the minds of :,maids 'to realise whatdepths of infamy they might reach should she so far lorget herself as ,to accord them any praise. * I tried another tack. "Suppose," I said, "suppose, for instance, that you came, awkward and shy, to a strange place, to work for your living. Suppose your employer was cold and critical always, never giving you credit for your best efforts, never rewarding you with that sweet thing, a word of well-deserved praisef" ' ' ■" ' Mrs Suburbia put down her tea cup. Clearly I was going too^ar. "There is no comparison, I trust," said she, in her most majestic accents, '' no comparison in the world between my servants and myself!" . Oh, Mrs Suburbia, how hopeless you are! Your chief aim in life is to.crush beneath the heel of your pcrition the woman whom circumstances compel to be your domestic servant. You are horrified at the idea of being placed on

the same flesh-and-blood ai. so very much finer than she. is! Ar you, though? Did you ever sit down an. quietly consider tho question? You have had-a few more advantages—you hav been sent to a better school, you have been clothed and fed more daintily, your environment has no doubt" been a little better—but after. all the is a' womaiL and you are* a woman, and what hurts' and affects tho one must maturally hurt and- affeet : the . other. And because of her position, every snub, every slight, must great deal more keenly in her case than in yours. ■> You have your your ■ children, your friends about you constantly—she is in the kitchen alone, with memories of naggings ancb fault-findings in the past, and a lively anticipation of more to come "in the near future. Yet you are reriously surprised at the results, you get! Well, well! Away a good distance from the pretentious villa of Mrs Suburbia lives another lady (whom I know, who also keej>s a maid. Yes, she really keeps one, >- although she is not rich and cannot •afford to pay high wages, and her maid has to assist her in many of her econoImies, and do without many things that the Current Number •of Mrs Suburbia would probably Rave. I met her going home the other day after a shopping expedition. "Da come.along with me some tea,'', the urged—'-' that is,- if .-you . r don't .mind being left alone for a minute or two while I see about it." "Maid-less?" I enquired as we trudged along. (Continued on • page 5.)

(Continued from page 4.) "Dear me, no," she responded with a happy laugh. "Only pro tern., that is. ,To-day is Mary's birthday, so I gave her the day to play with. She didn't -half like leaving me to 'do' for myself all day, as she put it, but I got her off in the end, duly escorted by her young man* who had also succeeded in getting a day off in honour of the occasion. "They were so happy over it—made me feel quite good to watch them. It left me in such a pleasant frame of mind, that I didn't mind~a bit of work. It's . a fine thing to be able to give pleasure to someone." "Even your maid?" I said absently, mentally contrasting her attitude with *that of Mrs Suburbia. "Why 'even my maid'?", she returned. "My maid is a human being, much the same as we are. And I'm quite attached, to Mary—she has been with us a matter of five years, and she is quite devoted to all of us.'' "How do you manage, it?" I enquired, and my friend, gave me her very sane and simple rule.--;*.- * "/When I;engage a maid I always endeavour to get a girlof intelligence and nice, instincts—^that. is much more important to:me than previous" training," Bhe said. ; - " I rather. prefer to do the training myself. When I engage ; her I tell her, in the, plainest and simplest way; what work, she is to do, when it is to be done, my particular likes and dislikes, impressing on her to come to me at once. if she forgets >or does not thoroughly understand anything. I never entertain her with the shortcomings of previous maids, and although" I chat to her at times about other'things than her work{ I do not encourage familiarity, and I never allow a back answer. I praise judiciously when I think the occasion merits it, and I never pass or gloss over wilful carelessness, rudeness, or laziness. If a girl persists in any of these faults I say to her after a.fair tria£ 'lt is plain that we will never Buitone another, my girl. Your ways do not suit me, and I can.see that mine do not suit you. It is best that we should part;' an< * we part.quietly, without any quarrel or fuss.'" But I must say that the majority I encounter are amenable to reason, training, and what they so concisely call 'a square deal.' Be ' decent to your maid, and she will usually be the same to you." "I "don't expect- my maid to live for me, either. I realise that her work is only part of her life, and that she has other interests as well. I try to enter into them too, and she "knows-that I am as much interested in what'she does on her 'off' days as those on which she works. In short, we are good friends, my maid and I, although-she is at all. Cimes thoroughly respectful to me. She never presumes on any little kindnessbelieve me, presumption on the maid's part is almost invariably the fault of the, mistress." i -. Yet another employer of maids has her Bay. "Maids are so unsatisfactory," she sighs, "I can't think what they are coming to.'' She is of a liberal disposition, treats her servants well (too well, maybe), is generous in the way of days and evenings off, yet her maids never turn out welL • She really hates fault-finding, and often overlooks a fault to avoid saying anything disagreeable. Is it lack of good management, think you?