THE FRENCH MAIDSERVANT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8100, 27 August 1904, Page 3

THE FRENCH MAIDSERVANT.

(By MISS BETHAM EDWARDS,- in '• Th-o Gentle woman.") In private hotels and the more spacious flat-3 of Paris servants sleep under the master's roo. ; they have also a room for meals called I'offioc, but jn nowise answering to our servants' hall or sitting-room. The office is a bare, uncarpeted, uncurtained apartment, containing a long table and upright chairs, against the walls being hugs lineu presses and cupboards containing china and cutlery. But tho bonne, o. maid-of-all-work, in even a fair-sized and expensive flat lives under conditions that Miss Slow boy would have found intolerable. I speak with tha authority of oft-renewed experience, having stayed in many boarding-houses and private flats in the eighth and seventeenth arrondissements, both handsome, modern, and recherche quarters. The kitchens could only be called mere slips ; to dignify them by any other name were a misnomer. Justroom had been allowed for two chairs, on which the one or two S-rvants could- sifc down to meals, no more. But if comfort was out of th© question downstairs, equally absent was it from the attic in the roof, stiflingly hot in the summer, bitterly cold during winter, and, worse of all, tiny compartment of a thicly populated beehive. Not only are domestic servants trju** hous-' ed, but' shop assistants and others, with what dire results we may imagine. On the other hand, domestic servants in France enjoy a laisser aller unknown with ourselves. Take the matter of uniform, for instance. Tho scrupulously neat black dress with speckless white apron and cap of our parlourmaids, tlie wliite dresses of our nursemaids, could never be attained by French housewives. If their domestio staff, according to insular notions, has a good deal to complain of as far as comfort goes, this comparative case and unceremoniousness is doubtless an adequate compen. sation. •A feinme de chambre who helps the man servant in the housework, and at the saina tinie acts as ladies' maid, dresses precisely as she pleases. She may be veiy particular or the reverse ; no notice is taken o! ber personal appearance. The scrupulousness exacted of our neat-handed Phyliises would drive Jeanne or Marie mad. Nor is nonchalance confined to dress and outward nicety. Accustomed aa they are to make themselves at home, French servant- must find tho atmosphere of an English homo somewhat chilling. The free and easy existence on tho other aide of the Channel is much dearer to them than the comforts with which they are surrounded here. " Liberty, equality, fraternity, n is a watchword tliat applies to tho tongue as well aa to laws and liberties in Franco. The privilege of making as much noise as one pleases is much more valued than spacious dining-rooms, easy chairs, and comfortable sleeping accommodation. IN -COUNTRY HOUSES. In country houses I i*onld say matters remain much as they were when Axma Young made his wonderful tour ot f*** c » 115 years a-go. The woman servant s bedroom is often a mere niche in the kitchen. My dear old friend Justine of Burgunaian memory ! Many a time have 1 seen you perform your simple toilet for Mass undisturbed by the passing to and fro ot mistress, master, young master, and guests. Justine's bedroom was a little chamber i» the kitchen wall, rather an alcove a trffl* wider than the recess of a recumbent statue in church or cathedral. Now., the kiteoen led to the back door, and the back door opened' on the high road a stone's throw from church and village. It was, indeed, the most frequented portion of the house. Here the gent emen prepared for thvir day's cha_e in the forest, and here the household assembled- on Sunday morning before starting in a body for church. Tlie midday meal would be left to cook itself, so, having carefully deposited her potatoes in the wood embers and her potee or savoury mess of meat and vegetables oi_ the hob, Justine would step on to her bed, and ceremoniously put on her blacK stun gown, clean mob cap and kerchief, exchange carpet slippers for well-blaicked sboon, ana even sometimes replace one pair of coarse^ white stockings by another. tf» one £^ any attention whatever to the dear, «"*" * eyed, rosy-cheeked, childishly simple oia thing . close upon seventy, whose lifo from childhoqd upwards had been spent .in tne family. For many years Justine s -wages had been £6 yr.arly j this sum gradually .increased to £10, 1 dare say New Year s gan mai-ing up £5 more. But at -£10 -* n * wages -topped, and so "weU had J«s«ne husbanded her resources that regular 1 ? '« her employers she received her UU-yemy dividends in the State Rentes. - I do not know if such is still the case, but twenty-five years ago, even in spacious , flats of large provincial cities, the. servants bedroom was. often the kitchen. Sopa «tcpr the Franco-Prussian War I wintered a* Nantes with the widow of a late Preset. Besides very large dining and dr * ff '°f' j rooms, there were four or five good oca- , chambers in her handsome fla/t, yet our nice Bretoune, Mariette the cook, d«P* an^ | performed- her toilet in a recess of what was ; both cook-room and scnllery. .. i As a-U travellers in France kno^'. I '-;® peasants have often four-posters in tneir kit-hens, these often of enormous proportion;, ud well placed in alco»*vfl. two some- j

times facing each other. The habit has doubtless arisen partly from tim excessive cold of French winters, partly in former days from fear of marauder*. But in the more progressive districts the custom is fast dying out. No rich peasant builds himself a. house at the present time without adding good airy bedrooms. More particularly is pride taken in a sightly staircase, a feature of domestic architecture formerly represented by a ladder of the plainest description.