The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 3, September 1864 | Page 7

a
slave in her own house. No matter how grave may be the offences of
her hired girl, she must bear them in the meekest silence. Even the most
friendly advice, conveyed in the blandest possible tone, is often
declined with freezing dignity or repelled with tart resentment. The
cook who makes a cinder of your joint, or sends you up disgusting

slops for coffee, or the laundress between whose clean and soiled linen
you are puzzled to choose, has almost invariably the reply, uttered with
a majestic sternness that never fails to crush any but a veteran and
plucky housekeeper: 'This is the first time any mistress ever found fault
with my cooking (or washing), and I have always lived with the best
families, too.' The cutting emphasis with which this point of the 'best
families' is pushed home, is familiar to nearly every housekeeper. It
was scarcely a departure from sober truth in the lady who, on being
asked if she kept a hired girl, replied that she had an Irish lady boarding
with her, who occasionally condescended, when she had nothing of
more consequence to do, to help a little in the work of the family. An
amusing trifle is going the rounds of the papers, which well hits off,
and without much exaggeraration, the self-assumed prerogatives of the
servant girl of our great cities:
"Now, Miss Bradford, I always likes to have a good, old-fashioned talk
with the lady I lives with, before I begins. I'm awful tempered, but I'm
dreadful forgivin'. Have you Hecker's flour, Beebe's range, hot and cold
water, stationary tubs, oilcloth on the floor, dumb waiter?' Then follows
her planned programme for the week: 'Monday I washes. I'se to be let
alone that day. Tuesday I irons. Nobody's to come near me that day.
Wednesday I bakes. I'se to be let alone that day. Thursday I picks up
the house. Nobody's to come near me that day. Friday I goes to the city.
Nobody's to come near me that day. Saturday I bakes, and Saturday
afternoon my beau comes to see me. Nobody's to come near me that
day. Sunday I has to myself."
I have now pointed out some of the principal faults of servants, and
indicated what I believe to be some of the causes of those faults.
Alluding, in passing, to some influences which it seems to me might be
made available in correcting some of these faults, I have yet to mention
what I conceive to be the most important reason of all for the general
worthlessness of the class under consideration. And in noticing this I
shall necessarily couple with that notice some suggestions which I
firmly believe, if put into practice, will be exceedingly beneficial in
producing the reform we all so ardently wish for. And I feel the less
hesitation in saying this, because they are based upon no theory of my

own devising, but upon principles which are everywhere recognized
and acted upon, except, singularly enough, in the conduct of our
domestic affairs. To be brief, then, I attribute the greatest of the evils of
our system of domestic service to a want of business management in
our domestic affairs.
A wife, in the truest sense, is her husband's most important business
partner--his partner in a more complete and comprehensive sense than
any other he can have. It is not, as many seem to imagine, the business
of the wife to spend the money the husband earns. She is as much
bound to forward the mutual prosperity as he is. The household is her
department of the great business of life, as her husband's is the store,
the manufactory, or the office. Her department does not embrace the
conduct of great enterprises, bargains, speculations, etc.; she has only
to remember and act upon the brief, simple maxim: 'A penny saved is a
penny earned.' In this way she can greatly advance the common weal. If
she fails to act constantly upon this principle, she is an unfaithful and
untrustworthy partner, and is as much, to blame as if her husband were
to neglect his stock, his shipping, his contract, or his clients. Why
should the husband be expected to manage his part of the business upon
sound and correct business principles--system, responsibility,
economy--while his helpmeet is letting hers go at loose ends, with a
shiftlessness which if he should emulate would ruin him in a year?
Now what is the principle upon which every good business man
manages his affairs? Why, simply that of sovereignty. In his domain his
will is law, and no employé dare question it. He has to deal with the
male counterparts of Bridget and Catharine, as porters, laborers,
sometimes as cooks and waiters; but he has no trouble. The
'independent' man