Show AS OTHERS SEE US What an English Woman Tliinks of American Servants The woman who Is showing up Society So-ciety in the United States week by week in one of the London papers has got down to the servant stratum How many housekeepers among us will subscribe sub-scribe to the following The Irish servant who is intelligent and well trained is eXCellentand as rare as a white blackbird Of the majority ma-jority of those who arrive green as their native shamrock at Castle Garden Gar-den little can be said in favor After they have found situations and patient mistresses have taught or had them taught by older servants how to dust corners as well as the middle of the room or to cook etc they seem to be minus all conscleiftious scruples against leaving unless a trifling increase in an already too high salary a little less work or more evenings are offered as an inducement If at the end of a month after they are in possession of their excellent wages they can manage man-age to steal away their boxes they do not trouble to give notice and rely on their references from Ireland to assist as-sist them to the new situations It is no uncommon occurrence for a servant to arise at 4 oclock in the morning and depart tin boxes In hand for a servants boarding house leaving the basement or kitchen door open for the invitation of tramps and vagabonds vaga-bonds Sometimes the door Is kindly closed by a passing policeman or ho rings up the household to know whether wheth-er or not a robbery has been committed commit-ted When the cook leaves in this fashion the family wait for the sound of the breakfast bell until some one investigates the lower regions and discovers dis-covers the housemaid or another servant ser-vant complacently dawdling among the dishes trying to cook something to eat After a month in the United States most of the servants refuse to wear their caps charge extra for this concession con-cession when they see fit to accord it cheekl their mistresses refuse to brush boots and exchange sass with every tradesman who appears at the kitchen The green Irish insists that she must attend church twice on Sunday Sun-day Is slopshod neglects her duties sings Kathleen at the top of her voice when working and dreams of the lover she has left in Ireland until she falls in love with the butcher or the man who comes to paint the back steps after this she is on the lookout for a situation that will allow eight evenings per week This is all very edifying and my statements may seem a trifle exaggerated but when one considers con-siders that it is an absolute fact that these innocent creatures are often discovered washing the dishes with antimacassars and utilizing the dinner napkins for dusters one will realize that much exaggeneration of their faults is impossible The German Norwegian and Swedish Swe-dIsh girls remain devotedly with the first mistress who engages their services servi-ces until they have learned the American Amer-ican servants routine and how to speak the language of the country After this they may be classed In the vernacular of the weather profit as variable French servants are treasures that overestimate their own valuer they are neat bright capable After a French maid has gained the confidence of her mistress she not infrequently feels herself at liberty to copy the pattern pat-tern of a dress or bonnet designed in the Rue de la Paix for her mistress or that ladys visitors and on her afternoon af-ternoon out Marie Louise goes down the fashionable promenade arrayed in the cheap counterfeit she has made Of course this leads to trouble and occasionally to the departure of the maid but more frequently to the relegation rel-egation of the Paris confection to the second and clothing shop accprdlng to which can be the more easily dispensed dispens-ed withthe confection or the maid A good and capable servant receives from 15 to 20 a month for her services ser-vices but the system of tipping does not avail to any extent in the states English women servants are in demand de-mand but they marry quickly after arriving ar-riving in the country and make good I wives for tradesmen and mechanics New York Times |