| Show A rt F d blunders women eay A MAN THE management OF SERVANTS 1 one idea in these articles is to be strictly fair to ft omen and not as so many other enters titers m have done to attack them unfairly on subjects of vani vant ty dress gance or any of the other well worn topics to have fol followed loed in the lines of my predecessors would to my in nd have been to prove my own weakness for ne ue cannot change a woman s nature any more than we can man s and therefore to attack women because they are fie ie le or vainglorious seems to me as absurd as to attempt to I 1 brove rove that man Is not mot the super or animal because be he is by instinct fond of cakes and ale really I 1 do not want to attack at all because it is as natural to me to be fond of women as it is for chil dren to be fond of toys my real idea Is to give women an opportunity for defense and to prove their tn tri it is for this reason that I 1 attack them where they elect to be considered strongest namely in their homes the cry of late years jears is that women are as good as men that they have been persecuted and kept under tor for years and that therefore they should not be expected in the first years of their emancipation to be up to competing with men as bread winners that is quite reasonable and therefore I 1 do not gird at their mismanagement of the political and commercial sides of life but the management of the house they have always had and as I 1 have said there they fall fail sadly either to provide comfort or to spend money in the proper way woman s mission Is to abw ays put the blame on some one else eve be zan a it she put the blame on the serpent and her daughters have ever since blamed the serpent on the bearth the servant do not run away with any idea that I 1 am going for mere love of paradox to champion servants A french writer has said so many servants so many spies and in my mind servants are many things worse than spies but let ants be as they are woman s excuse tor for everything that goes wrong just as servants put evereth ng on the cat I 1 accept the gage for the purposes ot of argument we will admit that ants are at the bottom of all the evils of home life now let us inquire into that the first question to ask the woman in the box who Is giving evi dence deuce tor for the defense is who engages the servants 9 the answer is I 1 do the witness be it understood Is speaking on be halt of women generally the next question is who directs the servants 7 9 the answer is the same I 1 do Pur purpling baing this I 1 ne I 1 ask the mistress from whom do your servants learn their business from me and anything they don dont t know I 1 may take it is due to the fact that former misti esses have not taught or er have failed to teach them that la Is so then if the entire education en paying managing and dis charging of servants is carried on by women and it if the proportion pio portion of worn wom en over men servants is very large the entire blame for the tory state of the servant question must be due to women the witness does pot rot answer and on being pressed bursts into tears and finally says it is all the fault of the men men as a rule have nothing to do with servants the larger proportion of servants are women and there fore the faults of servants Is only another proof that women are incata be b e of manag ng another very large section of a necessity which should go tor make comfort and economy in tho home but perhaps it Is not fair to judge entirely by majorities let UP look at the exception which again croves I 1 roves the rule bachelors keep their her tantrums servants men or women for years and with a few exceptions always alays speak of 0 them as treasures why is this ask any servant who applies to jou ou tor for a situation why he or she left his or he last place the almost inva flable answer Is I 1 could not get on with the mistress ask why any gentleman s gentleman or my lady s maid laft his or her ber ct altee and the answers are always the missus the missus the missus As a rule when a servant gives notice and is asked by his maste hy by he wishes to leave the answer is I 1 can cant t satis fy my mistress sir or I 1 cant can t get on with the cook servants very A i a beldom om comp complain ain that thy cannot gel get on t haj t e master it is always 11 miss g again I 1 ask why is this ms the most and sulky female ant w I 1 11 I 1 al smile and do anath an th ng cheera illy for her master or the oung joung gentlemen of the house and when she is in one tan arums itis it is in nine cases butof of ten because she canerot get on v missus or the young lad es or the other fen ale servants for the corn com plaint of servants Is always against what they call she she Is the jeror teror of the servant of either sex and where there is dissension downstairs the tema fema e servant is always at th the e bottom of it does not all this show that mistresses cannot manage ants and that female servants cannot manage one another 9 the servants of a house cost as much as a rule as the rent and taxes and jet et thea never ge satisfaction and are never satisfied why is this I 1 could easily find efty reasons to ac count for it ahe mistress who over works the mistress who under unde works the mistress who is unkind the mis tress who Is too kind the mistress who is too strict the mistress who la Is not strict enough the mistress who makes favorites fai orites etc etc would all prove fruitful subjects to enlarge upon were they not too obvious the re thing about the whole ques tion is that though money will be cure you everything on the earth no amount of wages will induce sery ants as a rule to stop long in a place it Is a mistake to imagine that ants are independent and love to roam As a matter of fact they are terrified to leave because they never knew what character a spiteful mis tress may give them and one bad character means the street it is the haunting fear of this which makes them it if possible give notice before they receive it tor for this Is their only protector prot ecton Is it natural to suppose that any friendless and homeless and creature willingly leaves a good roof good food and good wages to run the chance of meeting a worse mistress 9 the thing is absurd for the motto of servants is the not very lofty one of gervaise to have enough to eat and drink to work all their lives to die in their beds and be buried decently when I 1 was a little fellow I 1 heard the mistress who is ss a servant say that the fate of a sery ant was to work while you are young to beg when you jou are old and to go to the devil when you die I 1 have never forgotten it there is very much to be said on the subject of mistresses and ants very much more than I 1 have either space or patience tor for and there would be very I 1 atle use in saying it it if I 1 had as it seems all very ob when you come to think of it which women apparently never do but alis tl is fact remains we are as much el to servants for the comforts of home 1 fe as we are to our wives an i daughters the only difference between the two classes is that some of us are allowed to try and manage our wives and daughters and some of us succeed but none of us are ever allowed to interfere with the servants all wives and daugh mismanage them to our sore discomfort and their own another thing is that we can get rid of our servants but not of our wives and daughters who I 1 candidly believe are really the most to blame tho agh poor souls I 1 do believe most of them try ahe fact remains however that women arrogate to themselves the management of servants ber and prove their incapacity tor for the task by the deplorable state of the servant mar ket men manage shop girls wait factory girls and all sorts of women engaged in their businesses but men cannot stop at home to man age servants and if they could they could not prevent the r wives and daughters from interfering the ques tion is what Is to be done so that we may live in peace when our days day a aik oik is done it looks like an impasse but it Is 1 lot the larger proportion of ants are women therefore it is women we have to deal with the leal rem edy is to promptly sack all your worn wona en servants and engage men only men servants bill rill cook make beds sweep and wait at table why should they not do so for families they do it in hotels especially in france in restaurants and in the army worn wom en apparently cannot or will not learn and appear to be an nn able to teach them men alen can teach themselves to cook in a very short time and all the rest is child s play yes the solution of the servant ques tues tion is to get rid of your women apt art eno ene en e rin mn m n ard m abe ae them en t rely anaw rable table to yo ir selves men servants N ill cost a I 1 atle more but one man can do two women s work make cantal cap tal servants so do hin loo why not europeans or americans 7 9 copyright by funk Wag nalls co |
