The Expert Maid-Servant

The Expert Maid-Servant Written by Christine Terhune Herrick, (1859 – 1944), Is also the author of "Housekeeping Made Easy" "What To Eat And How To Serve It" "Cradle And Nursery" Etc., and was Published in New York and London in 1904. (164 Pages)

The Publisher has copy-edited this book to improve the formatting, style and accuracy of the text to make it readable. This did not involve changing the substance of the text. Some books, due to age and other factors may contain imperfections. Since there are many books such as this one that are important and beneficial to literary interests, we have made it digitally available.

Contents:

Chapter I. Engaging the Maid — Chapter II. When the Maid Arrives — Chapter III. Mistress and Maid — Chapter IV. The Duties of the Maid-of-all-Work — Chapter V. Duties of Two or More Servants — Chapter VI. Certain Problems of Service — Chapter VII. General Suggestions — Chapter VIII. A Recapitulation of Daily Duties

Excerpts:

.....The housekeeper should come to an interview with a prospective maid with an open mind, and not allow herself to be prejudiced by appearances. An aspect of sullenness is frequently the result of shyness and does not indicate unwillingness to work or a bad temper. The would-be employer should speak gently and not ask questions with a manner of having the maid in the witness-box. Such treatment will sometimes frighten a timid maid into inability to answer intelligently, and the employer will produce an impression of her own hardness and severity which she will find it difficult to overcome later. The pert and self - sufficient maid is likely to declare her nature within a very few minutes. Kindness will not intensify these qualities in her, while it will enable a bashful girl to appear to better advantage.
.....The first days of a servant in a new place are not easy either for mistress or for maid. This should be recognized by the mistress, and she should lay in an extra supply of patience for the emergency. She will need it, in order to endure with equanimity the sins, negligence’s, and ignorance’s of the newcomer — especially the ignorance’s. Yet, looked at impartially, the blunders made by the maid are probably not so much the result of ignorance as of un-accustomedness. The situation is much harder for her than for the mistress. The latter is at least on familiar ground. To the former the place is an unknown quantity. She does not know where anything is kept. She is ignorant of the preferences of her new employer. She is encompassed by novel surroundings and faces; and — a fact that is not always recognized by employers— the very phraseology of the new mistress is strange to her. The maid lacks the mental training that would enable her to adapt herself quickly to the changed conditions, the unusual expressions. Under the circumstances, the wonder is not that she does things so badly, but that she accommodates herself as readily as she does to the fresh environment.
.....In all that has been said there has been no attempt to consider the large establishment where there is a housekeeper who assumes the duties of the mistress of the home in the way of ordering meals, directing servants, and looking after all the details of the household. Such establishments are not plentiful enough to be considered in a book of this scope. It is in the homes where but one servant or at the most two or three are kept that problems of the sort we have touched upon present themselves for solution. In such homes these problems are often matters of daily or weekly consideration. The mistress desires to do all she can to enable the maid to make the best of her place; the maid's intentions are usually as good as those of the mistress, even if they are not quite so clearly formulated.