SERVANTGALISM.
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A lady writes that she has great
trouble with her servant girls. She
says she has only herself, husband, and
little girl, but that it takes just as many
servants to keep house as if she had a
dozen in the family—that is, she must
keep a cook, nurse, chambermaid, and
a girl to dust around and attend the door-bell. “Now,
Mr. Perkins,” she asks, “how can I get two good, old-fashioned
girls, who will work together and run my
little house?”
I don't know, my good lady, unless you advertise.
Suppose you put this advertisement in the Herald to-morrow,
and see the result:
COOK WANTED.
A woman in respectable circumstances, living on Lexington avenue,
and who can give good references from the last lady who
worked for her, wishes a situation as mistress over two young
ladies. The advertiser has a husband and one child, but if the
child is an objection, it will be sent out to board. The ladies
who consent to enter into the alliance will have full management
of the house. They will be allowed to employ an inferior person
to assist them in doing their own washing and ironing, provided
they will allow the advertiser to put in a few small pieces, such
as collars, cuffs, and baby clothes. The advertiser will assist in
the heavy work, such as wiping down the stairs, building fires, and
such other labor as may be considered unbecoming in a lady. A
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gentleman of color will be in attendance to wash door-steps, scrub
stairs, clean knives and dishes, carry water and run on errands.
The young ladies will have Sundays and Saturday afternoons to
themselves, and can use the back parlor for evening company during
the week, provided the advertiser can use it in the morning. In
case the young ladies desire to give a party, the advertiser, after
giving up the keys of the wine-cellar and larder, will spend the
night at the hotel. If the young ladies have relatives, they can
supply them with flour, chickens, and vegetables from the common
larder. Presents will be exchanged on Christmas, and the young
ladies can have a set of jewelry or a point lace underskirt on Easter
morning.
Candidates will please send address to No. — Lexington avenue,
when the advertiser will call on them with her recommendations
and certificates of good character.
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Landon, Melville D. (Melville De Lancey), 1839-1910 [1875], Eli Perkins (at large): his sayings and doings. With multiform illustrations by Uncle Consider, after models by those designing young men, Nast, Darley, Fredericks, Eytinge, White, Stephens and others. (J.B. Ford & Company, New York) [word count] [eaf627T].
