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Classic
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page 368
employing a new domestic, there should be the utmost frankness. She ought to be
fully informed as to what she is expected to do, what her wages will be and how
paid, and what privileges will be granted. If she is not pleased, let her depart
without regret. If you engage her, let her understand first and always that you
are mistress, and claim the right to have the work done in your way, which, if
you are as skillful a housewife as you ought to be, you will be able to show her
is the best way. The mistress ought always to be able to do every thing better
and quicker than any domestic ever dared think of doing it. If she gives orders
which betray her ignorance, she may as well resign her sceptre at once in shame
and humiliation. No mistress who does not know how to do work herself can ever
be just to her help, and even when she is a thorough housekeeper, a turn in the
kitchen for a day or two will often be like a new revelation to her.
Above all, the utmost kindness should be shown, and the mistress of the house
should always be mistress of her temper. She should put herself in the "girl's"
place, and apply the golden rule in all dealings with her. Give unqualified
praise when deserved, but never scold. If any thing is done improperly, take
some proper time and have it done correctly, again and again if necessary. Give
domestics all the privileges possible, and when obliged to deprive them of any
customary indulgence, make it up soon in some other way. Never to find fault at
the time an error is committed, if in the least irritated or annoyed, is an
invaluable rule in the management of domestics or children, and indeed in all
the relations of life. A quiet talk after all feeling has subsided, will do
wonders towards reform, while a sharp and bitter rebuke would only provoke to
further disobedience. It is especially important and right to respect religious
and conscientious scruples, no matter how light and misguided they may seem. To
cherish what beliefs she pleases is an inalienable right. The care for the
comfort and attractiveness of the domestic's room is also a duty which every
generous mistress will cheerfully look after. The servant who is tucked away in
a gloomy attic, unfinished, uncarpeted, and uncurtained except by cobwebs, with
the hardest bed and the meanest bed-clothing in the house, can hardly be
expected to be neat and tidy in her personal habits. But after all, it will be
impossible to secure and keep really good "girls," unless they can be won into
sympathy and attachment to the family, so that they will regard themselves as a
part of it, with a future identified with its fortunes. To do this, the mistress
must respect her maid as a sensitive woman like herself, and not class her as a
mere drudge of an inferior order of creation. She must recognize the fact that
character, and not station or wealth, make the lady, and that it is possible for
those who serve to respect themselves. She must let her domestics see that she
does not consider their work degrading, but honorable, and that she does not for
a moment expect them to regard it in any other light. Above all, she must never
show them, by word, look, or action, that she "looks down" on them because of
their work. By the cultivation of such amenities as these, the house may really
be made a home for the domestic as
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