Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1894 — London Servants’ Wages. [ARTICLE]

London Servants’ Wages.

The item of wages opens up the whole question of servants and domestic home rule. One need only refer to the monthly reviews and magazines to see that here we have indeed a chronic subject for discussion. The professional philanthropist, the enlightened and benevolent peeress, the lady journalist, even Sarah Jane herself, all have a word to say. Our own experience I can give very shortly. There has been, on the whole, very little, trouble except with the cooks. Wages have run on an average as follows: Nurse, £2O; cook, £lB to £2O; house parlormaid, £l6. When the life and income of a domestic servant is compared with that of many a girl in business, or even with that of many working men, lam prepared to say that she is exceedingly well off and, if thrifty, could very soon save £IOO. Servants are often very good to their relatives and friends, and can be taught to save money, but it Is idle to blink the fact that a great deal of their wages goes upon their backs in the shape of unsuitable finery. Putting all this aside, what can you get for a wages budget of £54? Well, you can, with luck, get well served in every department except the kitchen. “God sends the food, but the devil sends the cooks.” The difficulty is mainly this—the impossibility of getting a plain cook t 6 cook plain things well every day. She will boast of her pastry and “ongtrays,” but if you ask her to cook chop or fry a potato properly, it is too often utterly beyond her, and as a rule she is above being taught. The middle-class breadwinner can in London be certain at a hundred restaurants, or at his club, of getting a repast of three courses excellently cooked and presented to him at a moderate cost. The same certainly cannot be had at home. My own explanation is a very simple one. The British plain cook does not consider, in the flrat place, that her employers are entitled to hava food at all better prepared than she herself knows how to prepare it. This knocks on the head any idea of teaching her the art. She simply listens to her mistress with silent contempt and ignores her plain directions. That is one phase of the cook difficulty.—The National Review.