Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1895 — DUTIES OF LADIES’ MAIDS. [ARTICLE]

DUTIES OF LADIES’ MAIDS.

What New York Society Women Require at Their Hands—Their Compensation. New York letter to the New Orleans Picayune-. The duties of a lady’s maid, says one of themrare almost constant, if seldom heavy. One may have leisure for half a day or scarcely get a breathing spell of ten minutes in twenty-four hours. There is not a great deal of variation. I get up at 7in the morning and am through my bath and toilet in time for breakfast at 8. Immediately afterward I take a pot of chocolate and the morning papers to my mistress and while she drinks the chocolate I read from the papers aloud. Her mail is brought up at and. T~ manicure her hands while she reads it. Then I prepare her bath and afterward arrange hfer hair and dress her for her 10 o’clock breakfsist. While the chambermaid is doing up her room I arrange her toilet brushes and boxes and get out het afternoon dress. I have my dinner at noon. If my mistress feels like napping after luncheon I read her to sleep. If she goes shopping I usually accompany her. At 3 I dress her for her afternoon drive, and at 6 for dinner. I have supper at 7, and the evening is generally my own, but I go to bed early when my mistress is out, because when she comes home I have to undress her, brush out her hair. |§tve her a cup of hot bouillion, and read her to sleep. Brushing, mending, and making over her dresses, attending to her laces, and looking after her linen take up most of my spare time. Sunday afternoon I always have to myself, and altogether lam very well satisfied. Ladies who require the attendance of maids have to treat thempvith a certain degree of consideration in order to keep them. Once I ’lived with a woman who would not open her eyes in the morning until I had bathed them with rosewater, and who«empelled me to brush her feet for her. I found out that before Ker marriage she did all the housework for her father and a family of several children, and the discovery so irritated me that I soon conjured up a pretext for leaving her. The lady’s maid in most households ranks with the housekeeper and butler, and is not required to eat in the kitchen. Her average pay is $25 a,month, but if |he fulfills all requirements the very wealthy often give her SSO. or even more. If she is a capable dress-maker and milliner it is a positive economy to retain her at high wages. English maids who have lived with the aristocracy are the first choice with New York women a.t present. They are able to give points. Al! the Vanderbilts have maids who have lived in the families of English noblemen, and as much may be said, with slight limitations, of the Astors, Lori Hards, and other families. Mrs. William Waldorf Astor’s personal attendant formerly waited upon the queen of Italy and Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt had one who served Lady Churchill. Recently a lady’s niaid was discharged because she was mistaken for her mistress when the two were out together. Another was sent flying because she accidentally pulled her mistress’ hair while finishing it. A third discharged herself because her mistress insisted that she should administer a hypodermic injection of morphine every night.