Text: C. F. Briggs (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), June 14, 1845, vol. 1, no. 24, p. ??

[page 376:]

REVIEWS.

AN ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF DOMESTIC ECONOMY, No. 4: Harper & Brothers.

Though the present number of this excellent work is less profusely illustrated with cuts than those that have preceded it, it is the most valuable of all, being occupied chiefly with the subject of food, of which it treats very fully and discreetly. Something like thirty pages of the two last numbers are occupied by matter relating to domestic servants, which is mainly calculated to produce more harm than good in this country. The author of this department of the Encyclopmdia has entered into the ethics and msthetics of servitude with great gravity, and a marvellously elevated tone of thought. He begins his essay, paragraph 1432, in this impressive manner:

Domestic servants are a class in society no less essential to its welfare and convenience than the equivalent in subsistence and money which, for service done, that class receives, is essential to tile well-being of each individual belonging to it.

We doubt whether this has been written by a gentleman who has ever had the honor, personally, to officiate as a domestic servant of any kind, although in his description of what a servant should be, he manifests a very minute acquaintance with the duties of a foot-boy, scullion, &c. His picture of a nurse is particularly edifying; he has drawn the character of a more perfect monster than can be found in any novel:

In person a nurse should have no striking peculiarity or deformity; no habitual tricks with the features, such as squinting or grimaces; no defect in the articulation, such as lisping and stammering; no singularity or vulgarity in the tone or accent; for such peculiarities always brings into exercise the imitative propensities of childhood. In stature the middle size is, for a nurse, preferable to either extreme of tall or short; the one often causing deficiency in activity, the other in muscular power. The constitution of a nurse maid should be sound. Tendencies to humors of any kind, to consumption, to rheumatism, or even being liable to frequent headaches, would detract from the personal fitness of an individual for the duties of the nursery. In age the nurse should be neither very old, nor very young; were she old, she might possibly be very deficient in activity and temper; were she too young, she might want consideration and judgment. In disposition, she should be cheerful even to liveliness, yet, withal, gentle. Boisterous gayety in the nurse would be almost as injurious to her infant charges as a temper of irritability and violence. In the situation and duties of a nurse there is much to try the temper; and it is not reasonable to expect that it should be always unruffled: still, no one is lit for the charge of children who cannot control in herself any violent expression of irritation.

In personal habits the nurse should be scrupulously correct. Cleanliness and neatness are not to be dispensed with in the individual who is to lay the foundation of good habits in the objects of her superintendence. Deficiency in such habits can, in her, only arise from indolence; and if this defect be inculcated in childhood, by the force of her example, it may, being the parent of so many other vices, blight the promise given in the first years of life of the exercise of future mental vigor.

But, after all, no personal nor acquired qualification in the nurse can be put in competition with the all-important requisite of vigorous, efibctive, and virtuous principles.

Here is a greater amount of high qualities required in a nurse than would be exacted from a Prime Minister, or a Chief Justice. Turning to the table of wages, we find that the pay of such an angel as is described above, varies from twenty to thirty pounds per annum, while the dress required for such an admirable form, every article of which is particularly named, (petticoats 12s, body linen 6s, &c. &c.,) amounts to £7.8.0 sterling per annum.

The duties of each servant are very fully detailed; we select the article on a “footman,” as a sample, from which it will be seen that his office is by no means a sinecure.

He must rise early, and endeavor to get some of the roughest part of his work done before his breakfast, and before he is required [column 2:] to appear in the breakfast-room. In order to preserve the cleanliness of his clothes, he should be provided with a complete overall suit, made of materials that will easily brush clean or bear washing. Covered over with these, he brushes the clothes of the gentlemen of the family, then cleans and polishes their boots and shoes, which the night before, if wet or damp, he had placed at a proper distance from the fire, to dry them gradually: an attention which enables him afterwards to give them a finer polish. These done and set ready to convey to their owners, he then cleans the knives and forks, wipes them, and puts them away till wanted. After this he washes and cleans himself previously to the preparations for the family breakfast table. After laying the cloth and placing the required number of cups, saucers, plates, &c., he puts the heater into the kitchen fire, sees that water is boiling, and the supplies of bread, butter, &c. ready, and then is prepared for the summons for the urn. His own breakfast time is regulated by that of the family, the footman in some houses taking breakfast with the other servants, and in others in his own pantry on the remains of the family breakfast.

After the footman has himself breakfasted,washed and replaced in the china closet whatever has been used of china at the breakfast table, to;ether with the plate, waiters and trays, he must direct his attention to the cleaning of candlesticks (see “Cleaning”), trimming of lamps, (see “Artificial Illumination,”), putting them in right places in his pantry till they are wanted. — The mahog my furniture in the dining-room or library he must rub daily, and twice weekly he ought to wash away any spots it may have acquired, restoring afterward the polish it may have lost, by any of the means mentioned tinder “Cleaning.” Some of the windows he should clean weekly, availing himself of periods of the day when the occupants of the rooms are absent from them. Afterward returning to the pantry, he should set himself to prepare something or other for the dinner table; either to rub the plate, to wipe the glass, &c., until it be time to prepare for the luncheon. During this part of the day he should be in such a dress as is not inconsistent with his employments, nor yet unfit for him to appear in if summoned by bells to the parlor or to the hall door. A colored cotton or plain cloth jacket and white linen apron are usually worn by footmen while engaged as above described. The parlor luncheon being generally called for about one o’clock, he must have the tray set ready; when carried into the parlor, and properly arranged, he will usually be at liberty to get his own dinner, which is generally ready at this period of the day. When his mistress requires it, the footman should be ready to attend her, either with the carriage, or to follow her if she walks out. For this latter part of his morning's duty, he should be neatly dressed; hisclothes and hat should be well brushed; his shoes and stockings and gloves clean. A dirty looking footman is a d,sgrace rather than a credit to a family. In giving directions to the coachman he should be quick and accurate; nor is it altogether needless to remark that, even in his announcing rap at the doors of the parties on whom his lady calls, there is a propriety to be observed as to its measure and degree; if too lorid and long, it disturbs a whole neighborhood; if too insignificant, it may be deficient in respect to his lady. In following her during her walks, he should preserve a steady decorum of manner, and be observant and ready in case any emergency should make his aid necessary to her.

Waiting at table is one of the most important parts of his employments, and requires more skill and attention from him, if unaided by others, than when lie is one among many attendants. Here, any neglect of his other duties will be apparent, and the censure must fall on him alone. Knives, forks, plate, and glass will all tell of his industry or of his negligence.

The general deportment of a footman, while waiting at dinner, should be quiet and quick, but not hurried or bustling: he should tread lightly, change plates, knives., &c. without clatter, and should speak us little as possible, and never in a raised tone of voice, unless it be necessary in answering questions. He should hand everything with the left hand, and to the left of the person he is assisting to anything. The tablecloth, in removing, should have each side and ends lightly thrown together, and be carried out of the room, and laid aside until a convenient opportunity for shaking it and folding it up. On formal occasions, the tablecloth is left, and long slips down each side an used, and removed when dinner is over. It should be wrapt up in the folds previously made, and placed carefully in the table-linen press. Dinner over, and the dessert and wine properly placed on the table, the footman retires to his own pantry to wash glasses, &c., and to put everything once more in its right [page 377:] place. Then he prepares for taking up coffee and tea; puts the urn heater into the fire; places teacups, &c., on the board; and sets cakes, bread and butter, milk, &c. on his waiter, ready to carry to the drawing-room when required. At night he closes all window-shutters and locks up doors; carries up bed candles: takes the slippers to his master; and, lastly, collects, as far as he can, all small articles of plate, such as teaspoons, which are in constant dispersion during the day in most houses; counts all over; locks it up or places it in security — and thus closes his daily business.

To place candles properly in the candlesticks, though not strictly a branch of cleaning generally, completes this part of the footman's work. Candles should be placed perfectly straight in the candlestick; any inclination from the perpendicular being not only disa.greeable to the eye, but causing the tallow or wax to run wastefully down the sides, because the heat of the flame acts more powerfully on one side of the candle than on the other. The same effect is produced by dirt or soil on the surface of the candle, as also causing an irregular action of the heat. If the nozzle of the candlestick be too large for the candle, a small fold of paper must be put round the candle, not so wide as to be visible when the candle is placed in it. The wick of the candles, if they have not been previously lighted, should be just set fire to and blown out. For this, when they are wanted, they will light the more easily.

In trimming candles which have been previously in use, it is desirable to pare off’ the top, so far as to form again the conical shape into which they had been originally moulded. The object of this is to prevent that surplus of melted tallow, caused by the heating of so large a circumference of tallow, and which the wick cannot at first consume, from flowing down the sides of candles, wasting as well as disfiguring them.

Candle ends, mould as well as wax, ought to be used upon save-ails by the servants, and not put into the box of scrapings, to add to the perquisites of those whose office it is to clean the candlesticks.

For these trifling services and every day accomplishments, the footman receives from 10 to 25 pounds per annum, which will not be considered too much when it is seen that he must have the nanners of a perfect gentleman, and the gallantry of an old chevalier, besides being six feet in his stockings, and the owner of good teeth and broad shoulders.

But the most interesting of all to a great part of American readers, will be the description and list of duties assigned to a “maid of all work,” that kind of servant being the most common in American families.

First, she must be an early riser; before her mistress gets up, her kitchen, parlor, and hall should be properly cleaned (see, art. “Cleaning,”), and she herself washed and neatly dressed, ready to attention her mistress and prepare her breakfast,taking her own also about the same time. After breakfast, and after, washing and putting away the breakfast things, and receiving her mistress's orders for the day, she should repair to the bedrooms, and proceed to clean and arrange them, as described above (see “Household Duties”) From these employments it is probable that she may be oacasionally called away to answer bells; and, on such occasions, she should look to her kitchen fire now and then, to keep it in readiness for the cooking, to which she will, in a short time, have to attend. When up-stairs work is done, she must return to her kitchen, and set about repaying the dinner. In some cases, the mistress may, perhaps, assist her. It wail be an advantage to the servant to have such en assistant and instructress who may be clever in the art of cooking.

Before dinner is served she should again wash her hands and change her apron, making her dress as seemly as the nature of her employments permit. In a service such as the one nowde-scribed, the family usually dine first, and the servant afterward, on the remains of the dinner. As she brings it from table she should put it near the fire to keep it warm until she has time to sit down to it. If she does her duty to her employer, she may conscientiously attend to any little circumstances that may promote her own comfort.

Her dinner over, the clearing away, scouring saucepans, washing dishes, with every other necessary act of cleanliness, will occupy some part of the afternoon, in the course of which she must find time to make up the kitchen fire, set on the teakettle, and sweep up the kitchen hearth. Her work completed, she again washes herself and changes her dress; she is then [column 2:] ready to wait upon her mistress at tea, and to attend in any other way to her comfort.

The evening is occupied with closing doors and windows, and arranging the bedrooms for the night.

Besides the daily routine, she must contrive to bring into each day some portion of the weekly cleaning. Her kitchen should be scoured twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday; the parlour swept every other morning; the hall washed; bedrooms swept, and carpets taken up and shaken on Tuesday and Friday; plate cleaned on Wednesday and Saturday; block tin kitchen utensils, plated candlesticks, and brass work on Thursday (see “Cleaning”.) Once a fortnight or once in three weeks, the floors of bedrooms should be scoured (see “Scouring”.) marks on painted wainscots washed of windows cleaned, &c.

If the washing be done in the house, the above routine will be occasionally broken into for a few days, though probably she will be allowed some assistance at the washtub, and will find her mistress ready to take on herself some portion of the lighter business of starching and getting up the fine linen.

The young lady who performs these duties well, and is moreover virtuous, cheerful and good looking, may hope for seven pounds per annum, and tea and sugar.

The whole of the article on domestic servants is very pleasant reading, if not very profitable on this side of the Atlantic, and the description of a gentleman's household reads like a chapter from a fashionable novel.