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Management of Servants (Since the surrender the great)

"Since the surrender," the great problem with the Southern matron has been the servant question. Prior to that date, though the mistress had many trials with inefficient, heedless, and frequently dishonest servants, yet, as their permanent training was in her hands, she, if competent herself, was likely to have a few, at least, very capable assistants.

Indeed, the colored cooks and laundresses of the South were noted for their skill; many of them seeming to "possess a genius" for their work. And if the mistress were kind and generous, she readily succeeded in attaching her colored dependents to herself and her interests, and had some faithful as well as efficient servants.

Now at the South (as it has so long been at the North) the "girls" are birds of passage, though less reliable in their migrations, often coming and going with the weeks instead of the seasons. The "treasure" of to-day leaves at the most inopportune hour to-morrow; or, if by any chance it suits her inclination and convenience to "stop," she henceforth becomes the mistress, her employer living in daily dread of offending and losing her. Few have any idea of making themselves a necessity to the family, aud sharing its joys and sorrows-it is only so much (or so "little") work for so much payand no bond of sympathy or attachment is permitted to spring up on either side. When we look at the subject in all its bearings we can not wonder greatly at the existing state of things, deplorable as it is. The fixed wages that prevail in most towns and cities offer little inducement to girls to become specially expert in their work. Among men the most skillful workman commands the highest salary; and realizing this, they fit themselves accordingly; but the superior cook, laundress, or housemaid (except in rare cases), gets no more wages than the "raw girl," who does not earn her board by her bungling and wasteful style of work. Until some change is made in this matter, it is not likely that girls (who usually do housework as a makeshift until they marry or find better paying employment) will care to render themselves more competent than is actually necessary to insure their pay. A combination among ladies to grade wages and protect each other from dishonest, wasteful and incompetent servants would be a good thing for employers and employees; it would prove an incentive to the latter to fit themselves more carefully for their work. Certain it is that it requires no small amount of diplomatic talent to administer the household government now.

It is, of course, quite impossible to give rules to suit all cases, since there (499)