DOMESTIC SERVICE.
(To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR.'1 SIR,—Having read with interest the letters on Domestic Service from " Cook " and " A Sympathizer with the Maids," I should like to suggest that the trouble with our domestic service is largely the incompetence of the present-day maids and their stupid desire to do only one portion of domestic service. Few of them wish to be thorough, and in early youth they get no training in school or home in being handy or observant. I find that two old-fashioned charwomen—one is sixty, the other sixty-seven—do more conscientious scrubbing, dusting, cleaning and washing-up in three hours than two maids calling them- selves housemaids do in the whole day. If maids want more time oft they should be more efficient and take more interest in the work. We need good training-schools for girls going into domestic service. As young girls sent out to places seldom find that cooks and upper housemaids have the patience to teach properly, they generally wish to do things their own way, in a wrong and slovenly manner. Training-schools should have examinations, and certificates should be given for good work, and a thorough training should make maids interchangeable. In that case more freedom could very easily be arranged, and servants would find domestic labour easy.—I am, Sir, &c., A SUFFERER FROM INCOMPETENT SERVICE.
Previous page
