The Secret of a Happy Home (1896)

frunce

essay to which I have just set

l not be sending me away without one, pet

as' summer," she stands at the back of my desk, one hand on her hip, and makes her dema

h is up; she is going out of my house, out of my employ, out of my life. These things being true, Katy wants to take with her all that pertains to

ight a brown paper parcel of moist sugar. She supplied, gratis, a personal voucher for the woman I had engaged, having known her well for five years. Katy had, moreover, a model "recommend," which she unwrapped fr

. I have found her industrious, sober, neat, honest and obliging. She also understands he

57th St., Ne

Mr. ...'s office was in Wall street, his residence No ... West 57th street. I called to see him, found him in, and found him a gentleman. He had no doubt that all was right.

r. Katy "liked the country in hot weather. All the

e was a wretched cook, and a worse laundress. Within an hour after she entered my door, the decent black gown was exchanged for a dingy calico which she wore, without a collar, and minus a majority of the buttons, all day long and every day. She was "a settled girl"-owning to twenty-eight summers, and having weathered forty winters. Her hair, streaked with gray, tumbled down as persis

July 1, she developed a genius for quarreling with the other servants that got up a domestic hurricane, and I told her she must leave. She promptly burs

w a harrd wurrd at a dog, let alone a human. Whin they think me cross, it's only that I'm a bit quoiet, an

good and peaceable behavior, and tried to m

warning. "Her feelin's would not allow her to stay in a house where there was sickness. It always reminded her of her pore, dear brother what was drownded las

-gossip and Sunday flirtation as I feel at getting rid of her. I have made with her a farewell round of pantries, refrigerator, and cellar. Valuable articles are missing-notably two solid silver tablespoons and a dozen fine napkins. At th

r, the housemaid declared that Katy had used them often to stir soup and porridge, and Katy retorted with

upon an already burdened household, had become impatient desire by the time I counted out her wages. Yet

y of you Katy?"

es an' livin' in houses tin times 's big as this, leddies as had none but leddylike ways, has said!" is the tautological response. "I've served yez,

ty-seventh street. Having let the creature abide under her roof for eleven months, she must justify herself for the act. She meant to

I pass

s and knots. It is time that the great national principle that government must depend upon the consent of the governed, should be studied and applied to the matter in hand. We, the wage-payers, are the governed, and without our consent. The recent attempt to enforce this retro

the rule of truth-speaking to her moral sense, and asked how

there's no sin in a lie tha

y intimates that she will not withdraw her foot from my house. She looms before me,-vulgar, dete

ask a friend, who is

gs her s

lent to boycotting yourself. The news of your contumacy will spread

uty to my

girl. When Katy has worn out her saucepans and patience, your successor in misfortune will give her clean papers to the next place. It is a sort of endless chain of suffering. Then, there

aty a reference. I have said to

nd a money loss to me. I am willing to write this down, together with the statement that you are sober, stron

leddy, an' fer the matter o' that, no Christian, ayther, or you'd not put s

law o' me for refusing her her rights." Finally, and most intemperately, that "the Lord will dale with me for grindin' the face of a pore, defenceless young

saction to enforce my appeal to my fellow housekeepers, all over the land, to join han

nce of the next employer, and her faults,-in short, a veritable "character." Let her pledge herself to her sister-housekeepers and to

ant to her order. In England, too, the former mistress is held partly responsible for t

implicity of a plan which would make skill and fidelity in service the only road to success. Self-interest, if nothing else, would stimulate our Katies and Bridgets, our Dinah

tion under the name of The Housekeepers' Protective Union, that should have but one article in its constitution, and that one be the pledge I have indicated, would cover the whole ground, and effe

the formation of the fi