98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



complete stranger. In short, we expect a great deal from our ser- 

 vants, and it is reasonable to ask, What do we give in return, what 

 have we ever done for a class on whom we are so dependent, what 

 effort has been made to raise the tone of service, what inducements 

 are offered to respectable young women to enter the ranks ? None, 

 or comparatively none ! High wages do not prove a suflicient attrac- 

 tion ; in no case is the remuneration high enough to secure a compe- 

 tence for old age, without many, many years of toil ; there are no 

 fortunes to be made, no special advantages even to be gained, by 

 special skill or integrity. An extravagent, inefficient cook gets as 

 well paid as a capable, economical one, specially among the middle 

 classes, who can not afford to pay for the very best service. 



Most people will admit that average servants of late years have 

 deteriorated, partly owing to the fact that they are drawn from an 

 inferior class, and j^artly because in the terrible march of mind of the 

 last twenty years they have been left behind, their position as a class 

 absolutely ignored ; though their failings are ever before us, nothing 

 has been done for their improvement. In one respect the middle 

 classes are unfortunate, they have to suffer for the faults of the upper 

 classes ; the kitchen-maid of Belgrave Square becomes very often the 

 cook of a less aristocratic neighborhood, and the waste and extrava- 

 gance permitted in the kitchen of a rich man are ruinous in the profes- 

 sional man's semi-detached villa, and the cook gets blamed for what, 

 after all, is only the result of improper training. In short, at the pres- 

 ent time servants are either badly trained or not trained at all, and 

 therefore we want a Kitchen College. 



In other words, we want a thoroughly organized and recognized 

 center, school, college — the name is immaterial — where servants can 

 study and pass such an examination and gain such a certificate as will 

 be a proof of skill and competence not only in one special department, 

 but of general capacity and respectability ; that qualifications should 

 be given according to merit ; and that the institution should be so 

 managed that a woman would feel as proud of a degree from the 

 " College for Domestic Servants " as from any other college open to 

 women. Cooks, house-maids, parlor-maids, and nurses have all w-ell- 

 defined duties, and a competitive examination is the best method of 

 testing their skill. A nurse frequently knows less about children than 

 any other living creature ; she has the haziest ideas about draughts, 

 the most supreme contempt for ventilation, and firmly believes a baby 

 never cries unless it is hungry, and forthwith gives the inevitable 

 bottle, frustrating Nature's efforts to exercise and expand the lungs. 

 A general servant who can cook tolerably and knows a little about 

 housework is the exception ; as a rule, she is deplorably ignorant of 

 both. Up to the present a good character has been the only guarantee 

 of eflicicncy, but it is clear that it is by no means an infallible test ; a 

 servant that one mistress may have thought satisfactory may prove 



