i88 MORE POT-POURRI 



considering the merits of a situation, the more educated 

 mind should not fail to look at it from the point of view 

 of the servant. 



After leaving school, village as well as town, girls in a 

 great number of cases are kept at home for a few years 

 by their mothers. This gives them a love of freedom and 

 amusement which singularly unfits them for the discipline 

 of domestic service. It might be a possible bridging of 

 the difficulty if it became usual for each family, according 

 to its position, to keep fewer permanent servants and 

 give, as a matter of course, more outside help, each of a 

 specialised kind, to be got from girls who have lately left 

 school and whose mothers would probably not at all 

 object to their earning a little money and doing outside 

 work let us say, up to two o'clock. A girl who was a 

 good needlewoman at school might be used once a week 

 to repair linen or to do any other casual mending. I 

 heard lately of a young housekeeper, tired of boys who 

 did their work badly, having obtained excellent assistance 

 from a schoolgirl of sixteen whom she trained to clean 

 boots, knives, and lamps every morning. A beginning of 

 this kind might, I think, greatly increase the much- 

 needed supply, and above all create a means of direct 

 communication between the poor and rich, which is still 

 one of the great wants of the day in spite of all the 

 charitable ladies. Some people would suggest that it 

 might bring infection into the house ; but I really think 

 that the risk is no greater than with everything else in 

 London. There is always a proportion of risk in the 

 street, the ' Underground,' the omnibus, the Zoological 

 Gardens, the bread, the meat, and above all the milk. 



A proof of the exceeding difficulty that many have in 

 getting employment is to be seen in the large numbers 

 that exist of those terrible harpies called Registry Offices, 

 the very maintenance of which depends on robbing the 



