Correspondence

New York, 1895

To the Editor of the Long Island Farmer:

DEAR SIR — Permit me to forward you my complaint. It is for the benefit of the people of our town in general. I wish to complain of the very disgraceful condition of the sidewalks on New York avenue, in wet and snowy weather. There is a pretence of old boards that are loose and rotten, and when one passes over them, the water flies up and spoils more clothes than if the boards were not there.

As this is one of our principal streets, where many strangers pass to and from the trains, they immediately get the idea, what a dirty place Jamaica is. In this respect they are right. But we could have clean and dry sidewalks. Other streets have been seen to by our board of Trustees, but this one has been overlooked. Has some one on this street a "Pull?"

— A TRAVELLER AND TAX PAYER.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1895, unknown page number.

Vags Are Plentiful

1916

The city authorities should insist that vagrants cease their begging from house to house. Housewives should refuse to feed men at this time of the year who refuse to do small jobs about the home. There is plenty of garden spading, rug cleaning and general cleaning up work about the house that would give the man who really wants work sufficient work for a meal.

The facts are, however, that the average beggar will not work when asked to do so. Two such shiftless fellows appeared one after another the other Monday at a home where the housewife was hard at work. They were told they would be fed if they beat a rug. One of them said he would and disappeared after looking at the rug. He said he only wanted a few potatoes anyway and he didn't feel like working until he saw his partner. He never came back. His partner appeared a few minutes later and said he didn't want to work. It made him tired. — Murphysboro Independent, Illinois, March or April 1916.

The Trained Housekeeper — So Your Maid Knows What She's Doing

1895

Benefits Derived from a Scientific Court of Learning

The domestic problem is one of the most vexing as well as important problems of the day.

Training schools for servants are as necessary as they are loudly advocated, but the mistress needs training quite as much as the servant — a training which a season at a fashionable cooking school is inadequate to give.

And it is the middle class housekeeper — the woman who keeps only one servant, the woman whose mother in nine cases out of ten was a notable housekeeper, and did her own work — who needs systematic and scientific training far more than do the heads of more luxurious households, for among these it is no unusual thing to find women who are perfect in every department of housekeeping.

The best housekeeper I know possesses millions in her own right. She never has trouble with servants, for one reason, because she can afford to pay the highest prices, and for another, because she thoroughly understands what duties to expect of each and is quick to recognize the slightest deficiency. She does not always get perfect servants, but she does get the order of intelligence capable of profiting by the instruction given. Her new maids are always turned over to the care of a valued and trusty servant, whom she herself trained many years ago.

When every mother recognizes it as one of her highest duties and privileges to make thorough housekeepers of her daughters, then and only then shall we have cause to congratulate ourselves upon the "New Woman." — New York Herald.

Housecleanograms

1916

Husbands flee when dustpan pursueth.

What you wife yanks out you must tack down.

A dinner in town is worth ten off the set tubs.

When your wife asks you to clean the rug — beat it!

No woman is a Lillian Russell when she is cleaning house.

Behold, how great a mess a little soap and water maketh!

He who reneges and runs away will live till next housecleaning day!

No man steppeth on a cake of soap and getteth up and praiseth the Lord!