Gets $500 for Finding Gems

1916

Woman Rewards Hotel Maid Who Returns Jewels.

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania — The recovery of $50,000 worth of gems lost by Mrs. Lee Meriwether of St. Louis in the William Penn Hotel in this city increased the bank account of Miss Margaret Casey of Bloomfield by $500.

The girl, employed as a maid in the hotel, found the jewels in the bed occupied by Mrs. Meriwether. On turning them over to their owner she received the $500 as a reward for her honesty.

Mrs. Meriwether was speeding toward Cleveland when she discovered her jewels were missing. The train was stopped and she disembarked, hired an automobile and hurried back to the hotel. Much to her astonishment and relief, she found the jewels awaiting her in the hotel office.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 5.

Servants in South Africa

1900

Only rich people can afford to keep white servants in South Africa. All ordinary folk, says a contributor to the London Mail, have to be content with the well-meant, if casual, ministrations of the native "house-boy."

The best of all servants is a Zulu, especially if he is raw, that is, fresh from his native kraal and totally unspoiled by the wiles of civilization. Such a boy is honest, sober, quick, clean, and anxious to learn the ways of the "umlungu," or white man.

He soon becomes as deft as an English butler, and as handy as the ideal housemaid. He does everything, from cooking to answering the door, and after a little practice he does it well. His knowledge of English at first is scanty, but he soon picks up a few words and mixes up Kaffir, Dutch and English in a quaint polyglot dialect.

When they are new to their work the boys make funny mistakes. A lady once had a good but raw boy who did not understand the etiquette of visiting-cards. Three visitors called. Two of them gave the boy their cards; the third did not happen to have one with her. The boy ushered the first two into the drawing-room, but kept the third waiting in the hall, saying, "Two misses got ticket. You no got ticket, you wait outside."

The boys have all manner of strange names, usually chosen by themselves from some one or other of the words that they hear often used, such as Sixpence, "Tickey" (three-penny piece), Shilling, Breakfast, Kettle, Silly Fool, Ugly, Pint Pot, Scrubber, Chopper or Whiskey.

Of course they have their own tribal names, but they never use them in white men's houses, and if none of the aforementioned common objects serves to provide an appellation, the boy is usually Jim, Charley or John. — Youth's Companion.

He Offers Free Insanity Certificate

1900

A generous if not alluring offer was that made by an exasperated physician to the penurious father of an insane young man.

The old man wished to secure his son's admission to the insane asylum, but seemed unwilling to pay for the necessary certificate.

After hearing his plea of poverty — which the doctor knew to be false — and hearing him also tell of the many expenses to which he had been put by his ungrateful children, the physician waved his hand to end the recital.

"Now see here," he said, sharply, "you just pay me for this one, and I'll give you a certificate for yourself whenever you wish to use it, for nothing!"


An Effort To Explain

A gentleman who had engaged an intelligent French maid was at work in his library at one end of his house, when it struck him, from certain sounds, that something must be wrong in the drawing-room, at the other end of the house. So he rang his bell, and the maid came.

"What are those cries that I seem to hear in the direction of the drawing-room, Marie?" he asked.

"I do not precisely know, monsieur," she answered. "At one time I sink it is madame who sing, and at anozzer time I am sure it is ze cat and ze dog who fight, monsieur!" — Youth's Companion.

Housemaid Stabbed by Enraged Suitor

1920

Assault Follows Her Refusal to Attend Movie Show

BOSTON, Mass. — Agnes Logan, 24, a maid in the home of A. Glouchester Armstrong, Back Bay resident, was taken to the City Hospital suffering from multiple stab wounds which it is alleged she received when she was set upon by a male escort who became enraged when she refused to attend a moving picture show with him.

The girl, who is not fatally wounded, says she left the Armstrong home through the servants' entrance, which is on a public alleyway in the rear of the house. She met a man who wanted her to go to the "movies," but she refused to go.

It is claimed the man then drew a small penknife from his pocket and stabbed the girl in the neck, narrowing missing the jugular vein, and also stabbed her in the abdomen. Miss Logan tried to fight off her assailant and in the mix-up which followed he stabbed her several times in the hands. He then escaped through the alleyway.

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.