CHAPTER III.. Care of Plate—Choice of Cutlery—Crockery, China,

Care of Plate—Choice of Cutlery—Crockery, China, Glass, Ornaments—Linen, Bedding—Uses for Old Linen—Brushes—Miscellanies—Income and Expenditure—Mistresses and Servants—Hiring Servants—Management of Servants—Watchfulness a Leading Principle in Economy.

With regard to all those articles which fall under the general denomination of “plate,” we should advise that all imitations be avoided; let those who cannot afford silver or plated goods be content to use simple metal, which does not pretend to be more than it really is. All the imitations of silver will, even with the utmost care, betray themselves in a very short time, and have a would-be-genteel-if-I-could sort of air, which is far less respectable than the plainest of all materials; besides, the money they cost would purchase a few real articles, which are always worth their weight in silver, whereas the imitations have only a nominal value, and lose even that as they become discoloured and dull.

Metal tea and coffee pots may be had very good, and in very handsome patterns, and they are far more durable than china, drawing better, and retaining heat longer.

Cheap cutlery is mistaken economy. Good knives and forks will, with ordinary care, last for years; common ones have no wear in them, and never can be made to cut well.

Crockery, china, and glass, we need say little about, for they may be had at all prices and of all qualities. The moulded or cast glass looks as well as cut-glass, if not placed in contrast with it, and wears as long, and costs considerably less. For dishes, jugs, butter-coolers, &c., we should always use it; decanters, wine-glasses, and tumblers, do not look so well in it.

As regards ornamental china, or glass, or what not, little can be said, these things are so much matters of taste; but better have but one, and let that one be really handsome and good, than have a crowd of cheap, showy trifles; besides, these, again, are things which gradually accumulate, and therefore it is always better to devote the money in hand to necessary articles, and leave the more ornamental ones for after consideration. A good clock for the kitchen, and a handsome one for the drawing-room, are useful and necessary things, especially the former.

In household linen, again, it is false economy to buy common or cheap materials. For sheets, linen, union, calico, and Swiss twilled calico are used; these substances are now woven wide enough to render a seam unnecessary, and all we have to do is to measure the width of the beds and allow an extra half yard; the ordinary length of a sheet is three yards and a half. The pillow-cases must be of the same material as the sheets. Marseilles quilts are too heavy to be beneficial to health; any industrious housewife may knit very serviceable and pretty counterpanes in squares or shell-shaped pieces, during those periods when she is chatting, or between the lights, or at hours when she would otherwise most probably be doing nothing. It is for such useful purposes as these we value knitting, crochet, &c., for they can be made the means of economy and usefulness, instead of being, as they too often are, employed on useless expensive trifles.

Table-cloths, tray-cloths, and dinner napkins will of course come under the category of “linen,” and can be obtained at very reasonable prices compared with what they were twenty years since. Towels, too, are included in this list. In the case of chamber towels, again, comes diversity of opinion, some preferring a soft, some a hard, some a rough, and some a smooth towel; damask and diaper are not soft enough for some delicate skins. For our own part we like towels which administer a certain amount of friction to the skin, and all medical men agree that this is requisite to health. For the kitchen, round towels, tea-cloths, and glass-cloths, will be required, as well as dusters, pudding-cloths, knife-cloths, house-cloths, and flannels for cleaning. These, although they do not come precisely under the head of “linen,” will have, by young housekeepers newly furnishing, to be purchased at the same time, and therefore may as well be mentioned here. Old sheets make good glass-cloths; old table-cloths make nice soft towels; all dresses of cotton, or old dress-linings, will serve for dusters, and old blankets for house-flannels.

Besides these, there are needed toilet-covers for chamber tables, chests of drawers, &c., carpet covers, muslin for chamber window-curtains, muslin for drapery for the toilet-table, coarse sheeting for dusting-sheets to cover the beds or drawing-room furniture when sweeping and cleaning; a yet coarser sheet to lay down in front of the stoves when they are being cleaned, chamois leathers for cleaning the plate, brass, steel, and windows; and bags for the best brooms.

Then we come to brushes, and their name is legion. Oh, this furnishing a house is a serious affair! a carpet-broom, a short handled one for the stair carpets, a hair-broom for the bed-rooms, and another for the passages and kitchens; feather brushes, dusting-brushes, stove-brushes, hearth-brushes, shoe-brushes, plate-brushes, paste-brushes, clothes-brushes, a hat-brush, and a table-brush to remove the crumbs from the table-cloth, are all needed; and these should be bought at a good warehouse, and of good quality, if we would have them do us service, and not fall to pieces, or lose their hair, as soon as they are fairly brought into use.

There are many items yet unmentioned, but it will not be requisite for us to waste our time, or that of our readers, by enumerating them all seriatim; we will therefore proceed to other matters.

Supposing now that we have our house, and it is furnished, the next thing to determine is how many servants can be afforded. Must we be content with one, a “general servant;” or can we afford a cook and housemaid, or even aspire to the gentility of a man-servant or a page? Beware of this latter individual, young housekeepers, if you value your comfort; for if you chance to get a quick, clever lad, he will have more tricks than a monkey; and as for the stupid variety of the “genus page,” it is a torment indeed.

The expenses must be determined by the sum which can, without incurring debts, or living too closely up to one’s income, be devoted to “housekeeping,” under which head we include rent, taxes, wages, and every outlay appertaining to the house. Now, in reckoning the expense of a servant, the question of wages is not the only one to be considered; there is the board and washing; and £30, exclusive of wages, is the lowest at which the keep of each servant can be estimated.

We know it is the fashion to speak of servants as “necessary evils,” and to decry them as “a bad set.” Surely, if there is any truth in old proverbs, there must be faults in the mistresses as well as the domestics, for we have heard that “good mistresses make good servants:” how comes it, then, that there are so many bad ones? Firstly, from the defective education of that class whence female servants are generally taken. Born in those miserable localities where poverty is compelled to dwell; reared among scenes of vice, often in the midst dirt, misery, and temptation; taught to read at some Sunday-school, the moral lessons of which were but a feather in the balance against the worldly lessons of the other six days; fed afterwards on that pernicious cheap literature which puts all sorts of idle and vain follies, desires, and passions, into the head, the girl is at fourteen hired for some trifling sum to nurse a baby, and idles about the streets with others of her own age, gossiping; or is errand girl to a dressmaker, and thus pursues her studies of human life; or is engaged to help the mistress of some small lodging-house, and generally works hard, and fares hard too, and gets plenty of hard words. None of these people in general regard her as a fellow-creature having, like their own children, need of teaching, of guidance, of patience, and kindness; if she does pretty well, why, it is her duty! if she does badly, she is discharged! Many a girl would have become a valuable servant, a respectable and reasonable individual, if in her first service she had found a mistress who knew what the duties of a Christian woman at the head of a house were. Of course, there are characters which no treatment, however judicious, can permanently benefit; but still we ought to try what we can do ere we despair; and the influence of a steady pursuance of duty is always, more or less, felt by all within its power.

In hiring servants be particular in inquiring as to their characters, and, if possible, learn something of the people with whom they have lived; let all stipulations as to wages, extras, holidays, and such matters, be clearly specified and rightly understood.

As a country cannot be governed without laws, neither can a household, and the mistress should be as absolute in her own house as a sovereign in her dominions. Order and regularity are the key-stones to comfort, and our housewife must carefully arrange and digest her scheme of government in the first place, and be always alive to any modifications which emergencies, or prudence, or circumstances, may call for. And she must understand what she is about, or her scheme will be worthless; she must be able to teach, nay, to demonstrate upon occasions; she must be regular in her own habits if she would have those about her regular, neat in all that concerns herself, attentive to the details of housekeeping, economical, just, active, and considerate. She must neither hold the reins of government loosely and negligently, nor too sternly, but must quietly exercise a general and regular surveillance over every part of her house and household; and this can be done without tyranny, without vexatious interference, or ebullitions of temper. Let the servants once feel that this is her habit, and they will act accordingly; and if the place is good, conduct themselves so as to endeavour to please and keep it. And it is the interest, as well as duty, of every mistress, to make her servants comfortable, to see that they have a sufficiency of good food, that they are well lodged, that they have time to mend and wash their own clothes, nay, that they know how to do so, and do it.

A mistress need never forget herself, or weaken her authority, or show any false indulgence; but in numberless ways she will have the opportunity of endeavouring to guide, to advise, and to benefit those dependent upon her; but she must be patient, if she would really do good. She must remember what may have been the early education, the trials and temptations, the experiences of those girls, and must not expect too much from them. As we have before said, she must hold the reins of government with a firm hand; she must not overlook neglect of duties, irregularities of conduct, want of order or cleanliness, or inattention to her commands; but she can notice these things quietly, without loss of temper, and when alone with the offender; she can also notice and praise neatness, attention, obedience, and such like, and not accept the good as mere matters of course, and only mark the evil. She should likewise endeavour to induce her servants, by example and precept, to be regular in attendance on religious worship, and make Sunday to them in some degree a day of rest instead of one of extra cooking and work, and have a supply of those excellent little works to lend them, which are published by the religious societies. While she inculcates economy in things relating to herself, she should try to induce them to save, to put by regularly a certain portion of their wages, and not be extravagant in clothes, but make and mend their things properly.

There is little saved by giving paltry wages; a useful servant will not accept them, and those who do, cannot clothe themselves respectably on six or seven pounds a year, and will too often eke out their means by peculation. It is well to begin with moderate wages, as nine or ten pounds, and promise an annual increase, which promise both induces a wish to please, and takes away one great excuse for leaving, viz., a desire of “bettering herself.”

The amount of the income will determine what sum can be allowed per annum for housekeeping, for besides, there will be clothing expenses to be provided for, sundries of various kinds, expenses of illness, on which we must all reckon, and there ought to be a reserve fund regularly laid by to provide for any unforeseen emergency, or form the “nest egg” of a provision for a rising family. Well, suppose the sum determined! the next question is, how to apportion it so as to combine economy with comfort, and secure a regular and uniform style of living, not luxuries to-day and parsimony to-morrow. Now, how can our young housekeeper do this if she knows little or nothing of the prices of provisions; if she scarcely remembers when things are in season and may be purchased at a reasonable rate, and when they are actual extravagances; if she has no idea what quantity of this or that ought to be consumed, by a family of a certain size, per week or per month; and, above all, if she has little aptitude for domestic management, and considerable contempt for all such vulgar details? Few who have read that truthful sketch of Dickens’s, the “child-wife,” will forget the pretty helplessness of Dora; but, although this reads well in a novel, very few such girls, and there are many of them, will meet with husbands as indulgent; for men do like to see their home well ordered, and to feel the comforts of good management.

Every housekeeper should keep a strict account of all her expenditure; should see that each bill be receipted when paid; and file all receipts, and keep them for a year at least—we should rather say two or three. All housekeeping bills should be paid every week, for it is easier to pay small sums than large ones; and besides, then the correctness of the bills can be ascertained. The mistress should look each one over herself, as thus she will detect, and can check, any inaccuracy on the part of the tradesmen, or extravagance on the part of her servants. Should she be her own housekeeper, she should deal regularly with respectable tradesmen, for they will rarely risk losing a good customer by selling bad articles. Bargain hunting is always perilous, even to good judges; “cheap and nasty” is perhaps a vulgar proverb, but it is a true one. Cheap tea, coffee, sugar, &c., are all adulterated; cheap vegetables and fruit are generally stale; cheap meat is that which has been sent ready killed to the market, and, therefore, is by no means as fresh as might be wished; and cheap poultry and fish are to be regarded with very great suspicion; all, therefore, injure the health.

Those who have store-closets, will find their advantage in purchasing some things wholesale. Candles should be bought in the latter part of summer, when they are usually cheaper, and a store laid in, for they improve by keeping. So does soap. Coals, too, should be ordered in July or August, and if there is cellarage, a stock for the winter laid in. Many articles of grocery may often be purchased in quantities at considerable saving. The same remark applies to bacon, butter, and cheese; but, unless there are good dry store-rooms, these latter cannot be kept. It is useless to make pickles or preserves unless the house is dry—in damp localities these things mildew and spoil; nor are we sure that in small families it is economical to buy them at all, they can be bought so reasonably now. All stores should be kept by the mistress, and given out as required.

All good housekeepers will provide themselves with weights and scales, and thus be prepared to check the quantities of goods sent them by their tradespeople, who are as liable to make errors in weighing as in casting their bills. We cannot too particularly impress this upon the attention of our readers, as an essential means to protect themselves against errors in weight, whether arising from accident or design. Many heads of families are exceedingly particular about the price of their purchases, who are utterly regardless whether or not they have the weight they paid for. Tradesmen are aware of this trust imposed in them, and too often take advantage of it.