THE EXPERT MAID-SERVANT by Christine Terhune Herrick

This book was written in 1904 in America. It's delightful...in that it offers a completely non-insightful and un-self-aware insight into mores of the period.

Servants are essentially to be treated like trainable pets or small children; certainly not as fully human. Legally they must be admitted to be so, of course, but they are simply not of the same order of personhood as the mistress or master of the house.

If [the maid] is absolutely "green," she will have to be taught from the beginning...Such servants are discouraging and tiresome at the outset, but they often turn out the best in the long-run. In their cases the mistress has no bad impressions to efface and she can implant her own modes in virgin soil.

Nonetheless, there's subtext in this book that the times are a-changing and domestics these days are starting to expect to be treated like people. For example, the writer is not concerned that a bad employer might use the custom of the reference to take advantage of the employee, because of the high demands for domestic employees. There's also a complaint by the author that domestic servants feel their uniform is degrading compared to that for working for a shop - illustrating the competition!

The patronising tone is simply beautiful, in a disturbing and twisted way.

The first days of a servant in a new place are not easy either for mistress or for maid. This should be recognized by the mistress, and she should lay in an extra supply of patience for the emergency. She will need it, in order to endure with equanimity the sins, negligences, and ignorances of the new-comer—especially the ignorances. Yet, looked at impartially, the blunders made by the maid are probably not so much the result of ignorance as of unaccustomedness. The situation is much harder for her than for the mistress...The maid lacks the mental training that would enable her to adapt herself quickly to the changed conditions, the unusual expressions. Under the circumstances, the wonder is not that she does things so badly, but that she accommodates herself as readily as she does to the fresh environment.

...The workings of the untrained mind are peculiar, and in mental equipment the average servant is often on a level with a child of ten or twelve.

And then there's the expectations of the maid's duties - and the maid's expected returns for mistress asking once or twice about her family!

Again I feel I must defend myself against a charge of sentimentality. But I have seen these experiments tried with success. I do not mean by this that the maids were models of unending devotion and fidelity. We seldom find this sort of thing without flaw among our chosen associates. But I have known instances where the casual friendliness of the mistress was repaid tenfold in times of sickness or trouble by offices which could not be compensated for in money. And it was done freely and gladly, with no thought of anything out of the ordinary, with no hint that sacrifices were being made.

There are also lists of chores in the book that would be a great resource for those interested in domestic duties in this era. The life of a servant certainly sounds exhausting. Up at six, clean the kitchen, do all the dusting, prepare the family breakfast, serve the family breakfast, make the family beds, beat the mattresses, maybe find a scrap of time for one's own breakfast, clean the bathrooms, wash the dishes, and then let the mistress tell you what to do for the rest of the day, which won't end until ten at night! Have a read of this description how to clean a bathroom every day:

To clean the bath-room properly, there should always be a bottle of household ammonia at hand, one of forty per cent. solution of formaldehyde or other good disinfectant, a couple of cloths, a long-handled brush, and a scrubbing-brush. It is also well to have a can of concentrated lye or one of the preparations like it which will cut accumulations in waste-pipes. The hand-basin, tub, and closet should be scoured out each morning, the drain-pipes flushed twice a week with water to which has been added formaldehyde or the lye. The former is admirable for removing stains and deposits, but if these are very obstinate the formaldehyde must be left in the basin overnight. The long-handled brush enables the maid to clean the closet basin satisfactorily. Ammonia on the cloth used in washing the tub and basin will remove greasy deposits. The nickel fittings and woodwork must be wiped off, the soap-dishes and tooth-brush racks washed. The vessels used in the bedrooms must be cleansed in the same manner, the water-pitchers rinsed out and filled fresh every day, and the slop-jars and commodes scalded daily.

If I were a better housekeeper myself, of course, I should have learned some improved techniques from this book.

Anthony Trollope on criticism

I think it may be laid down as a golden rule in literature that there should be no intercourse at all between an author and his critic. The critic, as critic, should not know his author, nor the author, as author, his critic. As censure should beget no anger, so should praise beget no gratitude. The young author should feel that criticisms fall upon him as dew or hail from heaven,—which, as coming from heaven, man accepts as fate. Praise let the author try to obtain by wholesome effort; censure let him avoid, if possible, by care and industry. But when they come, let him take them as coming from some source which he cannot influence, and with which he should not meddle.

I know no more disagreeable trouble into which an author may plunge himself than of a quarrel with his critics, or any more useless labour than that of answering them. It is wise to presume, at any rate, that the reviewer has simply done his duty, and has spoken of the book according to the dictates of his conscience. Nothing can be gained by combating the reviewer's opinion. If the book which he has disparaged be good, his judgment will be condemned by the praise of others; if bad, his judgment will be confirmed by others. Or if, unfortunately, the criticism of the day be in so evil a condition generally that such ultimate truth cannot be expected, the author may be sure that his efforts made on behalf of his own book will not set matters right. If injustice be done him, let him bear it. To do so is consonant with the dignity of the position which he ought to assume. To shriek, and scream, and sputter, to threaten actions, and to swear about the town that he has been belied and defamed in that he has been accused of bad grammar or a false metaphor, of a dull chapter, or even of a borrowed heroine, will leave on the minds of the public nothing but a sense of irritated impotence.

- An Autobiography, by Anthony Trollope