Letters to Persons Who Are Engaged in Domestic Service

by Catharine Esther Beecher

I would therefore earnestly recommend, that always before you come down in the morning, you put your hair in neat order, and that you so braid or tie it up, that it will not get out of order while you are at work. Also, that you take pains to have dark clothing for your work, and that it always be kept neat and tidy. It is a good plan, also, to keep a supply of large, clean aprons, to slip on when you cannot change your dress, and yet wish to go into the parlour.

And I pray you not to spend all your earnings in showy dresses, that, to all sensible people, make you appear foolish and ignorant of all propriety. It is far better to buy strong, and plain dresses, and lay up your earnings to buy furniture, if you ever become a housekeeper, or to support you in sickness, or old age, if you never marry. There are Savings Banks in almost all our cities, where you can lay up small earnings, and receive interest for them, so as to increase their value every year; and there is less risk in putting money into these banks, than in any other way, because their business is arranged for the purpose of making them safe.

There is another point, to which I would especially urge attention, and that is, to the improvement of your mind by reading, and when you can do so, by study.

The greatest disadvantages domestics have to meet, are caused by their want of a good education. It is owing to the want of such advantages, that they are so apt to be untidy in appearance, rude and disrespectful in manner, and vulgar in their pronunciation and language. Now, though you may be in such a situation that you cannot go to a school, yet if you will be diligent and economical in time and dress, you can do a great deal to improve your education. There are few families where there is not some lady, who would be willing to hear you read, or recite a lesson for half an hour every day, if you expressed a wish so to do. And you would also be provided with books to read and study, at little or no expense, if you appeared to be anxious to learn, and were faithful and diligent, in order to gain time.

And the more you read and study, the more your character, manners, and habits will be likely to improve. Some persons imagine that

a good education injures persons in your station, by making them proud and discontented. But this is a great mistake. The most faithful, diligent, agreeable, and respectable domestics I ever saw, were those who had the best education, while those who are ignorant, have not sense and information enough, to see the propriety of conforming to their situation and duties.

If this country were thrown into the situation in which the shipwrecked company were, and every one had to draw lots to decide who should be employers and who domestics, there would be some well educated and some very ignorant persons put together in the class of domestics. In this case I should much prefer to hire a well educated person, for I should expect that such a one would be far more likely to have respectful and courteous manners, and that she would conform to the duties of her lot with far more propriety than an ignorant and vulgar person.

I hope, therefore, that you will improve every opportunity you can gain to read and study, and I would advise you also to notice

how well educated persons pronounce, and try to acquire a similar way of speaking.

In selecting books to read, get some judicious friend to choose for you, and in studying, never be so foolish as to study French, or Latin, or try to play the piano, or any such accomplishment, which is suitable only for persons who have wealth and leisure.