Letters to Persons Who Are Engaged in Domestic Service

by Catharine Esther Beecher

When sleeves begin to wear out, they are made to last much longer, by ripping out and changing them. So the skirt of a silk frock, will last much longer by ripping it from the waist, and moving it so that the front breadth goes to one side, and the places of all the breadths are changed. In doing this, the slit behind must be sewed up, and a new one made.

For under garments, buy unbleached cotton, which will gradually whiten, and lasts a quarter longer than the whitened. The best petticoats, for winter, are made by taking two old dresses and making a quilt. Never buy white flannel for common wear, unless you mean to colour it. This you can do very easily thus.

Take a pound of cheap black tea, and a bit of copperas as big as a large hen’s egg. Put them to two gallons of water, and boil them three quarters of an hour in an iron kettle. Then strain it off, and clean the kettle thoroughly. Then put the strained dye into it again, and after wetting the flannel in warm water, put it in and boil it fifteen minutes, lifting it up and stirring it often. Then rinse it several times in cold water, and it will be a dark lead colour. You can make a dove colour by adding water to this dye. Home-made flannel coloured thus, is good for under petticoats. Cotton and woollen stockings, coloured thus, are good for common wear. I advise you to knit coarse cotton for common wear in summer and woollen for winter. Coarse knit stockings last four times as long as any you can buy, and this saves much mending. When stockings are worn in the feet, they can be cut down and made over. Strong double-soled shoes should be worn, except in warm weather, and if you will be careful to change your shoes often, so as not to wear them long on the same foot, they will last much longer.

It is a good plan to have a particular evening every week for taking care of your clothes.

Those who cook would do well to wear either a cap, or a square muslin handkerchief, put on for a turban, while cooking. The neatest persons in the world are liable to have hairs and dandruff fall from their heads, and this is the only sure way to keep such disgusting matters out of the food.

I think it probable that some of you for whom I write, will not like the advice I give about the quality of your dress. But I can assure you it is what I should do myself were I under the necessity of labouring for a support. And if I had a sister, or any friend in your situation, I should wish to have her follow this course. Good taste in dress is shown by accommodating our style of dress to our income, and when a domestic, who has not a hundred dollars a year, dresses like persons who have large incomes, every sensible and judicious person thinks it is foolish and in very bad taste.

Moreover, by using strong and durable articles you save money that you can lay up to

provide for your wants, if you should have a family of your own, or if you should be sick or aged, and unabled to work.

Besides all this, it is the duty of every person to give something of their possessions to promote the comfort and welfare of others.

When our Saviour saw a poor widow casting two mites into the treasury which was to support religion, he commended her, even though it was the whole of her living.