CHAPTER II
What this Chapter is About
The Ignorant Employer—The Incompetent Servant—Wanted! a New Race of Mistresses—Domestic Training for all Girls—Its Value to the Nation—"Menial" Work—The Surplus of Governesses, Secretaries, and Companions, and the Scarcity of Servants—Genteel Professions—What the Servant Dislikes—How to Popularise Domestic Service.
CHAPTER II
The Servant Problem and some Solutions of it
I
"Servants? We haven't a single-handed cook or a house-parlourmaid on our books, madam."
This, in many cases, is the reply of the registry office to-day, and as time goes on the shortage of domestic workers will become more and more acute. Of highly-paid upper servants, with under-servants to wait upon them, there is no lack, for the supply of persons wishing to fill the few "plum" posts in any profession is always adequate; but as there is a lack of under-servants, even the very rich find it difficult to secure a satisfactory household; while the mistress who needs a house-parlourmaid, a single-handed cook, a "general," or even a single-handed house- or parlourmaid finds it almost impossible to induce a suitable girl to accept her situation.