Let your commands to your servants be consistent and reasonable; and then mildly, but firmly, insist on obedience to them.—“My servants never remember what I tell them to do,” is a complaint but too common, but that might, in some degree, be obviated. Let them see that you will not pass over any neglect of orders; and when they find that this decisive measure is accompanied with kindness and consideration, and that you are not to be disobeyed with impunity, they will soon learn to remember what you command them to do. A little effort very easily overcomes a bad memory.
It is very disheartening to a poor servant to be continually found fault with. Praise and reward them when you can;—human nature will not bear constant chiding.
Never keep servants, however excellent they may be in their stations, whom you know to be guilty of immorality.
When servants are ill, their mistress will, doubtless, recollect that she is their patroness as well as their employer, and will not only remit their labour, but render them all the assistance of proper medicine, food, and comfort, in their power.—Tender assiduity is half a cure; it is a balsam to the mind, which has a powerful effect on the body—soothes the severest pains, and strengthens beyond the richest cordial. The poor dependent creatures may have no where to go to—no one else to turn to; and their pale and impaired looks will always have a claim on your sympathy.
As we shall have occasion to make further remarks on the management of servants, when treating of the business of the Housekeeper, we beg leave, in order to avoid repetition, to refer to that subject, under the head—[housekeeper].
“Economy,” says Mr. Cobbett, “is management.”—The fact is, that management and regularity, is Economy verified by practice; and all persons ought to regulate their conduct by circumstances. A moderate income, appropriated to the expenses of housekeeping with prudence and economy, without parsimony, but banishing superfluities and preventing waste, may be made sufficient to furnish every comfort in life; and, strange as it may appear to those in affluence, an income of from 150l. to 200l. a year, will be enough to maintain a man and wife, with two or three children, and a servant girl; nor “beyond that amount, need they spend one shilling per week, whatsoever may be their income.”
It is an excellent plan to have a set of rules for regulating the ordinary expenses of a family, (such as are given in the Appendix to the practical economy,) in order to check any innovation or excess, which otherwise might, unawares, have occurred to derange the proposed distribution of the annual income.
The mistress of a family will always recollect that, in all cases, the welfare and good character of her household depends on her own active superintendance.
Though habits of domestic management are now generally precluded in the education of young ladies of the superior class, yet, happily, attention to family concerns is not unfrequently found in those of less exalted rank, whose minds, amidst the blandishments of modern accomplishments, have been taught to relish, as in days of yore, the more rational, solid, and lasting pleasures, of a social and comfortable home. And were young ladies early instructed in the delights of domestic occupation, before they enter the delusive scenes, presented by modern modes of dissipation, we should probably find the number of votaries to private happiness greatly increased, and a life of domestic employment would become the source of numberless gratifications. In short, were they on all occasions, when at home, under the immediate eye of their mother, to be taught the science of practical economy—the business of examining and keeping accounts,—and a few other of the leading points in the management of a family, they would imperceptibly become competent, and the happiest results, as to their future conduct in life, might be most pleasingly anticipated. Many families have owed much of their advancement in life to the propriety of female management.
One of the principal objects of the mistress of the house is, the economy or management of the table, the general display of which will evince her judgment and taste; and this will be shown, not so much by the profusion with which the table is covered, as by its neat and pleasing appearance, according to the present fashion, so far as regards elegance, combined with frugality,—the circumstances of fortune and condition being also considered.—People in business should not imitate the pomp and splendour of high rank, nor should those of the higher circles descend to such frugal arrangements as in them would appear to be parsimonious.