Boarding house keeper

“ Boarding-house Keepers, having permission to enter the Landing Depot to solicit Boarders, must observe the following Rules:
12. Every Boarding-house Keeper must wear his badge in a conspicuous place on his breast when entering the Depot, and keep it so exposed while in the premises.
13. Every Boarding-house Keeper must present to passengers, when soliciting such passengers for his house, a card setting forth his name and residence, and the prices in gold and paper money charged for board and lodging by the day and week, and for each meal and night's lodging ”

“ The young housekeeper should bear in mind that, while it is essential that the home should be clean and orderly, and the food well cooked and regularly served, this does not make the home. One can get all these comforts in a well conducted hotel or boarding-house, but the man or woman is to be pitied who has no higher ideal of a home than what is furnished by a hotel or boarding-house, no matter how sumptuous. A selfish woman can make a good housekeeper, so far as the keeping of the house in perfect running order is concerned, but it is difficult for a selfish or lazy woman to make a home. ”

“ As a mere boarder in somebody else’s home, she cannot do this. There are many drawbacks and perplexities about housekeeping, to be sure, but these ought to be met and contended with with a brave spirit. In the end, having conquered, it will be found that the pleasures far outweigh them. A woman ought to take pleasure in looking after the home nest, and ought not to [10] leave to some unsympathetic boarding-housekeeper the task of preparing the daily meals for her husband. ”

“ The boarder watched him a little while and then said: "What on earth are you howling for? You don't have to eat it!"
In the soft firelight even the boarding-house sitting-room looked cozy and attractive. The warmth and comfort thawed the heart of the "star" boarder. He turned to the landlady and murmured. "Will you be my wife?"
"Let me see," replied the landlady, "you have been here four years. You have never once grumbled at the food or failed to pay my bill promptly and without question. No, sir, I'm sorry. You're too good a boarder to be put on the free list!" ”

“ The bachelor’s housekeeper is always a fifteen puzzle—twelve for herself and the remaining three for her employer. As sure as rain comes in winter, so does the smug and sedate female who keeps house for the unfortunate unattached male place the onus of housekeeping bills upon him and reap the desserts of life for herself. ”

“ Suddenly it seemed to him that his wife asked him this, too.
"I reckon," said Fulkerson, "that she could have arranged to give you your meals in your rooms, and it would have come to about the same thing as housekeeping."
"No sort of boarding can be the same as house-keeping," said March. "I want my little girl to have the run of a kitchen, and I want the whole family to have the moral effect of housekeeping. It's demoralizing to board, in every way; it isn't a home, if anybody else takes the care of it off your hands." ”

“ Then, step by step, she should build up the general cleanliness of the house. This is by far the most important of all the requisites pertaining to hotel housekeeping. Guarding against [Pg 20] difficulties encountered with the employes and with the managers' wives is secondary.
A housekeeper that can not take orders is not fit to give them; if the manager asks for the removal of an offensive employe, the housekeeper should immediately get rid of the objectionable person. If the housekeeper fails in deference to the manager's wishes, is not that good evidence that she is not a good soldier? ”

“ I could not refrain from contrasting the hotel housekeeper's position with that of other women-workers in cities. The housekeeper has a good, warm room, clean bed, hot and cold bath, and the best eating that the hotel [Pg 106] affords. She may command the respect of all other employes in the house, and may make many life-long friends. My advice to any young woman seeking a situation is to start right at chamber-work, to keep her wits sharp, and her head on her shoulders. To be sure, there are many temptations, all of which the average girl should be able to resist. ”

“ I am new to housekeeping; have been used to hotels and boarding-houses all my life. Like anybody else of similar experience, I try to appear (to strangers) to be an old housekeeper; consequently I said in an off-hand way that I had been intending for some time to have six or eight lightning-rods put up, but—— The stranger started, and looked inquiringly at me, but I was serene. ”

“ It is an old saying that a woman can throw out of the window with a spoon as fast as a man can throw into the door with a shovel; but a good house-keeper will be saving and economical and teach her children to be good housekeepers, and how to take care of everything that is put in their charge. ”

“ What Constitutes an Efficient Housekeeper?—An efficient housekeeper is one who has acquired the knowledge necessary to perform all the duties of housekeeping, and who executes these duties efficiently, with the least possible expenditure of time and labor.
It is an absolute fact that most young wives begin housekeeping with the crudest ideas as to what housekeeping means. It has been pointed out many times, that many mothers bring their daughters up without instructing them in the elementary principles of keeping house. ”

“ After that he shows his gratitude by sweeping the kitchen, or washing plates and tea-things, which the lodging-house keeper had to do himself. The latter, seeing this, asks him to do other things, and of course gives him bed and board, and a shilling at the end of the week. He no longer goes out as a drover, or seeking odd jobs, but sweeps, washes, scrubs, makes beds, etc. Taking everything into consideration the work is not so unremunerative as it appears, for every man in the house solicits his friendship. From morning till night he is offered saucers-full of tea from the many lodgers. ”

“ Horace rubbed his upper lip thoughtfully. "Will you inform me, ma'am, where I can get a boarding-place? I'm sort of turned round. Growing place. Last time I was down, there were only a few houses here; now it's pretty thick settled back of the meeting-house."
"I'll take you," said Mother Hubbard, putting her handkerchief to her face. "How would my dog feel if he knew I had come to this!"
"Come to what, ma'am?"
"Why, to New York, to take boarders." ”

“ Having, in the arrangement of her house, and in the choice of her servants, kept in view the two main objects, namely, the comfort of her family, and the care of her purse, the young housekeeper ought to commence her career, by strictly adhering to order and regularity in the performance of those duties which devolve peculiarly upon herself. ”

“ The boarding house sought by many aged persons who prefer independence of life to living in the family of their children, and sought also by many well-to-do elderly widows and widowers who find that the personal home is too lonely or too expensive to keep up for one alone—the average boarding house is a sorry substitute for a home. For the young, who hope to escape it soon, it is tolerable. For the aged, who need to feel settled, it is often a most unhappy dwelling-place. ”

“ If his wife is like him, they will make things very agreeable I am sure."
"I hope she is," said Mary.
On the next morning, the new boarders made their appearance, and the lady proved as affable and as interesting as the husband.
"I always pay quarterly. This is the custom in all the boarding houses I have been in. But if your rules are otherwise, why just say so. It makes no difference to me," remarked the new boarder, in the blandest manner imaginable.
"Just suit yourself about that, Mr. Cameron. It is altogether immaterial," Mrs. Turner replied, smiling. ”

“ Domestic life to the young and untried housekeeper is something of an ordeal. She may have had her own place in her father's home, her own special duties to attend to, even her own share of responsibility. Still, it is an altogether different matter to have the entire care of a household, to guide all its concerns, and be responsible for the domestic comfort of all within the four walls of the house. ”

“ So out of a good-humored pique the housekeeper was summoned to consultation before us all. The old lady appeared, in her gala suit of faded brocade, which rustled with flurry and agitation, for in spite of mine host’s bravado, she was a little perplexed. But in a bachelor’s house, and with bachelor guests, these matters are readily managed. There is no lady of the house to stand upon squeamish points about lodging guests in odd holes and corners, and exposing the shabby parts of the establishment. A bachelor’s housekeeper is used to shifts and emergencies. ”

“ A JOLLY GOOD LADY wants position as housekeeper in widower’s or bachelor’s home. Write E, Box 34, Beacon-Journal.
* * * Oh You Farmer! (From Wichita Eagle.)
A NICE APPEARING lady, about 40, a first class housekeeper, wants to keep house for a gentleman on farm where there is no other woman. ”

“ A DETECTIVE ON THE TRACK. Boarding-house life tends to make one selfish; “each for himself and God for us all,” is the boarders’ motto. Where people come and go, drifting in and out like weeds upon the tide, deep interests or affections are rare, but even in boarding-houses men are sometimes thoughtful, and women sympathetic. This is especially true in cases of illness. The medical lady and Mrs. Dumaresq rushed to the assistance of Prudence when she stumbled off the sofa in a dead faint. ”

“ A lodging-house keeper makes a special contract with every man that comes to him, whereas an innkeeper is bound, without any particular agreement, to provide lodging and entertainment for all who come to him, at a reasonable price. ”

“ Co-operative boarding will do much for the vast army of persons obliged to board, but all such plans should receive their proper designation and not be called co-operative housekeeping. For the great majority of housekeepers who do not care to give up their individual homes, the system proposed will bring no relief. ”

“ Nobody has discovered a rule—to say nothing of a principle—whereby a housekeeper's success may be determined. It is reasonable to claim that the permanent success of any housekeeper lies in her skill and in the confidence and esteem of her employer. She has learned that skill is acquired by serving an apprenticeship, and that esteem and confidence are won by character. Everybody who touches a sterling character comes at last to feel it, and the true hotel man has come to know that the housekeeper of skill and character is his friend. ”

“ The housekeeper should always consult the manager when other help is to be hired. Everyone knows that old employes are always best, even if they do spoil the new ones. The housekeeper endeavors to keep the help as long as she can, using persuasion, kindness, and forbearance, striving to teach them the best and easiest way to do their work, bearing with their imperfections, overlooking a great deal that is actually repulsive, not expecting to find in the hard-working individual the graces of a Marie Antoinette, or the inherent qualities of a Lady Jane Gray. ”

“ The housekeeper that is above her profession, is not interested in her work, and that is trying to get into some church society, had better not engage in hotel housekeeping, for her housekeeping duties will require her constant attention at the hotel. There will be some difficulties to settle at all times, which will require her presence. Maids work better when they are conscious of a vigilant overseer. They take more pride in their work when they know that every nook and corner is being inspected by the housekeeper. ”

“ If a lady can afford to keep a housekeeper, and is willing to submit to the rule and tyranny of one, rather than burden herself with the entire charge of a house, we can only say, “There is no accounting for tastes,” and will not presume to doubt her right to do so; but even then, after having thrown off the supervision of the household, and all the details connected with its care, we believe every one should still retain sufficient responsibility to be sure that the housekeeper is faithful, capable, and willing at all times to render a satisfactory account of her stewardship ”

“ Many hotel employes possess intellectual powers to a great degree. Many clerks are college graduates. The housekeeper is not, as some have said usually a member of the broken down aristocracy, some one who has seen better days, whose duty it is to walk through the halls with a "persimmon" countenance, in search of the evildoer; never was a statement more false. Hotels employ a house detective to look after its morals. A housekeeper is more apt to be [Pg 31] an assistant, who has been promoted to the very responsible position of housekeeper. ”

“ BOARDING-HOUSE CHARACTERS. Persons seeking board in New York frequently complain of being annoyed by a demand on the part of the landlady (for the proprietor, is, in most cases, a woman) for reference. This may not be pleasant to the over-sensitive, but it is absolutely necessary. Nearly every boarder is at first a stranger to his landlady. She does not know whether a man is a gentleman or a thief, or whether a female is a saint or a fallen woman. She naturally desires to keep her house free from improper characters, and to secure as guests those who will pay her promptly and regularly. ”

“ During my previous sojourn in London I lived as a student, sometimes in lodging houses and for sometime in a boarding house. The landlady of a boarding or a lodging house engages the house from the owner, engages cook and servants, and looks after the food and the cooking, and the lodger therefore has no bother whatever except paying weekly for his room and attendance and food. ”

“ No housekeeper will object to taking orders from the proprietor's wife. The progressive housekeeper is always polite to her employer's wife, though not to the extent of being deceitful. The housekeeper must bear in mind that what is of vital importance to the proprietor of a hotel is of equal importance to the proprietor's wife. ”