House Servants Directory | Index | Intro | Section One | Section Two and Three | Section Four and Five | Section Six | Section Seven and Eight | Section Nine and Ten | Glossary
The House Servant’s Directory, Or a monitor for private families : comprising Hints on the arrangement and performance of Servants’ work, With general rules for Setting out tables and sideboards in first order ; The Art of Waiting in all its branches ; and likewise how to conduct Large and small parties with order ; With general directions for placing on table all kinds of joints, fish, fowl, &c. with full instructions for cleaning plate, brass, steel, glass, mahogany ; and likewise All kinds of patent and common lamps ; Observations on servants’ behavior to their employers ; and upwards of 100 various and useful receipts, chiefly compiled for the use of house servants , and identically made to suit the manners and customs of families in the United States. By Robert Roberts. With Friendly advice to cooks and heads of families, and complete directions how to burn Lehigh Coal.
Advertisement of the Publishers.
This valuable Work was written by a servant in one of the most respectable families in this city, the demise of whose very honorable head, with deep regret we have to record while penning this advertisement ; and we hope it will be some recommendation to this useful book, to give an extract of a letter which we received from the late Hon. Christopher Gore, a few weeks before his decease.
“I have read the work attentively, and think it may be of much use. The directions are plain and perspicuous ; and many of the recipes I have experienced to be valuable. Could servants be induced to conform to these directions, their own lives would be more useful, and the comfort and convenience of families much promoted. Consider me as a subscriber for such number of copies as six dollars will pay for, and I think that many more would be subscribed for it in Boston.”
Numerous other recommendations could have been procured, but this we deem sufficient.
If the public have applauded Dr. Kitchener for improving the minutia and economy of the larder, what praise is not due to an humble attempt to amend the morals and awkwardness of domestics? In school – learning generally our native servants surpass foreigners, but in manners, deportment, and a knowledge of the duties of their station, it must be admitted they are considerably inferior. To borrow a phrase from the kitchen, our aboriginal servants need grilling ; they require much instruction, and an apprenticeship to the art and faculty of unbending. Like certain “woolens imported in a raw state,” noticed in a late Congressional debate, it is requisite in order to give them a proper gloss and finish,” to send them to a “brushing establishment.”
It cannot be denied that many of our servants, whilst perfectly willing to receive their wages, are either unwilling to submit to the powers that be, by fulfilling the duties for which such wages were stipulated, or from gross ignorance of domestic concerns, are totally unfit for service. An attempt to amend these matters by one from among their own number deserves, and we hope will receive the approbation and patronage of all aggrieved, so far at least is presenting a copy of this work to every house servant.
As to the Receipts for expurgated lamps, forks, and boots, compounding liquids, powders, &c. &c. given in this book, although like the author of the Cook’s Oracle we cannot say we have actually eaten each one, having neither the necessary dyspeptic qualifications of the ostrich, nor the gusto of the Esquimaux, or Kamschadale, yet, being assured by the author that he has himself operated on all of them, and on hundreds of others not sit down because not infallible, we believe they will be found of essential service, and accordingly recommend them, when needed, to notice and use.
The publishers have in some sort amended the orthography and punctuation ; otherwise the book is printed from the author’s notes, “verbatim et literatim.” No apology is necessary for thus presenting it, as the perceptions of some of its intended readers are a little obtuse, and it is requisite to give them line upon line, in something of the Dogberry style. Different views of the same object are taken, to enforce the fact more strongly on the recollection, and our author, as a servant, speaks to the comprehension of his fellow servants, without more diffuseness than answers the intended purpose.
In fine, this book is just such an one as has been long wanted, emanating from just the right quarter, and written precisely as might be wished ; and with these few words of prologue we permit the author to speak for himself.
Boston, March 1, 1827
House Servants Directory | Index | Intro | Section One | Section Two and Three | Section Four and Five | Section Six | Section Seven and Eight | Section Nine and Ten | Glossary
