HOUSEHOLD PRESTIGE.
[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—In reference to your article under the heading of " House- hold Prestige," published in your issue of February 25th, may I say from experience that " leisure " is the chief reason for servant shortage. I frequently come in contact with girls who do not object to the work, but who refuse because they cannot have the evenings free. I quite hold with " Butler " in that respect, but I understand what he means to convey is that half the servants should go out from the time of rising until 2.30. That certainly would never answer, because everybody is busy in the mornings and would not want visitors, and girls could not walk the streets, and then, again, if his idea is going to answer in the kitchen it would mean a very reliable kitchenmaid to take the cook's place during her time off, because it would be quite impossible to always select dishes which could be left ready. Cooking must and will have its own time. Then, again, what household can afford two cooks? No doubt it would answer splendidly for the girls in the front part of the house, providing they were sporty and not the sort of girl who has just got into the one set way of doing every- thing and refuses to see anything different because such-and- such a thing doesn't happen to be her work. My idea is rather in favour of the Domestic Workers' Union—that is, two hours off duty daily (there again they must be all-round sort of girls). Of course, that time is apart from mealtimes, half a day per week, and the usual alternate Sundays off from early after-
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