Guide to Hotel Housekeeping Part 8

In most every hotel, it is left to the housekeeper to wax the ballroom floor before the opening of the "hop." The wax is sprinkled over the floor.

In very large hotels in large cities where there are three or four public parlors, and where three or four parlor-maids are employed, their work is confined to the parlors. The parlor-maid waits on the ladies, helps them on and off with their wraps, and caters to their comfort both physically and mentally; keeps the parlor clean, and does many little acts which go to make a great big hotel seem like home.

_The Card and Wine-Rooms._

No drinks are served in the public parlors, public halls, or cosy-corners. The wine-rooms are usually kept in order by the parlor-maid. The bar-porter should come for the bottles and remove the dishes. The parlor-maid should sweep and dust the wine rooms and wipe the tables, if they are polished wood. If they are ordinary dining-room tables, she should put clean table-cloths on them twice a day. The wine-rooms are usually named for the cities: Chicago, New York, Binghamton, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Denver, and New Orleans.

The card-rooms are kept in order by the parlor-maid. There is seldom much furniture in a card-room, only chairs and tables. Sweeping and dusting once a day and a clean cover for the table is all that is required.

To make a muslin cover for a poker-table, take a piece of muslin and cut it round to fit the table, allowing six inches to hang down. Run a casing on the edge of it, with a bias piece two inches wide. Run in the casing, a drawing-string of common wrapping-twine. The drawing-string must be as long as the muslin is around so it will not have to be removed when laundered. After it is laundered, put it on the table and pull the drawing-string, and tie under the table.

In small hotels where the parlor-maid is called on to perform all of these manifold duties, she is a.s.sisted by the houseman.

ABOUT CHAMBERMAIDS.

Some person that does not know anything about the life of a chambermaid will tell you that the "chambermaid has no protection, no morality, and is without the influence of a fixed place or home atmosphere;" finally, that "chamber-work is the most degrading occupation a girl can engage in!"

If a girl is not capable of a higher calling, why should not she make beds in a hotel when there is such a crying need from the hotel managers for conscientious and painstaking work? It is not every girl that Providence has blessed with a prima donna's voice. Not every girl can be admitted on the vaudeville stage. Not all have had kind and wealthy parents to send them through college and fit them for the higher attainments.

_Chambermaid Can Take Care of Self._

The proprietor is ever ready to protect the maids from undue familiarity from the male patrons of the hotel. This is seldom necessary. The average maid meets an incivility with a cold disdain that puts to rout a second attempt. Men that wreck women's lives are found outside of hotels.

_Religion a Factor._

It is an undisputed fact that the Irish-American Catholic girls make the best chambermaids. The comfort found in the Catholic religion compensates for the loss of home ties. She is without any danger signal save her own conscience, yet there does not exist on the face of the earth a more moral cla.s.s of girls than the Irish-American Catholic chambermaids in the hotels of the United States.

She goes at her work determined to use her experience as a stepping-stone to something higher. She encounters many pitfalls. She makes a few mistakes, but during her stay in Yankeeland she has learned President Roosevelt's maxim: "The man who never makes any mistakes is the man who never does anything." She is consoled by it, and from her pitfalls learns a lesson that enables her to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

_Not a Bad Day's Program._

At the Grand Union Hotel in New York City, and in hotels in other cities in New York state, the writer has learned from observation that the social side of the chambermaid's life is a pleasant one. She begins the day at 7:15 and quits at 4:00, except the night she is on watch. She is given a ten o'clock lunch; she has one hour for dinner, and at 2:30 she is given fifteen minutes for a cup of tea. The night she is on watch, she is served with a good dinner of chicken and all the good things the hotel affords. She has every third Sunday off and may follow her own will. She has time to cultivate acquaintances, and attend to her religious duties.

_Christmas Time._

There is kindness and courtesy existing among the maids. When Christmas day draws near, the festivities are looked forward to with eager antic.i.p.ation. Mysterious-looking bundles are coming in and going out.

Friends are remembered. The father and mother, brother and sister over the water are not forgotten; and likewise the maids are not forgotten by their employer. The dining-hall is wreathed in holly, the table is loaded with all the season's delicacies. Trade is dull in the hotel, and the time is given over to enjoyment.

_Chambermaids at Their Best._

There are evening parties in the "help's hall." The weekly "tips" or any "stray coins" are invested in sugar and b.u.t.ter, and "fondant" is made that would melt in your mouth. Then there is the "taffy-pull," the cups of tea, and the "fortunes told," over the cups. The jokes go round, the merry laughter resounds and gets so loud that the housekeeper, who has retired, rises, and hastens to put a stop to the noise. Arriving on the scene, she has not the heart to reprove them. Herein she tastes an old joy of girlhood. It is Christmas. She slips back to her own room and into bed again. The airs of "Killarney" and "The Wearing of the Green"

die away, and the house is quiet.

MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

The housekeeper should furnish the houseman with a synopsis of his duties every morning.

In addition to this, he has, of course, his regular duties--sweeping halls, dusting, cleaning cuspidors, washing windows, hanging curtains, moving furniture, laying carpets, and cleaning lights. Sweeping roofs and keeping gutters clean fall to his share also. Fortunate indeed is the housekeeper that can have a houseman for each floor. A skull cap and an over-all suit would be appropriate apparel for the houseman.

Any defective plumbing in bathrooms should be promptly reported by the housekeeper. Sometimes a guest will justly complain that the faucet in the bathtub is out of order, and the water trickling all night keeps him awake.

A tray under the ice-water pitcher will save the table or dresser.

The soul of the housekeeper faints within her when a guest complains that he has been given a room reserved for "plain drunks." He calls attention to the fact that the carpet is patched in thirteen places, and at least as many patches of paper are in evidence on the wall.

The sweepers require special care. The maids should bring them to the linen room once a month where they are oiled. Never empty the sweeper by pulling the pan down, as this breaks the spring, causing the pan to drop lower than the brush, and the sweeper fails to pick up the dirt. A Bissell sweeper in the hands of a skillful maid will last three years.

_Season for Repotting House-Plants._

September is the season for repotting house-plants. As flowers are such important factors of civilization speaking to us of nature's G.o.d, it is surprising that more plants are not seen in hotels, and that more proprietors do not adopt this ingenious plan of beautifying their dining-rooms and corridors, using palms instead of those cheap artificial roses which are so conspicuous in third-rate hotels.

The stately palm lends an air of refinement that nothing else can give.

The greatest obstacle to the growth of house-plants is dust. The palms, azaleas, and rubber plants may be sponged occasionally to keep them clean and healthy. Other plants may be taken to the bathroom and given a shower-bath. In the summer time, two or three times a week is often enough for watering the house-plants. In winter, once a week is sufficient.

WHY HOTEL EMPLOYEES FAIL TO RISE.

The reasons why some people never rise above commonplace positions should be made clear to all that seek employment or better conditions.

In every field, there are those that never take the initiative, and they make up the great majority. They are apparently afraid of doing too much work, or of making themselves generally useful, or of doing some bit of work that has not been a.s.signed them, for which they might not be paid, forgetting that the world's greatest prizes are generally bestowed on the individual who does the right thing without being told.

If we wait to be told our duties, we cease to be moral agents and are mere machines, and, as such, stationary in place and pay.

If you would succeed, cultivate self-confidence, which is one of the foundation stones of success. Rest a.s.sured your employer knows the difference between "bluff" and the real thing. "Nerve" will not win in the long run. It may accomplish temporary advantage, but there must be something back of "nerve."

Practice self-control. If you can not control yourself, you can not control others. When the commander riding in front of his army takes to the woods in the face of the enemy, he can only expect his troops to follow his example. Anger is an unbecoming mood. In serenity, lies power.