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 HOTEL HOUSEKEEPING 
 
 —BY- 
 MARY E. PALMER 
 
 1908 
 
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 *FK 16 1908 
 
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 Copyrighted 1908, 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY E. PALMER 
 
 THE TRIBUNE PRINTING CO. 
 Charleston. W. Va. 
 
CREDIT TO THE HOTEL WORLD. 
 
 The greater part of the contents of this book was pub- 
 lished, in instalments, in The Hotel World, of Chicago. 
 
A Foreword. 
 
 My chief purpose in writing this book was to place 
 a few guide-posts along the route of hotel housekeepers 
 to warn them against certain errors common to women 
 engaged in the arduous and difficult occupation of keep- 
 ing house for hotels. 
 
 If anything that I have set forth herein shall make the 
 work of hotel housekeepers easier, more inviting, or more 
 efficient, thereby contributing to the satisfaction of pro- 
 prietors and to the comfort of patrons, I shall feel 
 amply repaid for writing this book. 
 
 Mary E. Palmer. 
 Hotel Ruffner, 
 
 Charleston, West Va. 
 March 1, 1908. 
 
The Manager and the Help. 
 
 The average hotel manager is only too prone to com- 
 plain of the incompetency and the inefficiency of hotel 
 "help." 
 
 It is true that it is difficult to secure skilled help, for 
 there is no sort of institution that trains men and women 
 for the different kinds of hotel work. Each hotel must 
 train its own help, or obtain them from other hotels. 
 
 Thus there is no uniform and generally accepted 
 standard of excellence in the different departments of 
 hotel-keeping. 
 
 A good word should be said in behalf of the Irish- 
 American girls, who constitute a majority of the laun- 
 dry help, waitresses, and chamber-maids in American 
 hotels to-day. 
 
 With a high regard for honor and rectitude, handi- 
 capped by poverty, they find employment, at a very 
 early age, in hotels, and perform menial duties in a 
 manner that is greatly to their credit. 
 
 The Irish- American girls are not shiftless, remaining 
 in one place for years until they either marry or leave 
 
8 Guide to 
 
 to fill better positions, which is the privilege of every 
 one living under the "Stars and Stripes." 
 
 Some improve their spare time in study, thereby fit- 
 ting themselves to become stenographers and bookkeep- 
 ers. Some adopt the stage as a profession, one instance 
 being that of Clara Morris, who takes delight in telling 
 of the days when she washed silver in a hotel. 
 
 An ex-Governor Peeled Potatoes. 
 
 Ex-Governor Hoard, of Wisconsin, boasts of the time 
 when he peeled potatoes in a hotel. 
 
 The succees of hotel-keeping depends largely on the 
 manager. He should possess patience, forbearance, and 
 amiability. He should know that the best results are 
 obtained from his help by kindness, and that good food 
 and good beds mean better service. 
 
 The manager should realize that the working force of 
 a hotel is like the mechanism of a clock: it has to t>e 
 wound occasionally and set going. No novice can op- 
 erate this wonderful piece of mechanism; it requires a 
 skilled mechanic. 
 
 The proprietor of a hotel should be a good loser; for 
 there are periods of the year when the employes outnum- 
 ber the guests, and the balance-sheet shows a heavy 
 loss. 
 
 One of the most successful hotel men of the writer's 
 acquaintance is Mr. Ljouis Beibold, formerly of the 
 
' Hotel Housekeeping. 9 
 
 Bates House (now the Claypool), Indianapolis, Ind. 
 Mr. Reibold 's fame rests in his liberal, kindly treatment 
 of his help. He never called them "help," but always 
 referred to them as "employes." Reception, reading, 
 and writing-rooms were furnished for their use, and he 
 himself saw that good food was provided and that the 
 tables were spread with clean, white table-cloths once a 
 day. 
 
 He remembered his employes at Christmas, each one 
 receiving a gold coin, some as much as $20. 
 
 When a girl in his employ lost her arm in a mangle, 
 he presented her with a house and lot, provided her 
 with ample means to furnish the house and to keep her 
 the remainder of her lifetime. 
 
 Mr. Riebold is a multi-millionaire, and he has the ad- 
 miration and love of every woman and man that ever 
 worked for him. 
 
10 Guide to 
 
 Feeding and Rooming the Help. 
 
 Employes, such as housekeepers, clerks, cashiers, sten- 
 ographers, stewards — though few stewards use the priv- 
 ilege — and bartenders, are permitted to take their meals 
 in the main dining-room. 
 
 Other office-employes take their meals in the officers' 
 dining-room, from the same bill of fare used in the 
 main dining-room. 
 
 Chambermaids, bell-boys, and other "help," are 
 served in the ' ' helps ' hall, ' ' from a separate bill of fare. 
 Their food is good, as a rule; when it is not, the fault 
 usually lies with the chef in the kitchen. All proprie- 
 tors want their help to have good food. 
 
 The housekeeper can do much to make the help com- 
 fortable. She can see that their rooms are kept clean 
 and sweet, and free from vermin. She can give them 
 soft pillows and plenty of warm covering. It is her 
 duty to add to their comfort in every way she can. 
 
 In a majority of hotels, the help are roomed and fed 
 equally as well as are the patrons. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 11 
 
 Requirements of a Housekeeper. 
 
 Every profession or trade is made up of two classes: 
 the apprentice and the skilled workman. The young 
 woman looking for a position as hotel housekeeper 
 should not forget that careful training is fully as im- 
 portant and necessary in her chosen vocation as it is 
 in medicine or cooking ; that she must learn by slow and 
 wearisome experience what it has taken years for the 
 skilled housekeeper to acquire. 
 
 The apprentice may stumble on the road to success 
 and may even fall by the wayside. In order to succeed, 
 she must give her time wholly to her occupation. She 
 must be thankful for the successes that come to her and 
 not fret over the failures, remembering that hotel house- 
 keeping, like all other occupations, demands experience, 
 patience, and perseverance, as well as skill, in its fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 The profession is overcrowded with novices to-day; 
 they are the ones that have demoralized the profession — 
 if the word, profession, may be applied to hotel house- 
 keeping. The failure of many housekeepers is due to 
 
12 Guide to 
 
 the lack of proper training; it is only the skilled house- 
 keeper that wins lasting approval. 
 
 A trained nurse must remain in a training school at 
 least three years, possibly four, before she is given a 
 certificate to care for the sick. The chef of the hotel 
 kitchen, in all probability began his career as a scullion, 
 serving at least ten years' apprenticeship in minor situ- 
 ations in the kitchen. The housekeeper must not be 
 above gaining knowledge in the laundry and the linen- 
 en-room. A woman that is ambitious to become a good 
 housekeeper should first serve as a chambermaid. If 
 she is wise, she will secure the good graces of the linen- 
 woman by offering to help her mend the linen, hem the 
 napkins, sort the linen, and mend the curtains. 
 
 In this way, a clever chambermaid may learn many 
 useful things that will help her to a better position. 
 From the linen-room, it is only a step to the position 
 of a housekeeper. When a housekeeper leaves on her 
 vacation, or is called away to fill another place, or drops 
 out on account of illness, the linen-woman may seize 
 the opportunity of showing her executive ability. After 
 she has worked faithfully in the linen-room for three 
 years, there is not much danger that a linen-woman of 
 ability will fail to find employment as a housekeeper. 
 If she should have any trouble getting a situation, one 
 way out of the difficulty is to offer her services one 
 month on probation to a hotel man in need of a house- 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 13 
 
 keeper; and, if she is granted a trial and mixes brains 
 with her enthusiasm, she will receive a housekeeper's 
 salary at the end of the month. 
 
 Just what a housekeeper's work should be is a vital 
 question. We hear of housekeepers meddling in the 
 steward's department and with the affairs of the office. 
 This is, at least, no less wrong than the idea that the 
 housekeeper owes servile obedience to all other heads of 
 departments. 
 
 The essential requirements of a housekeeper are the 
 same, whether she is in a hotel with the capacity of a 
 thousand guests or in a hotel of two hundred rooms. 
 The young housekeeper, looking for a position in a first- 
 class hotel, should read the following requirements, 
 whi,ch were submitted to the writer by the manager of 
 a first-class Western hotel a few years ago: 
 
 A Housekeeper's Requirements. 
 
 Must be morally correct. 
 
 Must have a dignified and respectable appearance. 
 Must have executive ability. 
 
 Must have a good disposition and try to get along with 
 the help. 
 
 Must be a good listener and not a talker. 
 
 Must be quiet, giving orders in a firm but low tone. 
 
 Must be loyal to the management. 
 
 Must be courteous to guests. 
 
14 Guide to 
 
 Must not worry the management with small matters. 
 
 Must refrain from gossiping. 
 
 Neatness in dress is essential to the success of a hotel 
 housekeeper. She should take great pains to be always 
 well groomed, and neat in her attire. If she finds her- 
 self growing coarse or commonplace-looking, her finger- 
 nails in mourning, and her hair unacquainted with soap 
 and water, she should at once set about to remedy the 
 defects. It is her duty, as well as her privilege, to dress 
 as well as she can, not by donning all the colors of the 
 rainbow or by useless extravagance, but by modest and 
 harmonizing shades and by appropriate apparel. It be- 
 hooves the woman to make herself as good-looking as 
 possible, for good looks pay. Obliging manners are also 
 a stock in trade. Grit, grace, and good looks can accom- 
 plish wonders, especially the good looks. 
 
 Ignorance and ambition make an unprofitable combi- 
 nation. There are housekeeperes filling positions to-day 
 that have never been taught to do a single useful thing 
 correctly; they can not darn the linens, they can not 
 sew, they can not upholster a chair, they can not wait 
 on the sick, nor can they settle the slightest dispute with- 
 out sending for the manager. The housekeeper should 
 know how these things are done, in order to impart her 
 knowledge to others; for any housekeeper that has any 
 respect for her calling considers herself an instructor. 
 
 There is no special hour set for the housekeeper's ap- 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 15 
 
 pearance in the morning. It is safe to say that she will 
 make a greater "impression" and last longer by rising 
 at 6 o'clock. Late rising is one of the rocks on which 
 many a housekeeper has been wrecked. 
 
 Cheerfulness and Good Manners. 
 
 Every housekeeper should make the "good morning" 
 her bright keynote for the day. She should not say, 
 "Hello, Mollie," to a girl named Mary. Though the 
 girl may be only a scrub-girl, she knows a breach of et- 
 iquette; and a girl that bears the beautiful name of 
 Mary does not want it changed to "Mollie." 
 
 A cheerful "good morning" should be the beginning 
 of each day, by the housekeeper. It makes everybody 
 feel pleasant, and the maids can work faster and easier 
 when their hearts are full of pleasantness. 
 
 The successful housekeeper does not win her laurels 
 by merely perfecting herself in her work, but also by 
 careful study of the lives of others in her charge, and 
 how to promote their happiness. 
 
 Getting along with help requires tact, poise, and bal- 
 ance. The housekeeper should bestow praise where it is 
 due. She may give a gentle pat on the back to some 
 faithful employe, and yet keep her dignity. A hard 
 task may be made lighter by it, and monotonous labor 
 robbed of its weariness. The old and persistent notion 
 
16 Guide to 
 
 that housekeepers are an irascible tribe — if it was ever 
 true — is not true now. 
 
 The question here arises — What qualities of mind and 
 heart should a housekeeper possess to be successful ? 
 
 Nobody has discovered a rule — to say nothing of a 
 principle — whereby a housekeeper's success may be de- 
 termined. 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. Ev- 
 erybody 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. 
 After the relation of friendship has been established be- 
 tween the manager and the housekeeper, a "go-between" 
 has no place; to speak plainly, there is no legitimate 
 function for a tattler. 
 
 The young housekeeper should not become discour- 
 aged, excited, or worried, but learn to "manage." She 
 should sit down quietly and think it over. She should 
 have a system about her most ordinary duties, and never 
 put off till to-morrow what may be done to-day. To- 
 morrow may never come, and, if it does come, it will 
 bring other duties equally as important. Every field 
 of labor has its drawbacks. The greater the work, the 
 greater the hindrances and the obstacles seem to be. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 17 
 
 The Housekeeper and the "Help. 
 
 It is a truism that there should be no hostilities be- 
 tween the heads of the different departments of a hotel. 
 Everything works more smoothly and satisfactorily 
 when pleasant relationships exist between the different 
 departments of any business. 
 
 A housekeeper feels stronger if she thinks that she is 
 of sufficient importance to her employer to have her 
 views receive some consideration. She takes up her daily 
 tasks with an added sense of responsibility, and with a 
 desire to do still better work. 
 
 No housekeeper is perfect. It cannot be wisely as- 
 sumed that any housekeeper will possess all the requisite 
 qualifications for successful housekeeping, nor can she 
 develop them all, no matter how ambitious, industrious, 
 and naturally fitted for the work she may be. But 
 "Knowledge is power," and she that has the most of 
 it, coupled with the greatest ability to utilize it, enjoys 
 advantages that will contribute largely to her success. 
 
18 Guide to 
 
 Keeping a Position. 
 
 A housekeeper studies not only to secure a good situ- 
 ation, but also to avoid losing it. "Good enough" is 
 not her motto; "the very best" are her constant watch- 
 words. Some one has said: "A housekeeper is born, 
 not made." The "born housekeeper" is a spasmodic 
 housekeeper. As a rule, she is not evenly balanced. A 
 housekeeper with plain common sense, susceptible to in- 
 structions, willing to obey orders, is the housekeeper 
 that leaves the old situation for one of better pay. There 
 must be, of course, a foundation on which to build. The 
 stones of that foundation should be self-control, self-con- 
 fidence, education, neatness in dress, and cleanliness. 
 None of these is a gift, but an accomplishment that can 
 be developed more or less according to the individual. 
 
 Good manners are very essential. Politeness alone 
 will not bring about the desired results in any profes- 
 sion, but it has never been known to be a hindrance. 
 Manners that will be accepted without criticism in one 
 woman, will be odious and objectionable in another. Too 
 much familiarity breeds contempt. An employer would 
 better be approached with dignity and reserve. 
 
 The Charm of Neatness. 
 
 Few housekeepers realize the charm of the neatly 
 dressed woman. The hair should always be neatly ar- 
 ranged and not look as if it was about to fall on her 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 19 
 
 shoulders. The binding of her skirt should not show 
 ragged in places. These are little things, but they weigh 
 heavily in the general results. The well-groomed wo- 
 man knows that the neglect of these things is full of 
 shame to womankind. 
 
 In regard to ''bumping up against" the bell-boys, 
 clerks, stewards, and stenographers, the wise house- 
 keeper is shrewd enough to " stand in." She "turns 
 the other cheek," which may sometimes be a difficult 
 task to perform. 
 
 Eemember that no one on earth can ever succeed in 
 life and hold a "grudge." The inability to forgive his 
 enemies lost James G. Blaine the White House. 
 
 If a bell-boy is caught doing something detrimental 
 to the success of the management, the housekeeper should 
 write a note to the clerk, or the captain of the watch, and 
 inform him of the bell-boy's misdeeds. This will be 
 sufficient from the housekeeper. 
 
 On assuming the duties of a new field, the housekeeper 
 may remember merely a few important duties; for in- 
 stance, she must carefully scrutinize the time-book and 
 learn all the maids' names and stations. Next learn the 
 location of rooms and become familiarized with every 
 piece of furniture in them. 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 
 
20 Guide to 
 
 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 ? She should 
 be eager to maintain the dignity of her position — must 
 maintain it in fact — and do as high service as possible 
 for the management. Yet she can not always carry out 
 her own ideas. The manager has his ideas about mat- 
 ters, which right or wrong, must be respected. The 
 housekeeper carries out the manager's orders. If the 
 hotel fails to bring a profit or give satisfaction, the 
 manager alone is held accountable. 
 
 About Hiring Help. 
 To dismiss a maid is a very easy matter; to obtain a 
 substitute that will perform the duties assigned her in 
 a manner that will prove more effectual, is not so easy. 
 To fire or not to fire, that is the question 
 "Whether 'tis easier on the impulse of the moment 
 To suffer the terrors and exactions of the haughty 
 
 maids, 
 Or take up arms against their impudence 
 And with pen and ink end them. 
 To lie, to sleep — 
 
t 
 
 Hotel Housekeeping. 21 
 
 Worry no more, and by good management to dispatch 
 
 The cares and thousand little details 
 
 Housekeepers are heir to — 'tis a consummation 
 
 Devoutly to be wished. 
 
 The employment-agency is the housekeeper's recruit- 
 ing station. She gets most of her help from this place. 
 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 for- 
 bearance, striving to teach them the best and easiest way 
 to do their work, bearing with their imperfections, over- 
 looking a great deal that is actually repulsive, not ex- 
 pecting to find in the hard-working individual the graces 
 of a Marie Antoinette, or the inherent qualities of a 
 Lady Jane Gray. 
 
 The housekeeper should not only be scrupulously hon- 
 est herself, but should insist that the maids be honest. 
 It is true that almost irresistible temptations and oppor- 
 tunities to steal are constantly thrown in the way of the 
 maids; and those that are steadfastly honest deserve 
 great credit. 
 
 If a maid is neat and clean in appearance and does her 
 work well — these qualities cover a multitude of sins. 
 From the standpoint of many housekeepers, too much 
 curiosity and gossiping are the chiefest and quickest 
 
22 Guide to 
 
 causes — next to the neglect of work — for a maid's dis- 
 missal. A housekeeper is usually disliked by the maids 
 that do not want to do their work, just as a stepmother is 
 hated by some stepchildren, regardless of her kindness 
 and her consideration for their welfare. Employes in 
 any business prefer to take their orders from the person 
 that pays them their money. For this, they are not to be 
 blamed; but if the proprietor or the proprietor's wife 
 wishes to retain the services of a good housekeeper, and 
 be relieved of the trying ordel of training the help, he or 
 she will not encourage tattling from the housekeeper's 
 inferiors. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 23 
 
 The Hotel Proprietor's Wife. 
 
 Implicit confidence should exist between the house- 
 keeper and the proprietor's wife. This does not mean 
 that the proprietor's wife should take the housekeeper 
 automobile riding. Any proprietor's wife that enters into 
 such a degree of intimacy with any of her husband's 
 employes distinctly displays the hallmarks of plebian- 
 ism. The writer does not want to become an iconoclast, 
 but she believes that all business should be conducted on 
 a business basis. There must be an unwavering loyalty 
 to the interests mutually represented, at all times and 
 under all circumstances. 
 
 The proprietor's wife that goes to the help's dining- 
 room or to the laundry, presumably to press a skirt or 
 a shirt-waist, but in reality to see what she can see and 
 to hear what she can hear, is disloyal to the manage- 
 ment. She will always have poured into her ears stories 
 that will annoy her and keep her worried. There are 
 maids in a hotel always ready to "keep the pot boiling." 
 Such a proprietor's wife not only encourages malicious 
 slander and tattling, but she will soon be asking ques- 
 tions of the inferior help about the housekeeper's man- 
 
24 Guide to 
 
 agement. Soon the inferiors will be giving the orders 
 instead of the housekeeper, and the discipline will be 
 spoiled. Besides, the proprietor's wife will be told im- 
 aginary wrongs, and exaggerated stories concerning some 
 maid employed in the hotel, which will necessitate the 
 maid's discharge. Whether the story is real or imagi- 
 nary, the proprietor's wife is not benefitted by the 
 stories she has heard. She should ask herself: Is this 
 loyalty? Isn't it unmistakably the earmark of com- 
 monality ? 
 
 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. 
 The housekeeper tries to work in harmony with them 
 both, which means success of the highest order. To do 
 this, the housekeeper must retain hier dignity, often 
 under the most exasperating circumstances. The pro- 
 prietor's wife is privileged to frequent any part of the 
 hotel she may choose to, but how must a housekeeper 
 feel to see her conversing in the most familiar tones with 
 the waitresses and the chambermaids, and to know that 
 she is listening to malicious slander of the lowest kind. 
 A housekeeper can have no control over the employes 
 where the discipline is thus ruined, or where there is so 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 25 
 
 much unpleasantness arising from unwise interference 
 over trifles, by the proprietor's wife, or from officious 
 meddling by the families of the prominent stockhold- 
 ers. 
 
 Tact Can Not be Taught. 
 
 "Bumping up against" the proprietor and propri- 
 etor's wife or family is one of the most perplexing prob- 
 lems that the housekeeper has to solve. The ability to 
 combat with such a problem can not be imparted by 
 teaching. It has to exist in the housekeeper herself, in 
 the peculiar, individual bent of her nature. No amount 
 of preaching and teaching can ever endow a housekeeper 
 with the ever ready wit characteristic of the "Irish 
 tongue. ' ' 
 
 The savory reply, "0, Mrs. B., you are a dream of 
 loveliness!" would be sweet to some ears while to others 
 it would be a "harsh discord. " It is impossible to teach 
 which ear would or would not be the receptive one. 
 Any attempt on the part of the housekeeper to work up 
 these qualities, "by rule" would only be a failure 
 Even the "Golden Rule" fails sometimes to bring about 
 desired results. The better plan, perhaps, for the house- 
 keeper to adopt is to live her own life, and not try to 
 imitate others. If she tries to be great, she will be 
 nothing; if she tries to be plain, simple, and good, she 
 may be great. 
 
26 Guide to 
 
 Character in the Hotel Business. 
 
 There is no royal road to success for the hotel clerk, 
 steward, manager, or housekeeper. The hotel business 
 is peculiar in many respects; it teaches conspicuously 
 the great importance of character. 
 
 There is no ingenious system that the housekeeper may 
 adopt to insure her success. Getting into trouble or 
 keeping out of it is largely a matter of luck, influenced 
 by. the kind of help that she is able to secure. But, first 
 and last, her success depends on her character — her own 
 energy, industry, intelligence, and moral worth. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 27 
 
 Eoom Inspection. 
 
 When inspecting rooms, the housekeeper will notice 
 that the room is completed with the following necessa- 
 ries: One bed, one foot blanket. One rocking chair 
 and two straight chairs. One writing table and a scrap 
 basket. One cuspidor. One dresser. One clothes tree 
 or wardrobe. One ice water pitcher and two glasses on 
 a tray. If there is no bathroom, or stationary hot and 
 cold water, there must be a commode, a wash bowl and 
 pitcher, soap dish and clean soap. One slop jar, one 
 chamber. Four face towels. If there is a bathroom, 
 one bath mat and toilet paper in the holder. One small 
 mirror. One cake of bath soap and two bath towels 
 are needed. On the dresser in every guest room should 
 be a box of safety matches and a candle. Candles are 
 so cheap, and candle holders may be purchased for a 
 trifle, which will answer the purpose as well as silver. 
 No one who has lived in hotels but knows how annoying 
 it is to be left in total darkness for half an hour, on ac- 
 
28 Guide to 
 
 count of a burned out fuse, when they are dressing for 
 the theatre and in a hurry to complete their toilet. 
 
 The clerk in the office with the room rack in front of 
 him has no conception of the rooms except that they are 
 in perfect order. Perfect order does not only mean that 
 the bed is neatly made, the floor clean and all the furni- 
 ture dusted; soap, towels, matches, candles and glasses 
 in their places, but everything must be in perfect work- 
 ing order. Let the housekeeper's inspection begin then 
 with the door. The lock must be in order, and the key 
 work properly. It is embarrassing to the clerk to have 
 to listen of a morning to such complaints as "my door 
 would not lock, and I was compelled to push the dresser 
 in front of it to insure safety." But this "kick" is 
 often heard in first-class houses. The transoms next 
 should receive attention — see if they will open and close. 
 Next the electric lights; they must all be in order and 
 burn brightly. The dresser drawers must move readily, 
 and be perfectly clean. The windows must be carefully 
 examined to see if they open and close easily, and they 
 must have no broken cords. A housekeeper's intelligent 
 attentions to these details will greatly aid the clerk in 
 prompt service to the guests, and will insure to the hotel 
 the service that will be its own best advertisement. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 29 
 
 Gossip Between Employes. 
 
 There are only two classes in a hotel among its em- 
 ployes; one class is quite perfect and pure as angels, 
 while the others are black sheep and altogether unspeak- 
 able. There is no transition, no intermediate links, no 
 shading of light or dark. A hotel employe is either good 
 or bad, and this rigid rule applies not only to moral 
 character, but intellectual excellence also is measured by 
 the same standard. In a large hotel of, say 250 em- 
 ployes, everybody seems to know everybody and every- 
 thing about everybody. Everybody knows that he is 
 watched, and gossip, both in the best and worst sense of 
 the word, rules supreme. Gossip is, in fact, public opin- 
 ion, with all its good and all its bad features. Still, the 
 result is that no one can afford to lose caste, and every- 
 body behaves as well as he can. The private life of hotel 
 employes is almost blameless. The great evils of society 
 do not exist; now and then a black sheep gets in, but 
 his or her life soon becomes a burden, everybody knows 
 what has happened and the employes, being on a whole 
 
30 Guide to 
 
 so blameless, are all the more merciless on the sinners, 
 whether their sins are great or small. 
 
 What most impresses one in hotels is the loyalty 
 among employes. No one tells them what to do or what 
 to say, or what not to say, or what not to do, yet yon will 
 observe that one who professes to be your friend will 
 not say unfriendly things behind your back. This con- 
 dition is noticeable among those of inferior rank, as well 
 as among managers, stewards, clerks and housekeepers. 
 As a rule, one table in the main dining room is reserved 
 for the officers, clerks, stewards, cashiers, bookkeepers, 
 checkers, stenographers and housekeepers. Most of them 
 have been taught a few rules of life wisdom by their 
 seniors. At any rate, few of them are seen with 
 their elbows on the table. They are observant enough 
 of social forms to eat pie with a fork, and their teaspoon 
 is always in the saucer; they eat slowly and take time 
 to triturate. There is always one "wit" to make one 
 sorry when the meal is ended. 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 state- 
 ment more false. Hotels employ a house detective to 
 look after its morals. A housekeeper is more apt to be 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 31 
 
 an assistant, who has been promoted to the very respons- 
 ible position of housekeeper. 
 
 Relationship Between Housekeeper and Women Patrons. 
 
 A simple acquaintance is the most desirable footing 
 with all persons, however desiring. The unlicensed free- 
 dom that usually attends familiarity affords but too 
 ample scope for the indulgence of selfish and mercenary 
 motives on the part of the women patrons. It would 
 be safe to say that the housekeeper owes to all women 
 patrons the courtesy and consideration due one woman 
 from another. It has been said that woman's inhuman- 
 ity to woman makes countless millions mourn. But 
 this condition is happily fading away; within the last 
 decade women have been improving in manners and 
 morals toward each other. The housekeeper should take 
 the initiative, consider the "roof as an introduction" 
 and assume a kindly interest in the welfare of the wo- 
 men guests. 
 
 Politeness is the sweetner of human society and gives 
 a charm to everything said and done. But a housekeeper 
 may be called on to sacrifice her duty to her employer. 
 In this case she must not let any weak desire of pleasing 
 guests make her recede one jot from any point that 
 reason and prudence have bid her pursue. 
 
 Birds of Passage. 
 One of the most striking conditions in modern hotel 
 
32 Guide to 
 
 life is that few hotels retain their heads of departments 
 any great length of time, while the inferior working 
 class remains in one hotel for many years, and often for 
 a lifetime. This significant state becomes more marked 
 from year to year, and the question arises: What has 
 brought about such a changed condition? The travel- 
 ing public surely is gratified to see a familiar face be- 
 hind the desk, in the housekeeping department, and also 
 in the dining-room. In days past, clerks, stewards, and 
 housekeepers, were identified with the same hotel until 
 a retirement from all active life would see them replaced 
 by others. But of late they seem to have earned the 
 title, " birds of passage." 
 
 Temperament creates the atmosphere of your sur- 
 roundings, and if you would remain in a fixed place, 
 you should cultivate the respect of all, and, if possible, 
 their love, also. A nervous man or woman speaks in 
 haste and uses a sharp tone of voice over mere trifles, 
 which, to an ignorant mind, may have a tendency to 
 create dislike, causing results that may prove distinct 
 barriers to his or her success as a manager or house- 
 keeper, whereas a placid man or woman could bring 
 about the same result with gentler tones, thereby pre- 
 venting useless friction and hatred. 
 
 Directing and Commanding. 
 Heads of hotel departments should cultivate their 
 talents for directing and commanding. Politeness, 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 33 
 
 which belongs to all persons of good breeding and is es- 
 sential in the ordinary transactions of life, is so min- 
 utely cultivated by the heads of hotel departments as to 
 be conspicuous in its absence; some are not even civil, 
 which is the very least that one person can be to another. 
 I do not mean to infer that an employe is to be for- 
 given if he gets intoxicated and is late to his work every 
 morning, nor that a sneak, a thief, or an agitator should 
 be excused. To handle help on the forgiving plan in 
 such cases, employers would become sentimental reform- 
 ers and the worst kind of failures. Sentiment may be 
 comforting, but it is silly when employed in business, 
 under these conditions. Those that desire may practice 
 forgiveness, but when it costs time and money and 
 brings gray hairs to those that are doing the forgiving, 
 it is better to keep as near the line of sternness as possible. 
 Everyone employing labor should be very careful of 
 his manner in expressing his disapproval of the actions 
 of subordinates. A reprimand should never be made in 
 anger. If a grave offense has been committed, repri- 
 manding should be done with great coolness and reserve, 
 if you would look to future events and their probable 
 consequences. Impertinent and forward people may be 
 checked by cold reserve. Often the faculties for trans- 
 acting business and the talents for directing and rep- 
 rimanding are considered by fond admireres to be the 
 
34 Guide to 
 
 gift of nature, when, in reality, they are the outcome 
 of self-control and (education. 
 
 Chesterfield says : "If you are in authority and have 
 a right to command, your commands delivered in sauvi- 
 ter in modo will be willingly, cheerfully, and, conse- 
 quently, well obeyed." 
 
 Attention to Details. 
 
 Hotel housekeeping is a science. The crowning excel- 
 lence, as all acknowledge, lies in giving strict attention 
 to small things. Successful hotel-keeping is an artistic 
 achievement in which everything is in its right place, is 
 of the proper grade> shade, quality, and cleanliness, har- 
 monizing in every particular. 
 
 Details are repulsive to the lazy or the listless. Let 
 the housekeeper feel the greatness of her position and 
 the importance of her duties, if she so desires to succeed. 
 Enthusiasm is an element that can least be spared — one 
 that must accompany the housekeeper at every step. 
 
 The question has arisen whether the housekeeper 
 should learn without rules, by blundering experience, or 
 should she take what the approved experience of others 
 has found to be the best. No one doubts the answer. 
 The true way is to submit to rules and regulations and 
 methods of experienced and practical hotel housekeep- 
 ers that have made their profession a lifelong study. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 35 
 
 The Progressive Housekeeper. 
 
 The ocean is an everchanging wonder of kaleidoscopic 
 views and no eye ever wearies of its beauty. The earth 
 arrays herself in snch gorgeous costumes so pleasing to 
 man's sight that few there are who want to leave her to 
 try another. The child tires of the old ragdoll and cries 
 for the ' ' Teddy bear. ' ' Put a new dress on the old rag- 
 doll and it will again become the favorite. 
 
 If a housekeeper is not progressive, her employer will 
 tire of her. The onward trick of nature is too much for 
 the average housekeeper, and gladly would she anchor, 
 but to do so means to sink. She must keep up with the 
 times, she must travel the pace of progress. 
 
 There is nothing new under the sun, but there is con- 
 stant metamorphosis. Time brings changes. Competi- 
 tion is strong and housekeepers must be on the alert for 
 any accomplishment that will aid in their calling. 
 
 In America, life is a universal race for exalted posi- 
 tions. Then get out of the rut and keep up the long list 
 of illusions, of which a rapid succession of changes and 
 moods and styles and ideas is the secret. 
 
36 Guide to 
 
 You must keep busy. There is only one sin that you 
 can commit; that sin is idleness. Polish the old things 
 and make them look like new. Do not let your footsteps 
 become so narrow that they will end in a turkey-track. 
 Keep up your practice of thoroughly cleaning rooms, 
 overhauling furniture, and sending out a mattress now 
 and then to have it repaired. Take up a carpet and 
 have it cleaned. Give the radiators a coat of bronze. 
 Have the ceiling lights cleaned. Paste up the wall-pa- 
 per that is hanging from the wall. Polish the brass on 
 the stairs. Put in an order for some new material of 
 which to make dresser covers. 
 
 Decorative Dresser Covers. 
 
 The writer has just completed some very pretty 
 dresser covers for the parlor floor rooms, en suite. The 
 work is fascinating, and the linen-room girls and parlor- 
 maids can lend a hand at making them. Any kind of 
 linen material can be adapted that can be laundered 
 with ease and success. Plain white linen is a well-de- 
 served favorite and makes thoroughly useful, as well as 
 fashionable, dresser-covers. A cheaper material can be 
 found in linen toweling — just as pretty and just as dur- 
 able as the plain white linen. 
 
 The dresser cover just covering the dresser and not al- 
 lowed to hang down is the favorite mode just now. It 
 can be simply hemmed; but a charming and more at- 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 37 
 
 tractive pattern is with scalloped edges and elaborated 
 ends. These scallops are made with a spool, medium 
 size, No 50 being especially suitable. Put the spool on 
 the edge of the material and with a lead pencil, draw 
 a crescent and then another, clear across the end. Pad 
 the scallops with common white darning-cotton, using 
 the old fashioned chain-stitch. Before putting the work 
 in the embroidery-hoops, sew a strip of muslin, about 
 six inches in width to the edge of the dresser cover. 
 This will aid in getting the work placed in the hoops and 
 will enable you to do smoother and more satisfactory 
 work. 
 
 Embroider the scallops with linen embroidery floss, 
 size "D," using the buttonhole stitch. An eyelet at the 
 termination and just above each crescent will add ma- 
 terially to its effectiveness. Rip off the muslin and 
 launder before cutting out the scallops. This will pre- 
 vent the ugly fringe seen on so many embroidered 
 dresser-covers. 
 
38 Guide to 
 
 The Housekeeper's Salary. 
 
 Too many housekeepers of the present day neglect the 
 small things. They want to draw large salaries and let 
 the house take cai^ of itself, while they visit with the 
 guests and gossip and have a good time. The clerks are 
 kind and do not report to the manager the little com- 
 plaints that come to the office every day ; but the house- 
 keeper 's conscience should tell her that she is not earn- 
 ing her money. 
 
 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. Especially is this 
 true if the housekeeper is successful in commanding the 
 respect of her subordinates. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 39 
 
 The housekeeper that lays the blame of some grave 
 mistake on her assistants is not worthy of the name of 
 housekeeper. Had she been there, attending to her af- 
 fairs, it would not have happened, for she would have 
 prevented or stopped it. 
 
 The housekeeper, by diligence, attendance to her du- 
 ties, and by economies, figures greatly in the success of 
 a hotel, and makes her own position. The position does 
 not make her. Then it is fairly reasonable to suppose 
 that such a housekeeper should make her own salary; 
 that she should command and receive her price ; that she 
 should be paid according to the amount she is really 
 worth, and not the fixed scale that the hotel pays. If 
 a housekeeper can show by her books, by her manage- 
 ment, and by her economies, that she is worth more than 
 her predecessor, she is entitled to more pay, and by all 
 means should receive more pay. The avereage salary 
 paid a housekeeper is not enough to properly clothe a 
 housekeeper. After her laundry bills are paid, what 
 has she left to lay up for the " rainy day," to say noth- 
 ing of an old age, when parsimony and incompatibility 
 of temper and "set ways" make her, in any place, an 
 unwelcome personage. 
 
 The Faithful, Efficient Housekeeper. 
 
 The housekeeper that sticks to her post and is always 
 looking after her work is surely worth more to her em- 
 
40 Guide to 
 
 ployer than one that has worn the carpet theadbare in 
 front of her mirror, or one that puts in a great portion 
 of her time at the bargain-counter, or the theater, or 
 with a novel in her hand. Surely, the hard-working 
 housekeeper, the one that makes her occupation a study 
 and is always at her post, is worth more to her em- 
 ployer than the housekeeper that is trying to do society 
 " stunts,'' to ring in with people of fashion, to "out- 
 dress" them. But the majority of hotels pay much the 
 same salaries to housekeepers, good, bad, and indiffer- 
 ent. 
 
 The progressive housekeeper that thus looks after her 
 employer's business every day, always at her post in the 
 linen-room, is uncomplaining, shoulders the blame, and 
 is not always knocking on his private-office door and 
 entering complaints about this or that, is surely worth 
 more than thirty dollars a month to any hotel man. If 
 he does not think so, he should not blame the progres- 
 sive, faithful, reliable housekeeper, if she promptly ac- 
 cepts a position with better pay. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 41 
 
 Inspection and Cleaning of Rooms. 
 
 The housekeeper, or her assistant, should go through 
 every room twice a day. In the morning, the house- 
 keeper should take the house-plan, inspect every room, 
 and check up the rooms that have been occupied. 
 If the bed in a room has been used, and if there is bag- 
 gage, she should check this also, and should turn the 
 report into the office by nine o'clock. Then, in the af- 
 ternoon, when the maids are supposed to have finished 
 their work, the housekeeper should take her pencil and 
 pad and thoroughly inspect every room and the maids' 
 work. She may find a ragged sheet or pillow slip; if 
 so, she should make a note of it. Some room may be 
 short of a towel, soap or matches; she should make a 
 note of this also. Around the gas-jets and in the cor- 
 ners, she may find "Irish curtains "(cobwebs) ; in the 
 commode, she may find a vessel that was forgotten; in 
 a dresser drawer, a man may have left his cast-off hose, 
 and suspenders. Some maid may have swept the center 
 of the room, while under the bed and under the dresser 
 there may be dust of two weeks' standing; in another 
 
42 Guide to 
 
 room, the housekeeper may find a bathtub forgotten — all 
 of which she should write on the pad. This work will oc- 
 cupy two hours of her time in a two-hundred-room 
 house. When the maids come on watch at six o'clock, 
 each one should be given instructions to go back and 
 finish her work. In some hotels, the maids do not go 
 off duty of an afternoon, but continue working until six 
 o'clock. In this case, the housekeeper should issue her 
 instructions at once. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 43 
 
 How to Clean a Room. 
 
 There are many ways to clean a room, but there is 
 just one best way to clean it thoroughly. ' ' Dig out the 
 corners" should be the watchword of every successful 
 housekeeper. She would rather the maid would leave 
 the dirt in a pile in the center of the room than fail to 
 clean out the corners. 
 
 If one word could be selected that means the most and 
 needs the most emphasis in the science of housekeeping, 
 that word would be "cleanliness." The first desidera- 
 tum, therefore, of the chambermaid, is the scrub-pail 
 and a piece of oilcloth — some maids use a newspaper — 
 under it to protect the carpet. The first thing to do 
 is to clean the small pieces of furniture. If the furni- 
 ture is new, it should be only wiped with the dust-cloth. 
 If it is old and marred, it should be washed with warm 
 water and soap, and oiled with a good furniture-polish. 
 It should then be set in the hall. The dresser drawers 
 should be washed and the marble cleaned with sapolio; 
 the mirrors should be polished, the windows washed, and 
 the shutters dusted. The crockery should be cleaned 
 
44 Guide to 
 
 and put in the hall. The bed should be covered with 
 a dust-cover. The cobwebs should be swept down with 
 a long-handled broom. The lace curtains should be 
 shaken, and either taken down or pinned up. The closet 
 should be swept out. The toilet-bowl should be scrubbed 
 inside and out with the toilet-brush, and a disinfectant 
 powder put in. The stationary wash-bowl should be 
 scrubbed with sapolio, and the faucets polished, not for- 
 getting the chain. The bath-tub should also be scrubbed 
 with sapolio, and the floor washed. 
 
 The door should now be closed and the sweeping be- 
 gun. A very good plan is to scatter wet paper over the 
 floor to keep the dust down. The corners should be dug 
 out and the dirt swept to the center of the room and 
 taken up in the dust-pan. If the carpet is old, it should 
 be sponged with warm water and soap, to which a lit- 
 tle ammonia has been added. The carpet will look like 
 new after this process. After the dust is well settled, 
 all the wood work in the room should be washed ; the bed 
 and dresser should be washed and oiled, and all the fur- 
 niture should be symmetricaly arranged, and the win- 
 dows closed on account of storms. 
 
 One chambermaid can successfully look after eighteen 
 or twenty rooms a day. Not all of the rooms are occu- 
 pied every night. The maid should take advantage of 
 the dull days to clean her rooms thoroughly ; she should 
 clean one room every day. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 45 
 
 The Importance of Good Beds. 
 
 Competition is great, and success will come to the best 
 and cleanest hotel. The traveler loves to slip into a bed 
 with perfectly laundered sheets that do not look as if the 
 maids had sprinkled, folded, and pressed them between 
 the mattress, as chambermaids ordinarily do in hotels 
 where there is a scant supply of linen. 
 
 Sometimes the chambermaid will ask the laundryman 
 for a pair of sheets to make up a sample-room, as the 
 guest wants to receive a customer. The laundryman 
 replies: ''Well, just as soon as the machinery starts 
 again, you may have them." There has been a break- 
 down ; the belt is off ; or something has gone wrong, and 
 they have sent for the engineer to fix it. Then the 
 housekeeper must go to some unoccupied room and strip 
 the bed and use the linen for making up the bed in the 
 sample-room, while the guest walks the floor and frets 
 over the delay. Much time is saved if the hotel is sup- 
 plied with plenty of linen. 
 
 Sheets that cover only two-thirds of the mattress do 
 not add to the cheerfulness and comfort of the guests. 
 
46 Guide to 
 
 Many well grounded complaints are entered about this. 
 Special laws have been enacted in some states, within the 
 last year, regarding the length of sheets. 
 
 Occasionally a guest finds it expedient to make his bed 
 over, if he would have any comfort. The maid has put 
 the double fold of the blanket to the top ; it is a warm 
 night, yet he fears to throw the blanket off — he might 
 take cold. So he concludes to make his own bed, put- 
 ting the single fold to the top, that he may throw some 
 of it back. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 47 
 
 How a Bed is Made. 
 
 Good bed-making is the one trait par excellence in all 
 good chambermaid work. To make a bed artistically is 
 one important feature, and to make it so that the guest 
 may rest comfortably is another, and, finally, just how 
 is the best way to make a bed is a question worthy of 
 consideration. 
 
 In our big country of America, the traveler from 
 Maine to California sees many styles of bed-making. In 
 New Orleans is see nthe picturesque canopy of pure 
 white mosquito-netting tucked in neatly all around. In 
 Kansas City is seen the snowy spreads plaited half way 
 to the foot with numerous little folds. In New York is 
 seen the pure linen hemstitched sheets, turned back with 
 a single fold. 
 
 To begin to make a bed, first, the mattress should be 
 turned. The bottom sheet should then be tucked in 
 carefully by raising the mattress with one hand and 
 smoothing the sheet down with the other. The large 
 hems should always be at the head, in order that no one 
 may be compelled to lay his face where some one's feet 
 
48 Guide to 
 
 have been. After the bottom sheet has been tucked in at 
 the head, it should be tightly drawn and tucked in at 
 the foot in the same way. Sheets should be long enough 
 to tuck in one foot at the head and one at the bottom. 
 If it is a brass bed, the sheets should be left to hang 
 down. 
 
 After the bottom sheet is on perfectly, it is easy to 
 make a pretty bed, and one in which the guest may rest 
 well. The top sheet should be put on, and tucked in 
 at the foot only. The blanket should be put on with the 
 single fold at the head. If the guest should get too 
 warm, he can throw half of the blanket to the foot and 
 yet have sufficient covering. After the spread is put 
 on, a single fold as large as your hand should be made, 
 then another fold one foot in width should complete the 
 folding, and the spread should be neatly tucked in. 
 The pillows should now be smoothed evenly and placed 
 up aright, and the bed is made. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 49 
 
 How to Clean Walls. 
 
 To clean a painted canvas wall does not require so 
 much skill as patience. 
 
 A painted canvas woll is very easily cleaned. Many 
 housekeepers have them washed with ivory soap and wa- 
 ter, and obmtain good results. Others add a little am- 
 monia to the water, and still others use the powdered 
 pumice. 
 
 The cost of painted walls are great, and it is a great 
 saving to any proprietor, if the housekeeper can suc- 
 cessfully clean a painted wall without calling the decor- 
 ators. 
 
 Perhaps the most practical and most economical way 
 to do the work and obtain the best results is to wash the 
 wall with water, in which has been dissolved a cake of 
 sapolio. 
 
 To proceed to clean the parlor walls: first, take out 
 all the bric-a-brac and tapestry and furniture ; then take 
 up the carpet. Have the carpenter erect a scaffolding 
 for the house-man to stand on. Have two pails of hot 
 water, and in one let a cake of sapolio dissolve. Keep 
 
50 Guide to 
 
 the other pail of water for rinsing. Have two large 
 sponges, one for cleaning and the other for rinsing. 
 Souse the cleaning-sponge in the pail in which the sapolio 
 has been dissolved, then squeeze the water out of the 
 sponge. Then begin on the ceiling or in one corner, 
 cleaning only a small square at a time. After cleaning, 
 rinse with the sponge from the clean pail, not making 
 the sponge too dry. Do not wipe the wall with a cloth, 
 but leave moist, after which have ready a pail of starch, 
 and with an ordinary paint or white-wash-brush, starch 
 the square that you have cleaned, before it is thoroughly 
 dry. The starching-process is very necessary. It will 
 leave a gloss on the paint, and also preserves it the next 
 time it is washed ; for, in this case, it will be the starch 
 that will be washed off instead of the paint. To make 
 the starch take ordinary laundry starch and dissolve one 
 cupful in one pint of cold water. Into this pour boil- 
 ing water until it is as thick as cream and let boil, stir- 
 ring constantly. 
 
 The following is an excellent preparation for cleaning 
 wall-paper, and perhaps it might serve as well to clean 
 walls hung with burlap: 
 
 2 pounds of rye flour. 
 
 J pound of wheat flour. 
 
 1 handful of salt. 
 
 Mix well together with water and bake one hour in 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 51 
 
 the oven. Then peel and work back into a dough, ad- 
 ding \ ounce of ammonia and J ounce of gasoline. 
 
 This is not an expensive preparation and will clean 
 papered or burlap walls very nicely. 
 
 Calcimined walls will have to be re-decorated. 
 
 A good way to clean hardwood floors in halls where 
 the carpet does not entirely cover the floor, is to take 
 a can of linseed oil and a small woolen cloth and dip one 
 end of the cloth in the oil, being careful not to spill the 
 oil on the carpet, or touch the edge of the carpet while 
 cleaning ; this will remove the dust and dirt, after which 
 the floor may be polished with ordinary floor-wax put 
 on with a flannel cloth and polished with a brick, over 
 which has been sewed a piece of brussels carpet. | 
 
 How to Scrub a Floor. 
 
 What is prettier than a hardwood floor after it Has 
 been properly scrubbed? To scrub a floor and get sat- 
 isfactory results is a science. To change the water fre- 
 quently is one secret of success. " Elbow grease" is 
 another. Mops are impossible, and this is another sub- 
 ject on which the housekeeper can wax eloquent. What 
 is more disgusting than to see the baseboards of a room 
 smeared, or the dirt shoved in the corners with an old 
 dirty mop? 
 
 Before commencing to scrub, place every article of 
 furniture on the table and then sweep. Beginning 
 
52 Guide to 
 
 in the rear of the door so as not to track over the clean 
 part until it is perfectly dry, scrub with a brush a 
 small section at a time; first wipe up with a damp rag 
 and then with a dry one. The New York Knitting 
 Mills, of Albany, N. Y., furnish remnants of cloth that 
 are indispensable for scrubbing. Enough of these rem- 
 nants can be bought for $3 to last six months. 
 
 A little ammonia in the water will help to whiten the 
 floors. The modern skewers from the kitchen are very 
 useful in getting into the corners of the window sills 
 and into the corners of the stairsteps. A weak solu- 
 tion of oxalic acid and boiling water will remove the 
 very worst kind of ink-stains from the floor. 
 
 Pads for kneeling on are made of burlap, and one is 
 given to each scrubber. The unnatural position that 
 the scrubber assumes makes the work laborious; the 
 scrubber may change her position frequently by getting 
 clean water. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 53 
 
 How to Get Eid op Vermin. 
 
 The worst kind of house-pests, if you do not know 
 how to get rid of them, but not the easiest to extermi- 
 nate, are bedbugs. They do not confine themselves to 
 any section of the country, though the International En- 
 cyclopedia gives the belief "that up to Shakespeare's 
 time they were not known in England," and that "they 
 came originally from India." 
 
 In Kansas, the bedbug is improperly called the chintz- 
 bug, and is believed to dwell under the bark of the cot- 
 ton-wood tree. There is no authentic truth for this be- 
 lief. 
 
 The spread of the bedbug is mainly due to its being 
 carried from place to place in furniture and clothing. 
 It has the power of resisting great cold and of fasting in- 
 definitely. The eggs of the bedbug are very small, 
 whitish, oval objects, laid in clusters in the crevices used 
 by the bugs for concealment; they hatch in eight days. 
 Under favorable conditions and slovenly housekeeping, 
 their multiplication is extremely rapid. The greatest 
 trouble lies with the housekeeper who allows the bugs to 
 
54 Guide to 
 
 increase unchecked until they are so numerous in the 
 floors and walls that it is nearly impossible to kill them 
 off. 
 
 It is useless waste of time to try to exterminate with 
 Persian insect powder, or sulphur candles. These 
 remedies have been recommended by the Interna- 
 tional Encyclopedia, but have not demonstrated their 
 worth when subjected to tests by careful experimental 
 methods, by the author. 
 
 Scientific Way of Extermination. 
 
 The only scientific and practical way to get rid of 
 them is to clean thoroughly, religiously, and scrupu- 
 lously the room and every article in it. Bedbugs are 
 exceedingly difficult to fight, owing both to their ability 
 to withstand the action of many insecticides and owing 
 also to the protection afforded them by the walls and 
 the woodwork of the room. 
 
 If the mattress is old, it should be burned. The bed 
 should be taken apart, the slats and springs taken to the 
 bathroom and scalded, and then treated with a mixture 
 of corrosive sublimate and alcohol, liberally applied, 
 after which a coat of varnish should be given to the en- 
 tire bed — slats, springs and all. The carpet should be 
 taken up and sent to the cleaners. The paper should 
 be scraped from the walls and sent to the furnace and 
 burned, and the walls should be left bare until the bugs 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 55 
 
 are exterminated. The holes in the walls and woodwork 
 and the cracks and crevices in the floor should be filled 
 up with common yellow soap. This is better than to fill 
 them with putty; it is more practical and is easier to 
 handle. Use the thumb or an old knife to put the soap 
 into the holes; the workman should get the stepladder 
 and go over the entire ceiling, getting the soap into 
 every crack and crevice. After this is done, it will be 
 impossible for the eggs to hatch or the bugs to get out. 
 This is the most important part of the extermination of 
 bugs. The floor should then be scrubbed, after which it 
 should be well poisoned with the mixture of corrosive 
 sublimate and alcohol. Every piece of furniture in the 
 room should be washed and poisoned, and given a coat 
 ©f varnish. 
 
 Treating the Mattress. 
 
 If the mattress is too good to be thrown away, the 
 following will be found a good method to destroy the 
 vermin in it: dissolve two pounds of alum in one gal- 
 lon of water; let it remain twenty-four hours until all 
 the alum is dissolved. Then, with a whisk-broom, apply 
 while boiling hot. This is also a good way to rid the 
 walls and ceiling of bugs. Getting on the stepladder, 
 the workman should apply the wash with the whisk- 
 broom, never missing an inch of the entire ceiling and 
 walls, keeping the liquid boilins: hot while using. It 
 
56 Guide to 
 
 should be poured in all the cracks of the floor, in the cor- 
 ners, over the doors and over the windows. The opera- 
 tion should be repeated every day for two weeks, after 
 which the woodwork should be painted and the walls 
 papered. 
 
 A strict watch should be kept on all the help's rooms, 
 and any signs of bugs should be promptly treated with 
 the mixture of corrosive sublimate and alcohol. 
 
 Cleanliness a Necessity. 
 
 Cleanliness is a prime factor in ridding rooms of ver- 
 min. In many of the hotels there is one woman ap- 
 pointed to look after the bugs, and she has no other duty. 
 
 A good night 's sleep is necessary to health and happi- 
 ness. It can not be found in a room with vermin. The 
 housekeeper should keep up the continual warfare 
 against the standing army of bugs, and never allow the 
 enemy to take possession. 
 
 Eoaches, or water-bugs, are easily exterminated. 
 Hellebore sprinkled on the floor will soon kill them off. 
 It is poison. They eat it at night and are killed. Some 
 people object to having poison around. In that case, 
 powdered borax will prove an expedient eradicator. 
 
 A good way to keep rats from a room is to saturate a 
 rag with cayenne pepper and stuff it in the hole; no rat 
 or mouse will touch the rag, not if it would open a com- 
 munication with a depot of eatables. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 57 
 
 A Nauseating Subject. 
 
 Of all the obnoxious being that get into a hotel, the 
 one whose feet smell to the heavens is the worst. Every 
 housekeeper in America — heaven bless them — if she has 
 a normal and simple mind as fits her calling, finds smell- 
 ing feet an intolerable nuisance. 
 
 Health requires at least one bath a day for the feet, 
 and when they perspire freely they should be bathed 
 twice a day. What must be said of the maid who, on 
 entering a room, compels you to leave it on account of 
 the sickening odor from her feet. In a case like this, 
 the housekeeper must "take the bull by the horns," tell 
 the maid that "her feet smell " and that "she must keep 
 herself cleaner. " The maid's feelings are not to be spared 
 in the performance of this important duty. After wash- 
 ing the feet carefully twice a day for a week a cure will 
 be effected. Clean hosiery should be put on every day. 
 A very good remedy for offensive feet is a few drops of 
 muriatic acid in the water when bathing the feet be- 
 fore retiring to bed. 
 
58 Guide to 
 
 The Superiority of Vacuum Cleaning. 
 
 This is an age of surprises and scientific researches. 
 The up-to-date vacuum-cleaning machine is a huge debt 
 to an ancient past. It is a big improvement over the 
 methods employed in days gone by. As a preventive 
 for moths, it has no equal. In hotels where this labor- 
 saving device has not been installed, carpets must be 
 carried to the roof to be cleaned, or sent to the regular 
 carpet-cleaners, and soon converted into ravelings. Car- 
 pets are very expensive, and, if you want your money's 
 worth from them, you must preserve them from moths. 
 In order to do this, they must be either vacuum-cleaned 
 or taken to the roof every six months and given a beat- 
 ing. After the moths get a start in a carpet it is sur- 
 prising to learn what vast inroads toward destruction 
 they can make in a few weeks. Moving the furniture 
 and thoroughly sweeping and brushing the edges with 
 turpentine are good preventives. But nothing will so 
 effectually destroy them as does the vacuum-clening pro- 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 59 
 
 In order to secure detailed information regarding the 
 workings of the vacuum-cleaning system for hotels, I 
 wrote to a gentleman in Milwaukee, who is probably the 
 best informed man on that subject in the country. Be- 
 sides being in the vacuum-cleaning business, he is a hotel 
 man himself and therefore knows how to meet the needs 
 of the hotel housekeeper. I quote a part of his reply: 
 
 System Explained by an Expert. 
 
 ' ' The vacuum-cleaning system in a hotel will pay for 
 itself every year by reducing the cleaning force and by 
 increasing the life of carpets, rugs, hangings, upholstery, 
 and decorations, whether paper, fresco, or paint. 
 
 "In hotels where this system is in use — and their 
 number is increasing every month — carpets and rugs 
 are cleaned on the floor. Right here is a big saving. 
 First, taking up and relaying carpets is expensive. 
 There is nothing that wears them out quicker than this 
 sort of handling and the beating and " tumbling. " Vacu- 
 um-cleaning not only saves this, but saves the daily wear 
 and tear of grinding in the dirt and wearing off the 
 nap with a broom. Third, with the vacuum-sytem, val- 
 uable rooms are never put out of commission while the 
 carpets and rugs are away being cleaned. 
 
 "Not only are the carpets and rugs kept cleaner by 
 the vacuum-system, but everything else is cleaner be- 
 cause dust is kept down. The housekeeper of a certain 
 
60 Guide to 
 
 hotel told the owner that since he put in the vacuum-sys- 
 tem, the transoms had to be washed only one-fourth as 
 often as before. Now, the dust on those transoms came 
 out of the air. It settled everywhere, but it showed 
 plainly only on the transoms. With the vacuum-system, 
 there is only one-fourth as much dust to settle on the 
 walls and decorations, and even that little is quickly re- 
 moved with the vacuum-wall-brush. Dust on the walls 
 is what causes the unpleasant, musty smell of many hotel 
 rooms. Keeping walls clean means less frequent re- 
 decorating. 
 
 Purifies Nearly Everything. 
 
 "Upholstered furniture is quickly and thoroughly 
 cleaned by the vacuum-method. Dust is removed not 
 only from the surface, but also from the folds and creases 
 and even the interior of the cushions. Moths and their 
 eggs are sucked out from their hiding places under the 
 upholstery buttons or in the corners. 
 
 "Mattresses and pillows are kept clean and sweet by 
 vacuum-treatment. Passing the cleaning tool over the 
 surface prevents dust from accumulationg and sifting 
 in. It sucks out the stale dusty air inside and draws in 
 fresh air, thus preventing that unpleasant musty smell 
 which hotel beds sometimes have. 
 
 "By the vacuum-method, tapestries and hangings are 
 kept fresh and bright without the trouble and expense 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 61 
 
 of taking them down. One hotel manager told me his 
 vacuum-system saved him $10 every time he cleaned the 
 hangings in his dining-room, for it used to cost him that 
 sum to have them re-draped. 
 
 "By means of a special brush, wood and tile floors 
 can he cleaned without the dust of dry sweeping, or the 
 muddy aftermarks of sawdust. 
 
 Vacuum Always on Tap. 
 
 "The most and recent important improvement in 
 vacuum-cleaning consists in having the vacuum or 'suc- 
 tion power' always 'on tap' on every floor. At conveni- 
 ent points in the corridors, nickel-plated taps are placed. 
 To these, the housemen or maids can quickly attach the 
 rubber hose connected with the cleaning-tools. Open- 
 ing a valve turns on the suction or vacuum. Then, as 
 fast as the tool is moved over the surface to 
 be cleaned, dust and dirt are sucked through the 
 hose into the pipes and away to an air-tight dust- 
 tank in the basement. The 'on tap' vacuum is always 
 ready for use. No need to telephone or send word to 
 the engineer to start that pump or to stop it when the 
 work is done. 
 
 "Although the vacuum, or suction, is kept on tap all 
 the time, practically no power is consumed except when 
 the cleaning is going on. Even then the amount of 
 power used — whether it be steam or electricity — is auto- 
 
62 Guide to 
 
 matically proportioned to the number and the size of 
 the cleaning tools in use. Whenever you lay down the 
 sweeper to move a chair, just so much less power is con- 
 sumed while the tool is idle. If one sweeper is in use, 
 only one-tenth as much power is needed as when ten 
 sweepers are working. The little upholstery tuft- 
 cleaner consumes only one-ninth as much power as the 
 carpet-sweeper. This means a great saving of power 
 and is a great improvement over the old vacuum-meth- 
 ods, by which it was impossible to keep the vacuum on 
 tap and by which, once the apparatus was started, full 
 power was consumed, no matter how many sweepers were 
 at work." 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 63 
 
 The Linen-Room and the Linen-Woman. 
 
 The liiieywoman has in her care all the beautiful and 
 expensive linen in the hotel; if she is careless in count- 
 ing it when sending it to the different departments,, care- 
 less in counting it after it has been returned, there will 
 be a deficit in the "stock-report" at the end of the 
 month. The linen-room is a position of trust. The lin- 
 en-woman should be as accurate in counting her 
 employer's napkins and table-cloths as the cashier is in 
 counting his employer's dollars. 
 
 The following set of rules and essential requirements 
 are suggested for the management of the linen-woman: 
 
 1. She must be prompt to open the linen-room at 
 6 :30 a. m. 
 
 2. Must not leave the linen-room without notifying 
 the housekeeper. 
 
 3. Must sort the linen. 
 
 4. Must see that no damaged article of linen is sent 
 out to the guest-rooms. 
 
 5. Must mend all the linen. 
 
 6. Must keep track of the linen. 
 
 7. Must keep the linen-room books. 
 
64 Guide to 
 
 8. Must mark the new linen before sending it out. 
 
 The linen-room is the housekeeper's pride. What is 
 more pleasing to a housekeeper than to look into a well- 
 kept linen-room. This room is the housekeeper's "stock- 
 exchange, ' ' the room where all her business transactions 
 take place. It is also her home. She has her geraniums 
 in the window and her desk in one corner. She has her 
 sewing-machine, and telephone, and a bright rug or two 
 on the spotless floor. The linen-room is the place where 
 the housekeeper is found or her whereabouts made 
 known. 
 
 The room should be thoroughly cleaned every Satur- 
 day, and swept and dusted every day. It requires skill 
 and labor to keep a well regulated linen-room looking 
 neat and pretty. Linen-shelves are scrubbed, not pa- 
 pered. All heavy articles, such as spreads, blankets, pil- 
 lows, and table-felts should be kept on the top shelf. 
 The water-glasses, ice-water pitchers, extra slop jars, 
 washbowls and pitchers, should also be kept on the top 
 shelves, and covered with a dust-cover. The other 
 shelves should be scrubbed, and the sheets, slips, face- 
 towels, and bath-towels used for the guest-rooms, put 
 on a shelf by themselves. The helps' linen should be 
 put on another shelf. The table-linen should be placed 
 by itself, and so on — a place for everything and every- 
 thing in its place. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 65 
 
 ow Linen is Mended. 
 
 The table-cloths should be mended first before they 
 are sent to the laundry. The best way to mend table- 
 linen is first to fill the holes with darning-cotton, just as 
 you would if you were darning a stocking; then loosen 
 the presser-foot of your sewing-machine and darn it 
 down neatly with the machine. If the hole is very large 
 — say as large as your hand — the better way is to cover 
 the hole with darning-net before filling it in with the 
 darning-cotton ; then it may be finished on the machine. 
 
 "When the table-cloths are too bad to mend, the large 
 ones can be cut down into small ones and the small ones 
 into tray-covers. Old napkins can be sewed together 
 and used for cleaning-cloths. Table-linen is very ex- 
 pensive and the careful housekeeper will easily save her 
 salary above that of a careless one by properly taking 
 care of the linen. 
 
 How Coffee Bags Are Made. 
 
 The coffee-bags should be made from the stewards ' 
 dictation. No two stewards will have them made the 
 same. Bath-towels, when damaged, may be made into 
 wash-cloths, and used in the public baths. The cases for 
 hot-water bags are made of white flannel. 
 
 A supply of soap, matches, toilet-paper, and sanitary 
 powder, should be kept in the linen-room, where it is con- 
 venient for the maids. 
 
 The progressive housekeeper will not allow the stock 
 
66 Guide to 
 
 of linen to grow too small. She will see that it is re- 
 plenished each month. 
 
 The linen-room should be opened at 6:30 a. m. and 
 closed at 10:00 p. m. If it is a commercial hotel, the 
 linen should be portioned among the maids, in the morn- 
 ing. The linen issued in the morning should be charged 
 to each girl on the slate. The maids should count the 
 soiled linen on their floor, pin the count to the bundle, 
 and bring it to the linen-room, where the linen-woman 
 again should count it and give each maid credit on the 
 slate. The linen-woman should deduct the clean linen 
 issued in the morning from the soiled linen returned, 
 and, if the linen-room owes the maid, she should be given 
 her linen at once. After that, the maid should get only 
 one piece of clean linen for one of soiled. If the maid 
 brings in no soiled linen, she should not get any 
 clean. In this way, the linen-woman will be able to 
 keep track of the linen. She will be able to tell the man- 
 ager where every piece of linen is at any time of the day. 
 
 The dining-room linen should be issued in the same 
 way. The linen-woman should be able to tell by her 
 books how many napkins are in the dining-room, how 
 many are in the laundry, and the number that are on the 
 shelf in the linen-room. 
 
 It may not be an innovation, but a blackboard in the 
 linen-room will be of great assistance to the housekeeper 
 in copying the changes that are sent up from time to 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 67 
 
 time during the day. The board may be freshly ruled 
 every day, with as many columns as there are maids, 
 and the maid's name, or number, should be written 
 above her column. 
 
 As the changes are sent up on a pad by the clerks, 
 the linen- woman should copy them on the board, put- 
 ting each maid's changes under her name. The maids 
 should take the chalk and draw a straight line through 
 their changes, indicating that the rooms have received 
 proper attention. As there are few hotels that have not 
 had some trouble about reporting changes, it would be a 
 splendid idea for the clerk to insist on the housekeeper 
 or the linen-woman signing for the changes. The fact 
 that the clerk can produce his duplicate, showing the 
 time to the very minute he sent the change, is not proof 
 that the change was received in the linen-room. The 
 bell-boy may be a new boy, and may have taken the 
 change-slip to some other part of the house. But if the 
 housekeeper, or the line-woman, signs the pad on which 
 the changes have been sent up, and the pad is returned 
 to the office, the housekeeper or the linen-woman will 
 have to furnish some other excuse for the room being out 
 of order, than that she did not get the change. 
 
 The housekeeper should see that an accurate account 
 is taken every month of all the linen, and correctly en- 
 tered on the linen-room stock-book. This account 
 should show the new linen purchased during the month. 
 
68 
 
 Guide to 
 
 The following form is suggested for the stock-book for 
 the linen-room : 
 
 Inventory of Linen-Room for month ending January 1 
 
 1908. 
 
 Jan. 1, 1908. 
 
 Total No. 
 last count 
 Dec. 1,1907 
 
 Plus 
 new 
 stock 
 
 Grand 
 Total 
 
 Worn 
 out 
 
 Stolen 
 
 
 Net Total 
 
 
 800 
 
 50 
 
 850 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 825 
 
 Slips 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bath-Towels. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Table-Oloths 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Side-Towels 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tops 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kitchen-Towels . ■ ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Glass-Towels 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Boiler-Towels 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Paradise, indeed, to the housekeeper, is the hotel that 
 has its reserve-linen closet, where, in case of accident in 
 the laundry, she may find linen to put the rooms in 
 order. On the other hand, how very discouraging it is 
 where there is only one set of linen for the beds and the 
 maids must wait until the linen is back from the laun- 
 dry before they can put the rooms in order. In such 
 hotels, the housekeeper spends much of her time running 
 to and from the laundry. 
 
 When a new linen-woman is installed in the linen- 
 room, the housekeeper should write out all the details of 
 the duties required of her, regardless of any previous 
 experience she may claim to have had. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 69 
 
 Care op Table-Linen. 
 
 A table-cloth should be long enough to hang over the 
 table, at least eighteen inches on all sides. Pattern 
 cloths are prettier than the piece-linen. They are more 
 expensive, but it pays to buy the best for hotel use. 
 Linen, to have sufficient body to wear well, should have 
 a certain weight to the square inch. Table-linen should 
 weigh at least four and one-half ounces to the square 
 yard. All pattern-cloths have the napkins to match. 
 The napkins and table-cloths should have a tiny, narrow 
 hem. They are best hemmed by hand, but this can not 
 be thought of for hotels. 
 
 It takes the same amount of money to purchase the 
 unbleached linen as it does to buy the bleached. The 
 Irish bleached linen is of a more snowy whiteness than 
 that of Germany. This is owing to the climate of Ire- 
 land, which is particularly adapted by sunshine and rain 
 for natural bleaching. 
 
 Table-Linen Most Important. 
 The table-linen is more important than the bed-linen, 
 and should receive the first consideration in the laundry. 
 
70 Guide to 
 
 It should be carefully counted and sorted by the linen- 
 woman at night, after dinner, and should be ready for the 
 laundry-man who must rise very early in the morning 
 in order to have the table-linen ready for the laundry- 
 maids that come on duty at seven o'clock. 
 
 A table-cloth should be folded lengthwise twice, then 
 doubled, putting both ends together, then folded, and it 
 will be ready for the shelf. Napkins should be put 
 through the mangle three times and left without fold- 
 ing, so the linen-woman can easily sort them. 
 
 Removing Stains. 
 
 Fruit-stains in linen may be removed by pouring boil- 
 ing water through the stained spot. Lemon juice and 
 salt will remove iron-rust. 
 
 Tea, coffee, chocolate, and fruit-stains should be re- 
 moved as soon as possible by pouring boiling water over 
 them. After fruit-stains have been washed a few times 
 in soapsuds, they become as firmly fixed in the linen as 
 though they were dyed there, and can only be removed 
 by a bleaching procees. A good bleach can be made 
 by taking one pint of boiling water to one teaspoonful 
 of oxalic acid and one teaspoonful of ammonia. One 
 teacupful of ammonia to a wash will keep the table-linen 
 white. 
 
 The care of the table-linen is a very important feature 
 of the housekeeper's work. In many hotels, the house- 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 71 
 
 keeper is required to purchase the lineu. Fashion 
 changes in table-linen as in other things. A careful 
 study of facts and figures has proved that, in proportion 
 to the population, the United States of America con- 
 sumes more linen than any other country in the world. 
 It is not, however, a leader in the production of flax. 
 Russia takes the lead in this industry. The United 
 States grows flax for the seed and not for the fibre ; hence 
 very little weaving is done in this country. 
 
 Kinds of Linen. 
 
 Linen has a variety of names, as Holland, damask, et 
 cetera. Damask linen was first made in Damascus — the 
 oldest city in the world — and was figured in fruit and 
 flowers. A long time ago linen made in Scotland was 
 sent to Germany to be bleached ; hence the name Holland. 
 
 The old-time way of bleaching was long and ex- 
 pensive, sometimes taking an entire summer. After it 
 was bleached by a natural process of open air, dew, and 
 sunshine,, it was then treated with an alkaline, and then 
 buttermilk. It was left lying on the grass for a month, 
 and sprinkled frequently with water and sometimes sour 
 milk. 
 
 At the presen time, linen can be bleached in two 
 weeks. The cost of bleaching is much less and linen 
 fabric is one-half cheaper than formerly. The chem- 
 icals used in the modern process of bleaching greatly 
 
72 Guide to 
 
 injures the fibre, and linen is not so durable as it was 
 under the old-fashioned way of bleaching. 
 
 How to Test Linen. 
 The housekeeper in selecting linen at the counter may 
 test the linen by ravelling out some of the threads. The 
 threads that form the woof as well as the warp should 
 be strong, and long thread linen. Never buy linen that 
 is stiff and glossy, as it will be thin after it is laundered. 
 Linen should be substantial, but pliant when crushed in 
 the hand. Never buy a table-cloth that is part linen and 
 part cotton, as the shrinkage of linen and cotton fibre 
 varies greatly, which causes the threads to break, and 
 the table-cloth will soon be full of holes. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 73 
 
 Laundry Work. 
 
 "Order is Heaven's first law," sang the poet, and to 
 keep order in a hotel seems not such an Herculean task. 
 System makes work easy, and the superintendent of the 
 laundry must insist on the work being systematically 
 performed. 
 
 Soap and water are the most important materials used 
 in the laundry work. To do good work with little or no 
 damage to the linen, soft water and good soap are abso- 
 lutely necessary. In many parts of the United States, 
 the water is permanently hard, and is a perplexing ques- 
 tion to laundry workers. The first thing to do is to 
 soften the water. It can not be made soft by boiling, 
 and must be treated with chemicals which must be used 
 before the soap is added. When soap is used in hard 
 water before it has been softened, the soap unites with 
 the minerals in the water, and clings to the linen like a 
 greasy scum. Borax is the best softening agent for 
 hard water. 
 
 To soften water with borax, use one tablespoonful to 
 each gallon of water. A tablespoonful of ammonia and 
 
74 Guide to 
 
 one tablespoonful of turpentine to each washing will 
 keep clothes white. Hard water may be softened with 
 potash or sal soda, which is much cheaper than borax 
 and ammonia, but potash and sal soda are both corrosive 
 and very injurious to the linen. Great care must be used 
 in softening water with these alkalines. If they are not 
 thoroughly dissolved before using in the washer, little 
 particles are apt to escape the solvent action of the water 
 and stick to the linen and form brown spots which soon 
 become holes. 
 
 Good Sowp a Necessity. 
 
 Soap is the next cleaning agent to be considered. You 
 can not have pretty, white linen without good soap. A 
 good soft soap for use in hotel laundries can be made 
 from the refuse fat from the kitchen. This soap will 
 effect the cleaning of the hotel bed and table-linen, but 
 for bundle-washing, flannels, and prints, a milder soap 
 is generally used. A very good soap for washing flan- 
 nels and prints may be made from the pieces of soap 
 that are collected from the rooms. 
 
 How linen is laundered and to be able to give a scien- 
 tific reason for each step are the very first things a 
 housekeeper should learn. No housekeeper is worthy 
 of the title if she is unskilled in laundry tactics. Yet 
 how few housekeepers there are that could give even a 
 recipe for making bleach, to say nothing of the most 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 75 
 
 effective way to use it so as to cause the least injury to 
 the fabric? Few housekeepers know little or anything 
 of the benefits of the scientific researches that have been 
 made to render laundering easy. 
 
 The linen must be carefully sorted and counted in 
 the line-room by the linen-woman. In hotels where the 
 houseman gathers the linen from the different floors and 
 carries it direct to the laundry, the laundryman has been 
 known to dump it in the washer without sorting it. This 
 is the source of many a lost pillow, blanket, nightshirt, 
 and even pocketbooks and jewelry. Guests often put their 
 valuables under the pilow or in the pillowslip and for- 
 get them. These valuables sometimes escape the cham- 
 bermaid's eyes in her haste to strip the beds. Some- 
 times a new waiter in the dining-room will use a nap- 
 kin to wipe his tray; these greatly soiled napkins 
 should be rinsed out before they are put in the washer. 
 
 Why the Hotel Laundry Work is Discolored. 
 
 Is it any wonder that the sheets and table-linen soon 
 get that brown color? All the soft water in the king- 
 dom will not bring about the desired results if the linen 
 is not carefully sorted. The napkins should be put in 
 one pile, those that are badly soiled with mustard or 
 gravy in another pile, and the table-cloths in another. 
 Napkins and table-cloths that are stained with tea, cof- 
 fee, chocolate, or fruit, should be laid aside and boiling 
 
76 Guide to 
 
 water should be poured through the stains before they 
 come in contact with soap, as the soap will help to set the 
 stains permanently. 
 
 The laundryman should rise early and have the first 
 washing from the extractor before the laundrygirls make 
 their appearance, which is usually at seven o 'clock. 
 
 The table-linen should receive the first attention. It 
 is the least soiled, the most expensive, and it may be 
 needed before the bed-linen. The napkins and table- 
 cloths should not remain long after they are shaken out. 
 They will have a finer gloss if they are mangled immedi- 
 ately after being taken from the extractor. 
 
 One reason that linen gets that dirty brown color is be- 
 cause it has not been properly rinsed before adding the 
 blueing. The soap should be thoroughly rinsed from the 
 linen before the blueing is put in the washer. How many 
 hotel laundries send the linen to the linen-room damp 
 and steaming and smelling of soap? Is it any wonder 
 that the linen is soon full of holes and worn out? 
 
 Two tablespoonfuls of kerosene in a washing will 
 greatly aid in cleansing, though more soap must be used 
 in this case. 
 
 In many laundries, there is not sufficient help. There 
 should be at least two girls employed to shake out and 
 two at the mangles, in a 200-room house. Where there 
 is bundle-washing it will require even more help than 
 this. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 77 
 
 The kitchen-linen should be washed by hand on the 
 board and not put in the washer. 
 
 The housekeeper should be allowed plenty of help to 
 properly do the work. 
 
 Bleaching Linens, 
 
 When clothes have become yellow by the use of im- 
 pure water or any other cause, the snowy whiteness must 
 be restored by a bleaching process. Chloride of lime 
 and oxalic acid are powerful agents, and, if not quickly 
 removed from the fabric, they will corrode and do much 
 injury to the linen. Turpentine has some power a's a 
 bleacher as also has borax. Blueing will aid in keeping 
 the clothes white, but do not use too much. There are 
 a variety of blueings to be had. The indigo blue is 
 the best. 
 
 Starch will greatly aid in keeping clothes clean. It 
 is made mostly from rice, wheat, corn, or potatoes. Only 
 a little starch should be used with delicate fabrics. They 
 should be no stiffer than when they are new. The starch 
 should be completely dissolved in cold water before ad- 
 ding the boiling water. Stir the starch constantly while 
 the boiling water is being poured in. A few things 
 may be put in to give a gloss, and to make the iron 
 run smooth; among them are paraffine, lard, kerosene, 
 and gum arabic. 
 
 How to Iron. 
 Before commencing to iron, have ready a bowl of water 
 
78 Guide to 
 
 and a cloth for smoothing wrinkles and rubbing away 
 any soot or spots that may get on the garment. Have 
 a piece of paraffine tied in a cloth to rub over the iron, 
 and a knife for scraping any starch from the iron that 
 may stick to it in the process of ironing. 
 
 Put much weight on the iron and do not raise it from 
 the garment but move it quickly over the surface. When 
 a wrinkle is made, dampen it again with a wet cloth and 
 smooth again with the iron. Always iron in a good 
 light so that scorching may be avoided. A garment 
 should be ironed quickly; otherwise it will dry out and 
 much time will be wasted in going over it with the damp 
 cloth and changing the irons. 
 
 In ironing a white duck skirt, stretch it in shape 
 quickly while it is damp and iron it into shape, else it 
 will be long here and short there. When ironing a ruf- 
 fled skirt, always iron the bottom ruffle first and turn it 
 back while ironing the others. Iron around hooks and 
 eyes and not over them. Never iron a crease in a gar- 
 ment unless it is necessary. A crease will mar the ef- 
 fect of the garment and also cause the threads to break 
 sooner, thereby making holes. 
 
 Recipe for Making Bleach. 
 
 An inexpensive recipe for making a good bleach to be 
 used every day will be found in the following: 
 
 Fill a clean barrel half full of boiling water and put 
 into it ten pounds of chloride of lime and stir until well 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 79 
 
 dissolved. Dissolve ten pounds of caustic soda in boil- 
 ing water and stir in the barrel. Fill the barrel with 
 boiling water and stir. Let it settle and skim the lit- 
 tle white particles from the surface, as these are what 
 rot the clothes. Use one gallon of the bleach in a wash- 
 ing. 
 
 Although laundering is one of the last kinds of work 
 to receive the benefits of scientific research, much effort 
 has recently been made to present easy and effective 
 ways of laundering. The "how" and "why" has been 
 learned. It is no difficulty for the housekeeper to hire 
 a laundryman and to install him in his work with the 
 words : ' ' This is the laundry ; you will meet with many 
 difficulties in your line, but you must work out your own 
 salvation." 
 
 How Curtains are Washed and Mended. 
 
 Take down the lace curtains that you are going to 
 wash and shake them well so as to get all of the dust 
 from them. Put them in cold water to soak. Then 
 wash by hand in warm suds, to which has been added 
 one teaspoonful of ammonia. Do not rub them, 
 squeeze dry and rinse through two waters. Do not 
 blue them. If they are of an ecru shade, put a little 
 coffee in the water and they will look like new. Starch 
 and stretch loosely on the curtain frames while they are 
 wet. The holes can be drawn together while on the bars 
 
80 Guide to 
 
 so they will never be noticed after they are dry, and it is 
 a far better way to mend curtains than darning them on 
 the machine after they have dried. Cream-colored cur- 
 tains may be washed in the same way. Colored 
 madras and silk curtains can be cleansed in gasoline. 
 Great care must be taken, as gasoline is explosive. The 
 curtains should be taken to the bathroom, and the door 
 should be bolted and kept bolted until the curtains are 
 cleaned and the gasoline is washed down the sewer. 
 The curtains are then taken to the roof and aired for 
 half a day. 
 
 Embroidered and lace-trimmed pieces should be taken 
 from the line while only half dry and immediately 
 ironed, to secure the best result. To raise the embroid- 
 ery, iron on the wrong side over several layers of flan- 
 nel covered with a sheet of old linen. 
 
 Never iron lace with the point of the iron, if you 
 would have it look like new. Pull and pat it into place, 
 picking out the loops with a hairpin, or with a pointless 
 darning-needle or bodkin. Dampen it with a wet cloth 
 and press with the reverse iron, using its "heel" only. 
 
 When ironing circular centerpieces and table-cloths, 
 see that the iron moves with the straight grain of the 
 cloth. If this method is followed, the circular edge will 
 take its true line. Guard against ironing on the bias or 
 on a curve, lest the linen stretch hopelessly out of shape. 
 Never fold a piece of this character after ironing it. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 81 
 
 The Housekeeper's Rules. 
 
 If the management does not provide the housekeeper 
 with rules, she is safe in formulating the following: 
 
 1. Maids must report for duty at 7 :00 a. m. 
 
 2. Maids must lock all doors when leaving rooms. 
 
 3. No maid is allowed to transfer chairs or furniture 
 from one room to another by order of the guests, unless 
 they have an order from the office. 
 
 4. Maids must report at once any articles which are 
 misplaced or taken from the rooms. 
 
 5. Keep all soiled linen in closets. 
 
 6. Maids must not leave any article of soiled linen 
 lying in the halls. 
 
 7. Maids must not leave their brooms, feather 
 dusters, dust-cloths, or sweepers, in the halls at any 
 time during the day. 
 
 8. Any article found in the rooms must be brought 
 to the linen-room, with the number of the room and date 
 when found. 
 
 9. All keys found left in rooms and doors must be 
 sent to the office. 
 
82 Guide to 
 
 10. When a tray of dishes is left in a room, the maid 
 must ring for a bell-boy and have him notify the he&'d- 
 waiter or report it to the housekeeper who will tele- 
 phone the headwaiter. 
 
 11. All ink, paper, and pens left in the rooms must 
 be put in the wire ink and stationery-receiver. 
 
 12. The watch-girls must report at 6 p. m. and re- 
 main until 1.0 p. m. or later, if required. 
 
 13. All torn blankets and spreads must be brought 
 to the linen-room for repairs. 
 
 14. Maids must not receive men friends in their 
 rooms. 
 
 15. The housekeeper will relieve the linen-woman 
 while she goes to her meals. 
 
 Sunday. 
 
 1. Maids must report at 8 a. m. and remain until I p. 
 m. 
 
 2. Watch-girls must report for duty at 1 p. m. and 
 remain until 9 p. m. 
 
 All of these rules can not be, at all times, strictly en- 
 forced by the housekeeper. She will make such modifi- 
 cations as are made necessary by circumstances. But 
 rules she must have, and she must insist on their being 
 observed. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 83 
 
 The Parlor Maid. 
 
 Excepting the linen-room position, that of parlor maid 
 is the most desirable situation that the hotel housekeeper 
 can offer a girl. The wages are usually better than those 
 of a chambermaid, and her work is not near so laborious. 
 At all times, the parlor-maid is neatly dressed, suave, 
 serene, and courteous. A quiet and unobtrusive man- 
 ner is absolutely essential. She needs to take many steps 
 during the day, and thus youth and a slender figure are 
 the first qualities in one who wishes to make a success of 
 the position. She meets people of wealth and refinement 
 and the ultra fastidious, hence her position is a re- 
 sponsible one and requires a dignified appearance and 
 demeanor. She must have self-respect and must claim 
 the respect of others. None of the moralities must be 
 omitted nor must she forget the daily bath, clean un- 
 derwear, and clean hosiery every day. The morning is 
 the time for the parlor-maid to do the cleaning, and she 
 should wear about her work a washable dress of percale 
 or dimity, with a white apron. In the afternoon and 
 
84 Guide to 
 
 evening, this should be exchanged for a black skirt, white 
 waist, and white apron. 
 
 Where Work Is Diversified. 
 
 she is expected to render quite diversified services. Pier 
 duties vary with the mode of life of those by whom she 
 is employed. She will scarcely be called on to do all 
 the work that is herein enumerated; but the success of 
 any hotel employe is largely due to the number of things 
 he or she is able to do well. A parlor-maid may raise 
 her occupation to a level with that of millinery or dress- 
 making. There is room at the top of the ladder for the 
 expert parlor-maid just the same as there is for any 
 other person in any other calling. 
 
 In the small hotels, the parlor-maid usually cares for 
 the proprietor's private apartments. In addition to 
 these, a suite next to the parlor may be given her to 
 keep in order. She can easily look after these rooms 
 where she has only one parlor. The cleaning of the 
 ladies' toilet-room and reception-hall and the ladies' en- 
 trance-stairs usually falls to the parlor-maid. She must 
 look after the writing-rooms, do the high dusting, clean 
 the tiles, clean the mirrors, polish the brass trays, clean 
 the cuspidors, wash the lace curtains, and sweep and 
 dust. In washing windows and mirrors, she should use 
 warm water to which a little ammonia has been added. 
 She should not use soap, as the grease in the soap makes 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 85 
 
 the polishing difficult. Wipe with a dry cotton cloth 
 and polish with a chamois skin. 
 
 Keeping Parlor in Order. 
 As the parlor must always be in readiness for the re- 
 ception of guests, it is thoroughly cleaned early in the 
 morning. Once a week is often enough for a thorough 
 cleaning. Monday is the best day for it. The furni- 
 ture is moved into the hallway or into one corner of the 
 parlor, the parlor is swept and dusted and every article 
 replaced before breakfast. On week days, the corners 
 are dug out with a whisk-broom and the dirt taken up 
 with the sweeper. The parlor is dusted frequently and 
 the cuspidors washed at least four times a day. She 
 should wash the cuspidors inside and out, using soap 
 and water; then wipe with a dry cloth. Leave a little 
 clean water in the cupidors, as this will make the ves- 
 sels easier to clean next time. 
 
 Cleaning Brass Trays. 
 
 If the brass trays under the cuspidors are very badly 
 stained, the stains may be easily removed with a solution 
 of vinegar and salt, to which has been added a little flour. 
 Have the mixture boiling hot ; rub the tray with the mix- 
 ture with a flannel cloth, then wash the tray with hot wa- 
 ter and wipe dry with a cloth. After this, it may be 
 polished wit ha good mineral paste or some of the special 
 
86 Guide to 
 
 preparations made for the purpose, using a flannel cloth 
 for polishing. 
 
 The high dusting is done with a long handled broom. 
 Tie a bag made of cotton flannel over the broom and 
 brush the walls downward. Brush the dust off the cor- 
 nice and over the doors and windows. Then, using a 
 clean cheesecloth duster, go over the doors, window sills, 
 mantles, and furniture, changing the soiled dust-cloth 
 frequently for a clean one. The housekeeper must see 
 that the parlor-maid is supplied with plenty of clean 
 dust-cloths. 
 
 The Maid's Many Duties. 
 
 If the fireplace is finished with tile, the parlor-maid 
 should wash these with soap and water. She should 
 polish the brass and replace it. The curtains and silk 
 draperies should be taken down and hung in the open 
 air and brushed with a whisk-broom. The rugs should 
 be rolled up and the houseman should take them to a flat 
 roof where they should be laid flat and swept. They 
 should not be whipped or beaten, as "whipping" will 
 ruin an expensive rug. When sweeping the stairs of 
 the ladies' entrance, the parlor-maid should use the 
 whisk-broom and dust-pan. The ladies' toilet-room re- 
 quires some care to keep it always neat and clean. After 
 sweeping the floor and dusting the doors, the bowls 
 should be washed inside and out with the toilet-brush 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 87 
 
 and a disinfectant put in. The stationary wash-basins 
 should be scrubbed with sapolio and the faucets pol- 
 ished. There should be kept always on hand clean tow- 
 els and soap, a comb and brush, a box of face-powder — 
 the English prepared chalk is the best for toilet-rooms. 
 The public baths on the parlor floor come under the par- 
 lor-maid's charge. She should keep the tubs and the 
 floor clean, and see that soap and towels are supplied. 
 
 The writing rooms should be cleaned before break- 
 fast. The sweeping should be done the first thing in the 
 morning. The desks should be supplied with fresh pen 
 points, paper and ink once a day. The waste paper 
 baskets should be emptied as often as is necessary, and 
 the cuspidors should be cleaned at least four times a 
 day. 
 
 Keeps Assembly -Room in Order. 
 It is usually the parlor maid's duty to take care of 
 the casino, more familiarly called the assembly-hall. The 
 cosino floor requires very careful cleaning. No scrub- 
 bing or sweeping with ordinary brooms is permissible 
 on a polished hardwood floor. It should be carefully 
 swept with a bristle broom and the dust taken up on the 
 dust-pan. The floor should then be dusted with a 
 broom, over which has been tied the cotton-flannel bag 
 made for the purpose. If there are any spots on the 
 floor, they will have to be washed up, but this will take 
 
88 Guide to 
 
 off the polish; therefore, it must be restored by the 
 weighted brush or weighted box with brussels carpet 
 tacked on the bottom of it. The original polish is re- 
 stored by pulling the box back and forth over the floor. 
 A housekeeper will make a sad mistake if she attempts 
 to scrub the ballroom floor. 
 
 Waxing the Balroom Floor. 
 
 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 th© 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 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 89 
 
 dining-room tables, she should put clean table-cloths on 
 them twice a day. The wine-rooms are usually named for 
 the cities: Chic&'go, New York, Binghampton, Cincin- 
 nati, 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 assisted by 
 the houseman. 
 
90 Guide to 
 
 About Chambermaids. 
 
 Some person that does not know anything about the 
 life of a chambermaid will tell you that the "chamber- 
 maid 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 col- 
 lege 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 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 91 
 
 incivility with a cold disdain that puts to rout a second 
 attempt. Men that wreck women's lives &a*e found out- 
 side of hotels. 
 
 Religion a Factor. 
 
 It is am undisputed fact that the Irish- American Cath- 
 olic 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 class 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 ma'kes a few mistakes, but during 
 her stay in Yankeeland she has learned President Roose- 
 velt 's maxim: "The man who never makes any mis- 
 takes is the man who never does anything. " She is con- 
 soled by it, and from her pitfalls learns a lesson that en- 
 ables her to avoid making the same mistakes in the fu- 
 ture. 
 
 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 
 
92 Guide to 
 
 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 min- 
 utes 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 cul- 
 tivate 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 anticipation. Mysteri- 
 ous-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 butter, and "fondant" is made that would 
 
 melt in your mouth. Then there is the "taffy-pull," the 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 93 
 
 cups of tea, and the "fortunes told," over the cups. The 
 jokes go round, the merry laughter resounds and gets 
 so loud that the house-keeper, 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 said into bed again. The airs of 
 "Killamey" and "The Wearing of the Green " die 
 away, and the house is quiet. 
 
94 Guide to 
 
 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 keep- 
 ing gutters clean fall to his share also. Fortunate in- 
 deed is the housekeeper that can have a houseman for 
 each floor. A skull cap and an over-all suit would be ap- 
 propriate 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 bath- 
 tub 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 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 95 
 
 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 God, it is surprising that 
 more plants are not seen in hotels, and that more pro- 
 prietors do not adopt this ingenious plan of beautifying 
 their dining-rooms and corridors, using palms instead 
 of those cheap artificial roses which are so conspicu- 
 ous in third-rate hotels. 
 
 The stately palm lends an air of refinement that noth- 
 ing else can give. The greatest obstacle to the growth 
 
96 Guide to 
 
 of house-plants is dust. The palms, azaleas, and rub- 
 ber plants may be sponged occasionaly to keep them 
 clean and healthy. Other plants may be taken to the 
 bath-room and given a shower-bath. In the summer 
 time, two or three times a week is often enough for wa- 
 tering the house-plants. In winter, once a week is suffi- 
 cient. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 97 
 
 Why Hotel Employees Fail to Rise. 
 
 The reasons why some people never rise above com- 
 monplace 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 
 assigned them, for which they might not be paid, for- 
 getting 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. Eest assured 
 your employer knows the difference between "bluff " and 
 the real thing. " Nerve' ' will not win in the long run. 
 
98 Guide to 
 
 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 ex- 
 ample. Anger is an unbecoming mood. In serenity, 
 lies power. 
 
 Keep busy. Improve each moment. Do not be afraid 
 of too much work. The office-boy that sits around 
 watching the clock, as if he might be waiting for his 
 automobile to take him home, will never own the hotel. 
 
 The superintendent that has not enough patience to 
 instruct properly a beginner may lose valuable assistants 
 and can not hope to achieve a great enterprise. 
 
 Do not become discouraged and resign your position 
 because it is not up to your ideal. It may be better to 
 bear with the ills you have than fly to others you know 
 not of. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 99 
 
 Suggestions in Case op Fire. 
 
 It is hard to tell a housekeeper what to do or what not 
 to do in case of fire. No two hotels are alike, and no 
 two fires occnr in the same way. Circumstances are to 
 be considered first. Much depends on the location and 
 the progress of the fire, and whether it is night or day. 
 It is an old maxim "that fire is a good servant but a 
 hard master." Shakespeare wrote: "A little fire is 
 quickly trodden out, which, being suffered, rivers can- 
 not quench." It is bad policy to delay sending in the 
 alarm to the fire department. Many persons put off 
 this important duty until it is too late. They reason 
 that it might alarm the guests and cause a panic and 
 that they will be drowned out. Thus they battle with 
 the flames with the incomplete fire apparatus belong ing 
 to the hotel, refusing the petition to turn in an alarm to 
 the fire department until the fire has gained such head- 
 was that it is impossible for even the skilled firemen to 
 put it out. Thereby jeopardizing the lives of the hotel 
 guests and also the lives of the firemen. No gen- 
 
 uorc 
 
100 Guide to 
 
 eral in command of an army, no hero in battle deserves 
 more praise than do these courageous men who hourly 
 risk their lives to save lives and the property of others. 
 Minutes count for something in a fire. The fire depart- 
 ment can quickly and quietly put out a small fire, and 
 the guests of the hotel may never know that a fire has 
 occurred until it is all over. Panics usually follow 
 when the people are face to face with the flames, and 
 not at the sight of the fire department in front 
 of the hotel. To a sensible mind, the fire engine and 
 firemen should bring a feeling of safety. A feeling that 
 if the hotel is on fire, the fire will soon be extinguished. 
 Keep cool; don't run, and don't talk or give orders in 
 an excited tone. Should a fire occur in a single room, 
 close the door of that room to prevtn the flames from 
 spreading, and go to the nearest fire hose rack, and at- 
 tach the hose to the plug and take the nozzle end to the 
 door of the room in which the fire is started, then go 
 back and turn on the water. If the water is turned on 
 before the hose has been carried it will make the hose 
 too heavy for one person to carry, especially if you have 
 to climb a stairway or go any great distance ; a fire hose 
 when full of water is very heavy. The housekeeper 
 should never desert the hotel in case of fire. She has in 
 her possession keys to all doors. She is familiar with 
 the location of windows and fire escapes, and the loca- 
 tion of the fire extinguishers and axes. She knows the 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 101 
 
 position of all stairways, particularly the top landing 
 and scuttle to the roof. She knows where all fire proof 
 doors are located, where the water pails are kept and 
 she can render the firemen great service in directing 
 them to a more advantageous position. All doors should 
 be unlocked so that the firemen can have free access 
 without breaking them in and causing delay. The 
 doors, however, should be kept closed to prevent 
 the fire spreading. The rapidity with which a 
 building is consumed by flames is due to the wind and 
 the draughts from stairways, open doors and windows 
 and elevator shafts. The walls of elevator shafts and 
 all vertical openings should be built of non-combustible 
 material, such as brick and mortar and all elevators 
 should be equipped with automatic traps. In case of 
 a fire on the first floor, the automatic trap would fall 
 when a certain degree of heat was reached and thus pre- 
 vent the fire from reaching the second floor, and the 
 progress of the fire would be delayed. 
 
 All fire hose should be tested every six months. A 
 leak may have caused the hose to become worthless. All 
 hose should be attached to the fire plug at all times and 
 the little wrench for turning on the water should be tied 
 to the rack where the hose is kept. All these essentials 
 should be examined and carefully scrutinized by every 
 housekeeper and chambermaid. A fire can make great 
 progress while some inexperienced person is fumbling 
 
102 Guide to 
 
 with and trying to attach the hose and turn on the wa- 
 ter. There should be a red light in the hall in front of 
 the fire escape window; a red light can be seen better 
 than a white one. The view of the fire escape window 
 should never be obstructed by any kind of a curtain. 
 
 All hotels should have a stand pipe, it will reduce the 
 rate of insurance one-third. 
 
 Although few people know how to escape down a rope 
 fire-escape, every room in the hotel should be equipped 
 with one. All fire departments should have a life net; 
 dropping into a life-net is not so hazardous as sliding 
 down a rope when one is ignorant of the proper way to 
 do it. The life nets are made of woven rope with 
 springs, and are 10 feet in diameter. The firemen hold 
 this net and persons dropping into it can be saved. 
 
 The Kirker Bender spiral tube fire-escape is the best 
 and safest. In one minute 200 persons can slide 
 through the Kirker Bender, to absolute safety. It is a 
 very expensive fire escape, but expense should not be 
 considered when building fire-escapes. There should 
 be a fire-alarm box in every hall. Should a fire occur, 
 an a floor where there is no fire-alarm box, a messenger 
 would have to be dispatched to the office before the fire 
 company could be notified. Some hotels have no fire- 
 box at all. The fire-box being located a block away 
 from the hotel. Fire-boxes can be put in hotels with 
 very little expense. It is an old saying — ''An ounce of 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 103 
 
 prevention is worth a pound of cure." This is espe- 
 cially true in the case of fire prevention. If the fol- 
 lowing precautions are taken, fires from accident or 
 spontaneous combustion seldom occur. 
 
 Fire Prevention. 
 
 Keep your hotel clean and never allow rubbish, such 
 as paper, rags, cobwebs, old clothing and boxes to ac- 
 cumulate in closets and unused rooms. Don't allow 
 coal oil lamps to be used by women patrons for the pur- 
 pose of heating curling irons. Never put up gas brack- 
 ets so they can be swung against door casings or im- 
 mediately under curtains. Never keep matches in any 
 but metal or earthen safes. Never keep old woolen rags 
 that have been used in oiling and cleaning furniture, 
 or waxing floors, unless in a tin can with a tin lid. 
 
 Origin of Fires. 
 
 Fires are the results of accidents, of spontaneous com- 
 bustion, and of design. If they have been accidental, 
 the cause can generally be discovered, and it will be 
 found, that they might have been prevented. Carless- 
 ness and negligence are the cause of over two-thirds of 
 all fires. 
 
 Electrical fires are caused from electric light wires 
 
104 Guide to 
 
 lying against wood or iron, or coming in contact with, 
 water. A stream of water thrown on a heavily 
 charged electric light wire will give a shock and may 
 even kill the fireman holding the nozzle. This is one 
 reason why the electric lights are cut off when a fire is 
 raging and thus leaving people to grope their way out 
 through, darkness. All hotels should have hall-ways 
 lighted by gas, and especially should a gas light with a 
 red globe be placed in front of all fire escape windows. 
 
 Should a fire occur at night the housekeeper should give 
 orders to have all doors unlocked and the gas lighted in 
 the halls. 
 
Hotel Housekeeping. 105 
 
 The Evolution of the Housekeeper. 
 
 The greatest wonder to my mind is that more women 
 that must of necessity earn their livelihood, do not adopt 
 the profession of hotel housekeeping. "What nicer or more 
 profitable way can a woman earn her living. Standing 
 at my window of a stormy morning, I seem any women 
 going early through the wind and snow, sometimes rain, 
 to their work, and I can not help comparing my daily 
 tasks to theirs. Many of these women stand all day be- 
 hind the counters of some large dry-goods store, where 
 they are designated only as No. 1, No. 2, and so on. 
 Some of the women are going to work in silk mills, where 
 the looms keep up a deafening roar, and where, at their 
 noon hour, they must eat a cold lunch. These women 
 get a small salary, on an average $8.00 a week, and out 
 of this they must pay their room, board and laundry 
 bills. 
 
 I could not refrain from contrasting the hotel house- 
 keeper'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 
 
106 Guide to 
 
 affords. She may command the respect of all other em- 
 ployes in the house, and may make many life-long 
 friends. My advice to any young woman seeking a sit- 
 uation is to start right at chamberwork, 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. But a chambermaid with a 
 modest and reticent disposition may never meet with any 
 pitfalls, at least, no more than would be encountered 
 in a drygoods store or factory. From chambermaid, she 
 may get promoted to the linen-room, where she will be 
 shielded and protected from interlopers, and will have 
 plenty of leisure to sew or to mend for her own benefit. 
 She can save money, for she will have better pay in 
 the linen-room. She will also have better food, and 
 will learn something of the executive management of the 
 hotel. Naturally, she will see more of the proprietor or 
 the manager, and will learn his ideas and principles, 
 which knowledge may be useful to her in later years. 
 Time brings about many changes, and hotels change 
 proprietors, as well as housekeepers and managers. 
 Often, when a new manager makes his appearance, he 
 will bring his housekeeper or linen-room woman with 
 him; in this case, the linen-room woman may have to 
 secure another situation. Now is her chance to take a 
 step higher on the ladder, by obtaining a position as 
 housekeeper. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Assembly Hall 87 
 
 Attention to Details 34 
 
 Birds of Passage 32-33 
 
 Character in The Hotel Business 26 
 
 Cleaning Rooms 41-44 
 
 Card and Wine Rooms 88 
 
 Cleaning Brass 85 
 
 Chambermaids 90 
 
 Evolution of the Housekeeper 104-105 
 
 Fires, Suggestions in case of 98 
 
 Fire Prevention 102 
 
 Fires, origin of 103 
 
 Gossip between employes 29-30 
 
 Housekeeper and the Help 17-22 
 
 Housekeeper's salary 38-40 
 
 Housekeeper, progressive 35-37 
 
 Housekeeper's Rules 81 
 
 Housekeeper, relationship between guests 31 
 
 Housekeeper, requirements of 11-20 
 
 Housekeeper, and co-operation 17-22 
 
 How to Make Beds 47-48 
 
 How to Clean Walls 49-51 
 
 How to Scrub a Floor 51-52 
 
 How to Get Rid of Vermin 53-57 
 
 Linen Room, Linen Woman * 63-68 
 
 Linen, table, care of 69-70 
 
108 Index. 
 
 Linen, removing stains 70 
 
 Linen, best kind 71 
 
 Linen, how to test 72 
 
 Laundry, making bleach 73-80 
 
 Miscellaneous subjects 94 
 
 Parlor Maid 83-90 
 
 Proprietor's Wife 23-25 
 
 Room Inspection 21-28 
 
 Vacuum Cleaning System 58-62 
 
 Waxing Ballroom Floor SS 
 
16 1308