Argentina from a British Point of View, and Notes on Argentine Life
History
Argentina from a British Point of View, and Notes on Argentine Life
Argentina -- Description and travel; Argentina -- Economic conditions; Argentina -- Social life and customs
The next servant, No. 7, Alexandrina, was, I think, the worst. She was a
Spaniard from Barcelona. She was an awful individual, and would insist
on wearing clothes of so light and scanty a nature that she was not
decent to have about the house; also, whenever we happened to have a
joke of any sort to laugh over at meals, she used immediately to come in
from the kitchen to see what was going on, and I had the greatest
difficulty to get her to return to the kitchen. I had to get rid of her,
because her moral reputation was anything but good, and two days in the
week she refused to get out of bed, and told me to do my own dirty work,
as she was ill; so at the end of two weeks she had to go. No. 8, Maria,
was a girl direct from the sierras, and was very stupid and silly, and
did not a single thing. One day I was buying vegetables, and she asked
me why I wanted to buy roots, and when I told her they were to eat, she
said even poor people could afford to buy meat, and she would not eat
them. One day I took this girl out with me to do some shopping, and
called on some people who had a piano. It was twilight, and someone was
playing the piano, and she rushed in the room and out again, with her
face very white, and said someone was beating a big, black animal in the
corner of the room, and it was screaming dreadfully with the pain. This
girl's mother was a very talkative old lady, and would insist on coming
with three children every day and taking up her position in the kitchen,
and when once she commenced to talk, one could not get away from her. At
the end of the month she came for the girl's pay, and wanted me to pay
her more money, which I was not willing to do, as I had been unable to
teach her much; so she asked if her daughter might go away for the day
and night, as she had to bath. This I was only too willing to agree to,
and let her go; but they returned in the middle of the night, and
removed all her belongings. After a few days I managed to get No. 9, who
was a widow with two children: but she only stayed two weeks. Our tenth
and last attempt was made with No. 4 once more, as she was again able to
come to us. She stayed two months, when we went away for four weeks'
holiday. A week after our return I paid her in full for the month,
though she had never been near the house all that time, and she promptly
said she could not stay with us any longer, and left. We nearly got to
No. 11, as we engaged a girl to come at $20 a month to start with, and
she was to come the next morning at eight o'clock to begin work. She
arrived at 10 a.m., and informed me that, as we had paid our last
servant $25 the month, she could not come for less. I was so sick and
tired of my experiences that this finished me, and I decided to do
without any servant. Since then, for the last year, I have done the work
myself.
POLICE OF A BYGONE DAY.
POLICE OF A BYGONE DAY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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