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| One of the "Lady Blackwood Union," Pledged to Train Six Poor Girls Each Season to Be Lady's Maids. |
TO GILD THE LILY
Girls Pledge Themselves to Train Ladies' Maids
MAIDS PRETTY AND WORTHY
Adopt the Randolph-Churchill Dress and the Princess Bismarck Cap and Apron
The useful age bids fair to follow the athletic age in the history of the gilded darlings of society, if indeed, it does not travel along with it, as many of the ages traveled together in the long ago. Ever since the very practical Duchess of York began combining the useful with the ornamental, and ever since the leaders found time to mingle King’s Daughters’ work in with their own social life, the girl of the period has been trying to see how very useful she could be to the world without depriving herself of any of her own enjoyment. “Handsome is as handsome does,” might be upon the brooch of every belle, for “handsome does” is her description.
The latest and most useful move upon the part of such belles is the teaching of ladies’ maids. This includes their instruction in all branches of the toilet and their teaching upon matters of dress. The young ladies who are willing to take such a duty upon themselves have banded together under the name of “The Lady Blackwood Union,” and the ledger shows eighteen names of very well known young people as beginners and pioneers of the movement. Lady Blackwood in Paris has trained several and is willing to teach several more. She was, in fact, the originator of the movement.
The plan of the union is an individual one. Each young women pledges herself to teach a girl a month until she has instructed half a dozen during the year. The girl during the month lives with her philanthropic mistress, acting as regular lady’s maid and receiving instruction in the same until perfect. A month is simple for a quick girl, and those who cannot learn all the duties of maid in that time are dismissed entirely or given a lower degree as assistant maid or lady’s assistant.
The “graduates,” or those who at the end of a month are perfect, are given “diplomas.” And with these in hand they find no trouble getting positions in the very wealthiest families. The institution is somewhat like the system of trained nurses in the English titled families, where a trained nurse serves six months or a year on trial, hoping for as many cases of sickness in the family as possible. At the end of her year, she has a letter of recommendation from the family and leaves the house upon a triumphant career of trained nurse at high pay. The young lady who takes the lady’s maid to train lodges her in a small white room which she is taught to keep immaculate. It must be like a seashell and fit for the mistress herself.
Her first training is upon the fashions, which a lady’s maid must know to the letter. All the fashion magazines are supplied her, and she is supposed to adapt her knowledge to her mistress' wardrobe. “You will take my tight-fitting silk waist, a season behind the style, and arrange it for an at-home dinner to-night,” directs the young woman. Then she, herself, takes the squares of white pearl trimming from the bureau drawer, or buys them from the shop, and arranges them in an arabesque upon the front of the waist. When done there is a diamond-shape trimming from neck to hem of basque.
The neck may be high, or the simple round neck of last season. This she takes and squares a little, raising it to the decorous point of the winter. A trimming of pearls is basted around the neck and small fancy beads set in to make the brilliant iridescency so much fancied now. The sleeves of the dress are probably flowing or supplied with deep ruffles from the elbow. These are cut off and a simple but large puff of chiffon set in. For a deft-fingered girl, with a puff sleeve pattern on hand, this whole work is only the business of an hour. It is the transforming of an old bodice into a handsome waist to wear just once, and is the principal work of a lady’s maid.
The matter of stringing ribbons through the underclothes is quickly learned. But the mode here must be followed. All underwear is white as snow now. Silk nighties, silk underwear for night, silk draperies and the numberless little silk things which women have been stringing upon their necks and heads at night are all banished. In their place there is a linen gown, fine, sheer and rich with embroidery or real lace, and an undervest of the same. Sheets are white, not black or blue, and though the over coverlid may be colored if you so desire, it is more fanciful to have all white now. The lady’s maid soon gets the etiquette of these things and learns to buy them for her mistress.
Pretty at home dresses are being planned by the quantity. One or two street dresses and a few dinner gowns are enough if one has plenty of pretty things for the house evenings and for the at home dinners. The lady’s maid soon learns about the skirt of a dress. She at a glance learns to tell if the waist is past redemption and how to make the skirt pretty. Without altering the hang of a skirt, she will trim it and make it a new one. With small bits of colored silk or floss or cord she will twist and turn the material until it makes a neat little figure.
All day she will work until she has a lapful of these trimmings. An hour’s time sews them, and there is a new and pretty skirt for her mistress to wear at dinner. One of these trimmed gowns was a simple pink challis left from the summer, and in an hour or so it was transformed into a very Oriental looking dress, stiff by numberless little figures of fine floss twisted deftly and sewed upon the skirt with gold thread. It made as pretty a house skirt as could be wanted, especially when a facing of pink satin had been placed a foot deep inside the hem to give the silken rustle of a house dress.
Training a lady’s maid is not easy. Many a young woman knows a satisfactory maid when she gets one, but could not for the life of her instruct such a girl. She must be able to teach nearly all the feminine arts, including manicuring. The manicure powders are also taught. An expert lady’s maid makes her own pomades and her own polisher. She buys such only when wanting to accompany her mistress upon a journey, when the tightly sealed bottles are what are wanted.
The arranging of bows, the dressing of the hair, the scientific mending of gloves are all among the necessities of a maid before she gets her diploma. One of the young women who is teaching such a maid has actually instructed her personally in the art of glove-mending, as done at the best stores or where gloves are made.
This talented girl is teaching her maid to combine two pairs of gloves. She buys a very cheap pair of exactly the same shade as the expensive ones she is to mend, and cuts out the pieces of the cheap ones for the good ones. This young woman had a pair of elbow gloves for which she paid something like $10. The fingers were soiled and could not be cleaned, being worn thin in an evening. By buying a dollar pair of the same color the maid replaced the fingers neatly and the gloves are as good as new.
The daughters of the conspicuously wealthy and charitable houses are members of this society. Miss Virginia Fair, who does many a charitable thing, gives it her encouragement, and half promises to become an active member. Even if not willing personally to train six maids a year, any young woman can pay for placing a maid in a place where she can learn, with a dressmaker or with some one skilled in the feminine arts. And, by the way, there are women who make a business of teaching these maids.
The fashionable cap for a lady’s maid is a white one, with a small round crown and ruffle around it. The fashionable dress is the one introduced into England several years ago by Lady Randolph Churchill, a deep black without trimming, and filled down the front with a white Swiss ‘kerchief placed low from the throat. This has held without variation for fifteen years, the only concession to the changing styles being in the puffs of the sleeves, which are almost as large as those upon the fashionable gowns. The cap is called the Princess Bismarck because it was adopted by the Bismarck family in Friedrichsruh.
Several ladies out of charity and pity, always train their own maids. Mrs. Jack Gardner, of Boston, has long made a practice of doing it, though her reason is an eccentric one “Because if they are trained before, I have to untrain them.” The maids that will be turned out of the Lady Blackwood Union will be in great demand for several reasons. They are posted on all the little wrinkles of belle-dom, and they are well taught and respectful. They carry with them a great deal of prestige from being the objects of such wealthy and delightful charity. – Helen Ward, 1895
Training a lady’s maid is not easy. Many a young woman knows a satisfactory maid when she gets one, but could not for the life of her instruct such a girl. She must be able to teach nearly all the feminine arts, including manicuring. The manicure powders are also taught. An expert lady’s maid makes her own pomades and her own polisher. She buys such only when wanting to accompany her mistress upon a journey, when the tightly sealed bottles are what are wanted.
The arranging of bows, the dressing of the hair, the scientific mending of gloves are all among the necessities of a maid before she gets her diploma. One of the young women who is teaching such a maid has actually instructed her personally in the art of glove-mending, as done at the best stores or where gloves are made.
This talented girl is teaching her maid to combine two pairs of gloves. She buys a very cheap pair of exactly the same shade as the expensive ones she is to mend, and cuts out the pieces of the cheap ones for the good ones. This young woman had a pair of elbow gloves for which she paid something like $10. The fingers were soiled and could not be cleaned, being worn thin in an evening. By buying a dollar pair of the same color the maid replaced the fingers neatly and the gloves are as good as new.
The daughters of the conspicuously wealthy and charitable houses are members of this society. Miss Virginia Fair, who does many a charitable thing, gives it her encouragement, and half promises to become an active member. Even if not willing personally to train six maids a year, any young woman can pay for placing a maid in a place where she can learn, with a dressmaker or with some one skilled in the feminine arts. And, by the way, there are women who make a business of teaching these maids.
The fashionable cap for a lady’s maid is a white one, with a small round crown and ruffle around it. The fashionable dress is the one introduced into England several years ago by Lady Randolph Churchill, a deep black without trimming, and filled down the front with a white Swiss ‘kerchief placed low from the throat. This has held without variation for fifteen years, the only concession to the changing styles being in the puffs of the sleeves, which are almost as large as those upon the fashionable gowns. The cap is called the Princess Bismarck because it was adopted by the Bismarck family in Friedrichsruh.
Several ladies out of charity and pity, always train their own maids. Mrs. Jack Gardner, of Boston, has long made a practice of doing it, though her reason is an eccentric one “Because if they are trained before, I have to untrain them.” The maids that will be turned out of the Lady Blackwood Union will be in great demand for several reasons. They are posted on all the little wrinkles of belle-dom, and they are well taught and respectful. They carry with them a great deal of prestige from being the objects of such wealthy and delightful charity. – Helen Ward, 1895
🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia
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