The Help

by T.S. Arthur

[...]door close behind the dealer in china ware, with a very decided jar. "Ain't they beautiful, aunty?" said I to my old aunt Rachel, who had been a silent witness of the scene I have just described; and I held the pair of vases before her eyes. "Why yes, they are rather pretty, Jane," replied aunt Rachel, a little coldly, as I thought. "Rather pretty! They are beautiful," said I warmly. "See there!" And I placed them on the dining room mantle. "How much they will improve our parlors." "Not half so much as that old coat you as good as gave away would have improved the feelings as well as the looks of poor Mr. Bryan, who lives across the street," was the unexpected and rebuking answer of aunt Rachel. The words smote on my feelings. Mr. Bryan was a poor, but honest and industrious young man, upon whose daily labor a wife and five children were dependent. He went meanly clad, because he could not earn enough, in addition to what his family required, to buy comfortable clothing for himself. I saw, in an instant, what the true disposition of the coat should have been. The china vases would a little improve the appearance of my parlors; but how many pleasant feelings and hours and days of comfort, would the old coat[...].

Nook

First published January 1, 1852

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Timothy Shay Arthur was a popular 19th-century American author. He is famously known for his temperance novel Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There, which helped demonize alcohol in the eyes of the American public. Founder of the magazines Arthur's Home Gazette, Arthur's Home Magazine, and The Children's Hour, and editor of the Baltimore Athenaeum and Baltimore Saturday Visitor.

Reviews

[Sara Horwitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great view of 1950's American South. Having a "girl" was an expression I often heard to describe adult women working as domestic help. The social strata was determined by the set of your table, the shine of the silver and the crease ironed in trousers but heaven forbid the "girl" used the family dishes or bathroom. Read this book with an open mind and a sense of humor.

[Becca]

This is a pretty funny story of a housewife and her quest to find the perfect housemaids during the course of her marriage and the subsequent raising of her children.