Note 335 — Chapter XVII · DOMESTIC SERVICE IN EUROPE
Reading edition
This is apparently the case universally in France and in Italy. In Italy, while the washing is always done out of the house, the ironing is often done at home. In Lombardy “a woman of color” washes the colored clothes and flannels, which are kept distinct from the ordinary laundry. On the continent bed linen is often changed only once in two, three, or even four weeks—a custom that has at least the advantage of reducing to a minimum this part of the household work.
“In England it is becoming the rule, except in large households with laundries of their own, and in households managed on narrow means, to send this work out.”—Miss Collet, Report, p. 9.
“Washing is put out, as it is now almost impossible to get a girl who will do it.”—Employer, cited by Miss Collet, Report, p. 30.