Mrs. Gunn's Diary: Jan. 20, 1942

She complains about 'servants'; spittoon mat scandal erupts

A new maid named Mamie began working for Mrs. Gunn today. “Hope all works out for I do not like changes and I will not tolerate a lazy servant or a liar or a thief,” she wrote. She spent the day instructing Mamie and another servant, Susie, about what to do around the house. “Susie is a good server and I hope she will help me out as long as I need her.”

Not a very flattering view of Mrs. Gunn, I would say. And she ends with this nonsequitor: “Peg is going to get a mink coat.”

Well!

While the war was heating up on all fronts, not all the news associated with it was serious. Paid subscribers can read on about the spittoon mat scandal gleaned from today’s Washington Evening Star.

The 1930 photo of Franklin Delano Roosevelt shaking hands with his predecessor Al Smith in the New York governor’s office, contains an item that was standard equipment in political (and other) offices: a spittoon. The photo is from the collection of the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, accessed via Wikimedia Commons.