Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-11-27
seryantgaIism.

A recent number of the State Jour
hal has an article under this head,
which is amusing and witty in its way,
but the subject is one too serious, We
think, to make a joke of. 1t IS, and
has been the fashion, of late years, to
treat this class Of the community with
contempt. Theoretically and practi-
eally, servant girls have been regarded
as a necessary evil, which housekeep-
ers, both young and old, have discussed
IN solemn eonclave, and delighted in
.recounting their victimization. This
tone is well enough for women, or Ia
dies perforce. who, in detailing the do
mestic inequalities of their household,
expose far more their own deficiencies
than those of their servants; but in
men, editors and gentlemen, it strikes
us at least, that the effort to bring into
contempt class of poor, struggling,
working women, is not generous. Men,
we opine, have as much difficulty in
training their subordinates, especially
if they lack system, as the women: yet
we hear no hue and cry, raised over
laboring mems clumsiness. or contempt
cast upon them, because they demand
and will have the few privileges their
limited time and means allow them
We are no advocate for Woman's Rights
but the idea forces itself upon US that,
if this class were endowed with the
same privileges their brothers at service
have, servantgslism would be less de-
cried, and their right, to a certain
amount of consideration, would be
more readily awarded. The Journal
leads of a series of hits at servantgal-
ism, with the following:
"0ne lady who has passed chequer
ed existence of one year in a house
keeping capacity, informs US that she
had experience of seven specimens of
the genus help in the kitchen during
that time-the same number that tor
mented Mary Magdalene."
Ibid it ever occur to the ''lady" that
seven hired girls in one year was a
mark of evidence of her own want of
proper management The housekeep-
er who, in seven girls, could not find
one capable must have been extremely
hard to please. We would like to have
the evidence of the seven girls, nay,
that of one would have been sufficient;
was there a patient, kindly, human
interest manifested in the poor. ignor-
ant, homeless girls? Was there any
effort made to interest, TO teach, or to
humanize them? Girls who hire out
are usually such as are motherless, poor
and homeless; women with all the capa-
biIities, affections and interest of their
own daughters. The mother who
throws open her parior to welcome the
numerous admirers of her daughters,
and yet allows not even a single ''fel-
low to her hired girl" forgets that in
checking up the open, honest mani
festation of regard for her hired girl,
she is paving the way to the girls ruin,
and compelling her to go out and seek
natural eompanionship, or claudestine-
ly admit company whom she would not
otherwise receive. In a country like
this, an effort to reduce the working
class, either men or women, to q con-
dition Of abject servitude, IS preposter-
Gus it simply cannot be done, and the
only remedy we know for the stupen-
dous evil of fserVantgalism, will be found
in a more intelligent and Christian
course of treatment upon the part OF
their employers, ,-Z1HssUilLs Times.