Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-06-24
Misffllanenus.
The Workshop, the Kitchen, asd tn
Parior.

zWl5IEltduRpM5.
! The Workshop, the Kitchen, and the
Parior.
There was recently in Boston u meet
ing sf working women 10 consult upOI
their condition. The persons vino spoke
| told very simple tale of laUur and suf
! fering from their own experience, anC
| d very pitiful tale il was to read. II
reminded you of that picture in which
John Leech represents a skeleton figure
of Death sewing shirts, in illustration o.
the slop-shops of London.
Perhaps, however, the sequel of the
revelation made at the meeting is still
more painful. One of the newspapers,
which was unwilling to believe the
stories as they were told, added the re-
markable statement that, if there were
SO many women SO sorely pressed olive
| by the needle, there were plenty OF
| places where tney would be thankfully
employed as domestic servants at good
wages. This is probably true, and yet
they will not go. The one thing which
they can not bear is what is technically
called service. What change from the
time when country girls came to town
and, without loosing self-respect, did all
the household work of familiesl II hope
l can do better than slave in kitchen,
is the Instructive and indignant reply
to remote suggestion ofthis kind.
But can a thing that ought to be dsne
be more than well done, and if well
done ought not the respect for it to be
as pure in kind as for the doing of any
other necessary thing. although it may
be less in degree? Lois and Jerusha
leave home to earn an honest living
Lois is quick, handy, full of tact and
taste, and she is presently a milliner in
high repute. 1t was her neat equipage
that you passed in the Central Park
yesterday afternoon. Jerusha is slow
and heavy, and she is after a dozen
years the same honest chamber-maid
she was at first. We al! acknowledge
the superior gifts of Lois. But unless
labor in itself disgraceful we ought
not to feel that Jerusha is stigmatized
by the kind of labor to which she is de-
voted. The labor being necessary is
honorable, is it not, good Americana
Then there eau he no dishonor in engage
ing in necessary labor can there?
Look at the case of the Boston work.
women. An employer says to them, let
US suppose, "Here are dollar q week,
garret, cold, and starvation for sewing
shirts" Another employer says, Here
are home, plenty of food and fire, and
eight dollars a month for chamber work.
Drains, il you please. do not much enter
into the calculation Yet there is a re-
coil as of insult and injury from the last,
and IA bitter acceptance OF the first. If
the reason of this recoiI be what is called
pride, is it an honorable pride? Jane
goes into cotton mill, Jemiman into a
kitchen. May Jane, fer that reason,
take airs and feel that she is the lady,
while poor Jemima is a menial? And
menial is not originally word of dis
credit or humiliation. 1t means merely
family or household; and servile is only
the quality of serving; and We Christ
ians, you remember, do not speak i'll or
think i'll of serving others.
"Ah, indeed, Mr.. Easy Chair" eX-
claims & very lively young person who
has just dropped in. "And how would
you like to De waiter at DelmOnicO's?"
Well, my young friend, the Easy
Chair would not prefer that profession,
because there are natural tastes and
cheice. One man would be u musician,
another carpenter, another printer,
another an author, another barber,
and another waiter. But, obliged TO
make an honest living, if the methods /
which it preferred were impracticable
for it, it would lay cover and f1irt a |
napkin without the least sense of dis |
grace. And if the alternative were to |
run abominable erands at starving rates, |
Or to wait at fair wages, which would |
my young friend prefer for himsrlf?- |
This last is the Boston alternative; as /
it. The pride of the poor |
it appears, or it is assumed, !
prefers the starving wages for shirt
making with a. gentleman friend" to
5he household service.
Now it is clearly not the labor which
lecides, but it is another kind of consid-
'ration. 1t is the feeling that to do the
me is to be more of a lady than to do
he other. More of lady? Why, good
what is a lady? If she could
answer she would say to dress finely
md do nothing. Yes, and for the theo-
Y which poisons and ruins this poor
ife of hers-how many of these poor
ives, indeed!-we, that is, society, must
,ear the responsibility. 1t is not the
Door women and their pride that are to
,e blamed; it is We and our folly, that
make the public opinion to which they
sacrifice everything that is most preci-
,us and sacred, who are the real sinners.
Now when the Biddy question has be-
,ome so important, it is perhaps worth
while to think of this little. Suppose,
lear Madame, that we should begin
in the parlor, and free our
minds Of the feeling with which domes-
ic service is usually regarded, by being
humane and courteous masters and
niStresSes.
If some good angel should smile some P
from the roof of the magnifi-
,ent Park Bank-and the Easy Chair
,eseeches the reader not 20 expect it of
he worthy stone angels who perma-
lently reside upon the facade-and
lnnonnce that he would straightway
Introduce a race of Deat-handed Phil
ises, and artists not less skilled than
Monsieur Blot, would We not gratefully
,uild him a statue in the Central park?
But if We doubt and despair of angels,
Why not cultivate an opinion that do
nestle service is not to be condemned by
and by .emoving such stigma
IS may now rest upon it, persuade these
lapless women of whom we were speak
ng that it is quite as honorable and
adylike, quite as harmonious with the
ruest pride, to serve in household as
o sew in shop, or starve in q garret,
" fiaunt in gay dress at the theatre
With gentleman friend?" 1t is among
is who sit in the parlor that the real
ceiling in regard to the kitchen takes
is rise, and that dirty fountain must be
purified at its source or not at all
Easy Chair, Harper's Magazine for
July.