The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-04-30
THE GREAT DOMESTIC PROBLEM.
BY MRS. HELEN E. sTARRETr.

CTO"uONI SJTOOG III iii"
cago, heard an intelligent looking ell
derly gentleman say to two Or three Ia
dies who were discussing the great wo-
man suffrage convention then in session.
1.-THE great domestic question of the day
is the servant question. / think the
women had better settle that along with
the question of suffrage"
East and West, in Washington, in
Chicago, in city and village, 1 find that
to hOusekeepers this is the most press
ing problem of the hour. The perpIex-
tiles occasioned by these ''secret springs
of society,"" are an unfaiIing topic of
mutual interest to a company of wom-
en- who are heads of families. 1t is
amusing to notice that when general
conversation has tagged, if one lady
should address to her neighbor the
question, shave you good girl now,
Mrs. --" the tongues of the COM
pany are Immediately loosed. Incidents,
complaints, comments, flow so freely
that we are reminded of the remark of
the crusty old bachelor who said it
would be pity to dispense with hired
help as the women would then have
nothing to talk about.
But the question has deeper import
than this, and being housekeeper my
SELF l no longer wonder that it is to
terest. Nothing outside of our imme-
date family relations so deeply affects
our domestic happiness. Not only are
we rendered miserably uncomfortable
in our homes by the ill-cooked food,
the untidy kitchens, and the general
unreliability of the majority of serv-
ants, but their expense is appalling to
householders Of moderate means. The
wages paid them is small item COM
l. 81 Il, 81.
they burn, and the room they occupy
in our small houses, and the constant
care required for their oversight.
Various theories have been advanced
for the solution of this vexed question.
Parker Pillsbury thinks that the day
will come when every family will live
SO simply that all the work can be done
by its members. Others think that do
mestic service will be elevated by treat
ing servants as members of the family
and bringing them to our tables and
parlors. Others again think that high
er wages is what is needed to secure a
more intelligent class of workers.
AS for Parker Pillsbury's plan, I
would as soon expect to see farmers go
back to grinding their own wheat, or
women to spinning and weaving their
| own linen, as to see families go back to
the primitive simplicity that enables the
| wife and mother to do all the cooking,
sewing, washing and ironing herself.
The difficulty in the second plan would
perhaps not lie so much with employ
ers as with servants themselves; but
then, it infringes upon the sacred pri-
vacy of the hearth and the family board
and cannot be thought of. AS to the
higher wages, / myself for long time
inclined to the belief that this was the
true solution of the problem. BY this
means thought more intelligent class
of girls would be induced to enter this
service, and that the ranks of the seam
stress and factory girls would be rapid
| ly thinned. Mr.. Thatcher first confound.
ed me by asking, in that case how would
the wives of mechanics and labOrine
men be able to procure help if the gen.
eral price of wages was twenty and
twenty-five dollars month? Certain.
| ly this plan would not work in their ca
ses, and in any true solution of the prob
lem we must provide for the relief from
heavy household work of the wives OF
our laboring classes when the duties
and cares of maternity press upon them
| AS the result of extended and careful
study of this subject, and observation
of the signs of the times, / believe the
| servant question is to be solved by the
/ introduction of two or three new
branches of industry. I believe the
| day is at hand when all our household
work will be done by wholesale by pub.
lie kitchens and laundries in manner
as far surpassing our present haphaz-
ard system as the fine linen of the loom
surpasses the old fashioned linen
wrought by our grandmOthers-
| Why, men have already for their
profit stolen nearly all our household
Industries. They can our fruit and
do it ourselves; they brown and grind
our coffee, they bake our bread, they
put up our pickles, and are even max
| ing our ruff1es and collars and cuffs al
| so cheap rate that we feel il to be 8
mere waste of time to make them our
/ selves. The question of cooperative
kitchens is now being widely agitated
and in Boston DIR. Dio Lewis has one
in successful operation. In Chicago
| was informed that one was to be erect
ed at cost of two million dollars.
know that many housekeepers viii Al
i once object that food cooked in the bull
would not be good. reply, there d
/ no reason why IL should not be greaf
deal better when cooked in bulk by sci
entific cooks, and with all the best ma
ehinery aud facilities for rapid and per
b feet cookery. Grant for the sake Of ar
gument that the food OF our faInilie
could be cooked in the most perfec
4 manner and sent into our houses ant
that our washing and ironing could b
sent cut, oh perplexed housekeepe1
would not the aunoyances of house