The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-11-14
Talks by the Preside.
nY NEHrrARLE Noss.

BY MEHITABLE Moss.
At our last talk we had the servant
girl question up. Jennie Baker came
late and out of breath, and her puffs
and ruffies, and ribbons and frizzes a
little less elaborate than usual.
'It's too provoking" she cried; there
I've lost your delightful tea-table chat,
and Mrs. Moss warm gems, and am
tired to death, just because our girl took
a tantrum and left after dinner, and /
had to go into the kitchen and work
like plantation slave, and my hands
are as rough as nutmeg graters.n
"Well, well, Jennie" said Mrs. Sui
livan, "such experiences won't hurt
you bit; it will prepare you for house
keeping"
''rve had sufficient experience" an
swered Jennie, bridling, conscious that
George Claypool, poor but rising at
tOrney, was listening; 81 know how to
keep house xs well rs anybody, but
then when we hire = girl and pay for
her services, why can't she do her work
deeently and not fly off at tangent
whenever her mistress dareS assert that
she is mistress. Now Jane Jones had a
good easy place at our house, but
mamma could not get her to do the
work as she wished. We tried to endure
all delinquencies, but for the past week
everything has been unusually slack.
The dishes were greasy and dingy, the
knives half secured, the bread sour, and
nothing fit to eat. After dinner mamma
told her the bread had stood long
enough, and to bake it before il soured,
and the pert thing snapped out, Mrs.
Baker, if / can't do the work my iCdy
here, I'll just go where l can. There's
plenty of places where they'dsbe glad to
have me- Very WE'LL said mamma,
you can CO. But where in the world
we can find another girl is beyond my
knowledge. Girls are scarce"
"rhey are that" said Mrs. Nelson.
"I've been trying to find one for
month. But then one might as well
not have one, for they Will not do as you
WANT
''The trouble is right here" said Mrs.
Sullivan, "when women have to make
their living, hOusework is the last resort.
They teach a subscription school, or
take bOarders, or make dresses, or bon
nets, or do plain sewing, anything
rather than hOusewOrk. Society puts a
stigma on the hired girl. Ladies con-
slider washing dishes, sweeping, ETC., be-
meath them, and feel disgraced should
the force of circumstances compel them
to roll up their sleeves, and work in the
kitchen. You, Jennie Baker, thought
il fearful imposition on your ladyship
to act Bridget for a single afternoon"
$50 il was" pouted Jennie, ait spoiled
my hands for drawing and music prac-
tice."
"Net is not the preparing of good
wholesome food for ourselves and fam
lilies just as important rs drawing and
music ?n
"Of course it is" answered Jennie,
"and / believe every woman ought to
know how to do housework, but then |
hate 1t. l don't think that the kitchen
is every woman's sphere any more than
the blacksmith's shop is every mans.
There is diversity in woman's talents;
some are fitted for one thing and some
for another"
AZ concede all that" said Mrs. Sui
livan; "you know | believe in a woman
doing whatever work she is best fitted
for by nature and education. What |
am warning against is the notion that
housework is low, degrading. Why,
there is as much science and art i'm
housekeeping as in anything under the
sum-
al know that" said Mrs. Nelson, "but
how are you going 10 make hired girls
understand that? Look at Mrs. Moss
table; everything is cooked in the best
and most palatable manner, but how
are YOU going to teach servants to thus
cook? They won't learn, they won't do
as YOU tell them, and they feel insulted
because YOU do want them TO learn.
Now when a man hires a man to do GER
tain work, he tells him what to do and
how to do it, and he does it,"
az don't like to testify against my
sex,n said DIR. Blair, looking amused,
"but | hired laundering fellow last
spring who washed the carriage inside
as well as out, who blacked my boots
with the stove polish, and who, despite
all | could say, would never close the
barn door. Moreover, he was always
ready to swear that he knew everything
and a little more. After he planted the
peas with the corn, and my flower
bulbs i'm the onion bed, and pruned my
dwarf peaT-trees to a single withe so
that they would grow bigger l con-
cluded to dispense with his services"
80, men are not n whit more efficient
| in the long run, than women,n retorted
/ Mrs. Sullivan. "I've seen women go
ahead and make boxes, and mend chairs,
and do five hundred other things where
| a man would have twirled his thumbs,
and said he couldn't without tools. The
demand for good kitchen girls is much
larger than the supply. And it is but
human nature to take advantage of that
fact-not by striking for higher wages
as men do-they are too ignorant foI
that-but by annoying their employers.
Girls know too that they are considered
interiors, that their work is deemed oil
low rank, and that tends to make them
disagreeable.- To strike at the root oI
this matter, we must elevate kitchen
work, talk of il as something noble anC
important, as it is, and then we must b,
willing to pay more for skilled Labor
than for poor; that will induce girls tC
take more pride in their calling, and tC
feel more real respect for themselves
and their employers. l do not know
that my plan would work with ever,
one, but Carrie Briggs has lived witt
me for three years, and she is now a
: careful, faithful and painstaking as on,
could wish. When she came, she wa
inclined to be pert, supercilious anC
! shiftless. told her at first that haC
!. always managed my household anC
should continue to do so, that each on,
I had their own ways of working, bu
that while she lived with me wante,
her to adopt my ways, that should tr,
) to be pleasant, kind, agreeable and jus
! to her, and to act toward her as | shoul,
! wish mistress to act were / in he
, place, and l hoped she would treat m
{ in the same manner. i did not tell he
these things in a naughty, disagreeabl
5 manner, but during long, pleasan
! chat which we had at first; they al
5 come out and somehow impressed th
girl just right, and she resolved sh