The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1873-08-23
DOMESTIC uELpIy DALLAS.

There Is great need in this city for
domestic help. Cooks, washers and
nurses ARE in great demand, and we
would be glad to see live agency cs-
tablished in Dallas for the importation
of stout, active, energetic men ana
women, to take hold Of the domestic
wheels, and keep them moving stead
ily and faithfully. Our wives and
daughters are too often compelled to
go to the kitchen and perform the
rough menial services to which they
are totally unaccustomed, thereby in
juring, and, lin many cases, destroy
ing their health. This is, or will he, a
serious matter, and we hope that some
enterprising man or woman-we care
not which-will take it in hand ut
some early day, and use their best en-
deavor to bring back a radical change
IN the department of domestic help.
Women who have been tenderly
reared, in other States, totally free
from the heavy burdens of servile care,
come here to find a home, and are
soon compelled to perform the house
hold work of the family, wearing
themselves thin and pale, day by day,
until, in some instances, they sink into
early graves. Then we hear the cry
from abroad that Texas in general, and
Dallas in particular, is n terribly un-
healthy place for women and chill
dren," when it is, in fact, no such
thing. The climate is fine, and the
resident portion Of the city healthily
located. There is nothing that we can
discover in the place to warrant any
such opinion abroad. The truth of the
matter is, that women who are brought
here from distant homes have too
much to do when they get here. They
are themselves overtasked, and their
young children are either born with
weak constitutions, or are, from
necessity, neglected to a certain degree,
and the consequence is the women and
children are sickly, and some of them
die. This is not the fault of individu-
ais, but of the unfortunately irregular
system of labor that exists among us.
We shall touch upon this subject again
and again, until we see some decided
step taken toward importing domestic
labor from st. Louis and other cities,
where house servants ,are-if we may
use the term-a drug in the market.
Thousands of half-grown boys and
girls are homeless and starving in the
cities of the North and East, whose
labor is needed, greatly needed, in the
South and West. Al agency of the
kind we so much require would, we are
confident, pay any one handsome
percentage in this city.
We want to see such an Office estab-
lished here soon, for we have our wives
and little ones. God bless them! We
can't get along without them, and if
we would haze them assured to us,
rosy with health and happiness, we
must cherish them tenderly and care
fully, guarding them from the heat and
toll of kitchen drudgery. This can
only be done by the importation of do
mestic help on wide and well regu.
lated scale. Let III be up and doing,
and free our pretty, healthy city from
the Opinion abroad that "there IL no
health in us" for women and children.
These are stubbornly apparent facts,
plain end unvarnished. and we honest
1y ask the citizens of Dallas to duly
consider them, with the view of amend
ing our labor system, tnareby benefit
ing each family circle ainCnE us.