New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1879-04-09

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1en Seeking Emplsynent 81 kitchens.
Inquiry at several employment Of.
fees discloses that frequent applica-
tions are received. from men for places
where they can earn q living by doing
such work as is usually done ~ female
domestics; that many have gone out to
such service, and that they are, as q
rule, giving very good satisfaction.
This is no new thing on the Pacific
Coast, where Cinnamon are frequently
found doing the work Of domestics.
On this side Ct the Continent, the line
between the work done by males and
females is not very closely drawn in
the subterranean regions Of hotels,
restaurants, and even of BOARDING.
houses; but the employment of men to
8 considerable extent in private houses
to do the work that has hitherto been
done almost entirely by S female help
amounts to q sort of new departure.
1t is not probable that many of the
males who are doing the work of
kitchen-girls on this side would ac-
knowledge that they are indebted to the
Chinese for the idea; they would rather
allow that they were driven to seek
such service by the prospect of starva-
ton, consequent upon the extremely
sshard times.o In most cases where
they apply for an opportunity to do
such work, they are reduced beyond an
inclination to bargain as to the nature
of the duty that will fall to them, and
are willing to accept anything that
will afford them q living. Going into
the kitchen in such frame of mind,
the men. value their opportunity to
earn living; they arc much less inde-
pendent than the usual run of ''female
help" and are less audacious in de-
handing what were once regarded as
privileges, but which that class Of help
has come to regard as their rights.
There is a substratum of fact for the
ludicr0us exaggeration of satirical
weeklies upon the tyranny of the base
ment and Kitchen. The growing search
ty in the number of women who are
willing to accept service in house.
hold where they will not be treated as
Zone of the family" but as hired
help, has made it extremely difficult,
even for those who are abundantly able
to pay, to secure and retain satisfactory
domestics in their service; and if the
disposition of men to come into the
work stall have the effect of weakening
the tyranny of the kitchen, good
work will have been done.
There is scarcely any work falling to
the domcstics of the household which
men arc not doing. Able-bodied men
arc to be found in many kitchens wash
ing dishes, securing silver, lifting pots
and kettles and doing what has hitherto
been done in this country almost ex-
clnsively by female domestics. Down
in the Mushrooms men are bending over
tho dashboard, wiel ling the clothes
FOUNDER and laboring at the crank of
the wringer. They are even learning
the difficult art of putting gloss on q
shirt front or imparting the requisite
rightly to shirt-collar; but instances
of s:1c!. ambition are not very frequent.
Men are shy about protesting knowl-
edge of cookery. The most ignorant
Bridget in the land does not hesitate to
solemn!y affirm that she can preside at
the range with all the ability of a
French master OF cuisine, though she
be unable to distinguish agridiron from
side-saddle; but it is seldom that a
male applicant, even in the most re-
duccd circumstances, has the audacity
to set up such claim in the face of in
evitable failure at the first trial. In
the matter of demanding privileges, it
will take some time for the male re-
cruits to catch up with the female
regulars; no one of the former has vet
been known to stipulate for six nights
:" off, in the week and the privilege of
entertaining "young man. in the
kitchen on the seventh.
The chief obstacle to the realizing of
the good results that might be reached
through this new departure is the fact
that men generally regard such service
as unmanly. The criterion by which
things unmanly are distinguished from
manly things is easily found out, but
not easily comprehended. Thus it is
manly for man to live on the pro-
ceeds of his wife's labor as washer
woman, but it is unmanly for him to
make his own living by bending over
washtub. The why Of this defes ex-
planation.-M 7. Sun. 3d.,