Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-10-27
"Wanted---A Girl TO do House.
Work.. :

Indianapolis NeWs,l
The other day an issue Of the News
bad half hundred advertisements Of
the purport of the head line Of this
article. What has made the demand
for household help which these adyer-
tisements show, is neither here MOI
there in comparison with the sugges
ton as TO now the demand may be
supplied, and how such supply vii
work to the benefit of those making it
1t cannot have escaped the mos
superficial observation that the
domestic service of this country i:
supplied almost exclusively by foreign
chiefly Irish and Germans. An Ameri.
can girl in the kitchen, unless it be hel
own is as rare a sight as snow in July.
We doubt ifin one,ofa hundred house.
in this community, or any other
may be found American girls in am
capacity as help" Why this is we
are at a loss 20 say, unless for a reason
that is by no means complimentary Ia
American womanhood, which like it:
manhood, claims to be the shrewdesI
and most practical on earth, and least
hampered by the artificial regulation;
of social ranks and castles. This rea.
son Oe unreas0n is the belief thatthert
is something mental, that is to say
s@ervile, in house work. The old feu.
dal flavor Of body service seems Il
linger in modern America, or the
equally false one of the present day.
imperialism, which grades everything
down from a throne, and makes each
person but a servant of servants.
IL seems TO matter not that Amer
lean institutions have given the lie tC
this theory, and that every day i
offers examples Of honorable elevator
from the humblest conditions. TIL,
dependent womanhood Of the country
seem to make no account of it, buI
must needs feed their notions of higf
life below stairs by standing a dozer
hours a day behind a counter, or sit
ting nearly as long in some ding,
room, four stories, back, to stitch
stieh, stieh,-
Sewing at once With q double thread
AshrOud g. well as a shirt.
What American girls can find ii
such positions to comfort their no
tons Of independence we are at a los
to see. But they do. evidently
There is hardly one of them wh,
stands on foot all day long, to com.
and 90 at the beck and nod of som.
head clerk, or who sits all day ply
ing needle and thread who wOuldn'
feel insulted at an offer Of a place il
a f.mily at better wages, where tn.
influence Of a home life NATURAL,
throw their protection around her
and where the advantages Of persona
acquaintance naturally follow. TIL
shop girls aud needle Womel
are mostly Americans. The
get - we speak Of til
rank and ile-flty cents a day, som
Of them less, and find themselves
They work ten hours and som
tWelye-steady, body-wasting work
unremittant application to one thing
The house and a halfdOllars per week
some of them girls get from two and
half TO three or four, the average per
haps three. They get besides bette
food than the shop girl can possibl
secure for herself on the sler DER pit
lance Of three dollars a week for a
expenses. They get a comfortabl
place to live in, rent free. Thei
work is not combining. They usual
have a great deal Of time for them
selves. None of them ever shows
desire to read and Inn
prove herself that she hash
access to the library Of the house, an
all the time she is under home inhu
ences. Yet such a position as this j
looked upon with scorn by the pale
oyerworked, under-fed American cir
who fancies she maintains her indie
pendence when she refuses it, but i
fact only adyertises her folly. II wer
better for the minds, bodies an
morals Of American girls if they wer
to realize that American institution
have stamped all labor honorable tina
is honest, aud that a place in a yirtu
Gus household, even we're it at lowe
instead Of higher wages, is inGnitel
preferable to those subordinate one
il the public gaze which they rush
fll.