Daily Republican., 1881-08-26
Hired House Help.

Hired House Help.
One of the most perplexing .hlng
housekeepers have to be bothered wit
and which causes more anxiety u
the household is help in the kitchen
The experience Of many people VIII
hired household help would seem II
~coptirm the belief that servants ar
persons who are paid wages, in retur'
for the privilege of providing then
with board and lodging, and if th'
housekeeper accedes to their demand
they will at times condescend to cook
iron and wash for them. The kitchen
maid, in fact, holds the leading strings
of the household. Ifpeople had neither
houses to keep clean they would not
want anybody to help them, and conse'
1uently there would be no hired help.
Nearly every housekeeper who has had
occasion to hire help las realized at
times how completely they are in thp
power Of those "helps,' and they are
kept in constant and nervous state of
irritability, from the fact that they do
not know at what moment the cook
may take it in her head to make d
change and walk off. The question has
been frequently asked why it is that so
few native born girls of American pa
rentage will not accept Of such house
hold work, and thereby avoid the disa
greeable nee essity Of having to depend
upon household hired help. This is a
question, it is said, that is hard to solve,
but it is not so hard as it looks, Yet it
is nevertheless fact that our native
born girls will endure almost amy pri-
vation and submit to any amount of
tyranny and oppressioni in other callings
OF life before they will 60 into the
kitchen to do "houSehold drudgery,"
as they call it, although by doing 50
they would have good home, plenty
to do, plenty to eat and possibly good
wages 1t seems tn at they prefer labor
ing in manufacturers, or tending behind
counters in stores, working for talors,
mllllnerS or mantaumahers, type set.
ting, cigar making, working in cotton
and woollen mills, or doing some other
kind Of hard and wearying work, re-
ceiving merely enough 10 keep soul an
body together, simply because they can
make show Of Independence and have
their own way. Housekeepers hay
FUND it practically useless to turn to
our American girls for relief, and con.
Sequenty the household labor in cities
has been monopolized by Irish girls,
who have no interest in the family far
ther than to do as Little wock as posi-
BILE for the wages they receive. The
fact that housekeepers who raise their
daughters to despse kitchen work are
dependent upon this hired help has
made the latter exacting and tyranni-
cal and often impertinent and ungrate-
ful, fault which is not always on one
side however, as many housekeepers are
e1acting and tyrannical too, and in
consequence are always on the hunt for
hired help.
The application of servant girls for
places now makes au almost every day
domestic comedy. The mistress is put
through an almost interminable laby.
rinth of questions, such as, GLOW many
in the family 2" "Have you hot and
cold water" How often do you 20 |
out?" and any number of other aues-
tions. They have their Trade Unions,
too but they are generally held on the
door steps of some neighbor who is out |
OF town. Here they congregate, rogu-
late prices and discuss the character of
their employees-what the temper of
the mistress is and how the head of tie
family conducts himself, together with
all the particulars of the affairs of each
household in the neighborhood. We
are not surprised that those who can
get along without hired help may con-
slider themselves blessed Tyranny in
the kitchen has reached such a state
that t,le greatest trial of housekeepar
is to get good and reliable servant girls
who are competent to work and can be
implicitly trusted,
The only remedy we can see out OF
this difficulty is for mothers to learn
their own girls to do the housework.
The face Of u servant girl should never
be seen in a family where there is help
at home to do all the work if properly
trained. 1t detracts nothing from the
character and standing of American
girls to be found cooking, washing, iron
ing ant scrubbing in their homes, and
even in the homes of Others Let moth.
ers train their daughters to habits of
industry at home, instead of rearing
them III idIeness and instilling into
their minds the idea that household work
is not respectable, and they will have
plenty of help within their own fani-
lies without dep n1ing upon the ty-
ranny and imposition of hired foreign
help