New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-03-13

themes of household story with which a great
majority of readers within thirty miles OF
the City Hal are familiar. Stunted
and sterile must be the intellectual
growth of a home where so much thought
fine and temper is expended on domestic SER
vice. at is not for the gods to make pots p
is n German prOverb. The social gods might
rs we'll make the pots as to be forever talking
about them.
Nor is the heroine wholly to blame, if the
piyot on which the table talk turns is the
servant question. The husband mOrallzes
mite as much as the wife worries over this
harassing problem. The moral which ne
never tires of pointing is the fact that there
must be something radically wrong in the
system of house service. A man who has no
trouble whatever in securing worlmen IL
his business, who adyertises for a por-
ter and gets fifty applications within
twenty-four hours, and who feels ut liberty to
discharge on the spot any empiOye who is lmper-
tincnt or neglscts his work, cannot understand
why there should be so much uncertainty and
incompetcncc in household service. If he he
nartisan of his sex ne will affirm that pOrters,
hackers and laborers are recruited from the
same classes which supply the metropolis with
cocks. laundresscs and chambermads, and that
if business men are spared the annOynceS to
which their wives are subjected 1t IS manly
because they have a better method OF manag
ing their help. IN fact, the indifferent success
which women have i'm dealing with house ser
wants is often urged rs IN argument against
opcning new fields of industry for the sex, the
implication beng that those who have such
bad luck with cook and chamDcmaid
would be equally unfortunate in direct
ing and governing subOrdnates in any
department of business or professional
industry. This is the mans way Of
looking mt it. "Imaginp, my dear" he
will cxcam ga woman who cannot keep
"nurScnaid or laundress in her service four
"months at a time attempting to superintend
"a factory force Of several hundred menV
Yet in every domestic crisis he invariably
counsclS the employment of a more competent
and trustworthy servant, even if it he neces-
sary TO pay dollar or two more for her.
If the servant question has become the
plague Of domestic life, it is IN evil which has
sprung up within the present generation.
Twenty or twenty five years ago house service
man and Irish immigrants and colored people,
but hOusckecprrS were spared the annoyance
and anxiety which they now find SO wearing
a cook or Cumberland remained in her
place for years at Il time for the same reasons
which now induce porter or jauitor to cling
To hi situation. There were no marked in
in the wages paid for the same kind
of labor, and It was not easy to get a new
At present, al classes oil house
servants are 50 grossly Oycrpald that they can
afford to lose their places and be idle Tor
weeks and even months Mt n time. In various
quarters of Ncw-York aud Brooklyn there are
thousands Of servants ont of employment
who are waiting for their money TO run out
The druucs come out Of these boarding.
house hives with n store Of bad habits, and
80 abundant are the opportunities Tor work
that they invariably get higher wages than
they have previously had. The hod-carn,r
or copying-clcrk may well hesitate before Civ
ing M hl- place, for It may br long time
before he can get another. The domestic maid
servant has another SITUATION rs soon rs she
lose, the one she has, aul # she uses her wits
she can generally add a dollar to her wages.
Servants are utterly dcmor'lH"d by thc high
wages winch are NOW ptlu DE W'l-to-uO illh-
lie. 10 American cites. THIS i, fact which
all experienced Eou~cbc,pors wl.l readily
admit. Bar what are they to DO, they
ak! II Ffrh.ayruuc pays 50 for cook.
$50 for "a iauudrrs3 and TlS tor u nurse
maid or chlm5, rual how can th,y regulate
Servants wage, They mus, pay what other
people pay, and moi attempt to run counter to
the whole town! So one hoasckccpc. hires
new nur,r-gIr for 80, aud hcrucyt- doorncigh-
Dor, who paws only fl2 for general house
work. is sud leuly left without any one IN the
kitchen; and when the vacancy Is flied for
SIG in place Of $l2, discomfort rcgns through
ont the block; and in this way the mischief
spreads, the efficiency OF the service Gcgcncr-
ating steadily in proportion rs the wages are
= Iy.uccd The "dollar or two more which
the head Of the household uniformly advises,
and which the housckccrcr could avoid Giving
if size were to make rc-outc c..ot 20 get
CHEAPER servant, is the root Of tie whole evil.
the PARK UITH THE PARK LEFT OUT
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