The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-05-03

ployment and the board which young
girls shall pay in our homes, that an aver
age of 50 week is good pay for standing
in stores, sewing in dressmaking or tail
oring establishments, or in the various
small manufacturing houses which are
found in every large city. This fair est,
mate of earnings is likely to be very ma
terially reduced by weeks efslack work, OF
seasons when work actually drops of, and
the girl is thrown back upon herself, with
no wages, no resources from past earnings
In a money view how much better is the
position of a servant in family. Iwould
not be squeamish in the use OF even this
word. 1t has the highest sanction; and as
there is nothing disreputable in mer
chant serving his customers, lawyer his
clients, or soldier or statesmen his
country, so it can be nothing menial for q
lily. Does it not sound as well as "opera.
tive" "salesladyp'
1t seems TO me that when the fact is
recognized that special training is neces.
sary to fill these places well, that it re.
quires more brain, higher moral qualities
almost universal genius to do the
work in an ordinary family-than for most
of the mechanical employments, such ser
vice viii rise in popular estimation.
Is it foregone conclusion, the accepted
order of things, that work in the home is
drudgery, to be called menial, and to be
performed only by the very lowest class
in the community, who by accepting ii
forfeit pretty much all claim to be consid-
cred rational human beingsi We ought
not to admit this, or that each woman, in
her own home, is shut up 10 a companion
ship inferior to what she might find amid
noisy looms, or clattering sewing ma
chimes sI.s--
What if /, daughter ofthe house, should
assist my mother. should make her bed,
sweep and dust, set the table, tend the
baby, mend and even, painful as it would
be, go to the door? Should not still be
my fathers daughter. and share the social
standing of the familyf Would not my
father he willing to pay me the wages OF
the second girl, the cost of her board, OF
her carelessness, and, perhaps, also, q
bonus for my agreeable company
1t is a suitable and honorable thing for
the son to enter his fathers counting room;
shall not the daughter be equally honored
if she undertakes to tighten the cares and
share ihe responsibilities of the mothers
To young girl seeking work, it should
be powerful argument that in taking a
position in good family as chambermaid
or nurse, or cook Gin this country, she
comes directly in contact with more OF
less intelligence and refinement; that al
any rate she gets the protection and com.
forts of home with the other members OF
the household. I do not say that she
choosing shop or factory she is governed
by the character of the shop, the hours Of
work and the companionship she win find
there. In making that choice she can
not have as large fetd to survey as in
selecting the home where she will work
There is this further consideration
which should influence her: that whatever
the mistress, whatever the work, it is bet.
ter paid, and it is rarely harder than those
occupations which the alternative offers to
her, and it is more certainly fitting her to
manage and enjoy a. home of her own.
The variety Of employments in any well
regulated family, even the endless round, .
is certainly more conducive to her health
and to her happiness than the monot.
onous tick tack, the hum drum of most of
the occupations from which the multipli-
cations of machinery, by subdividing the
process, has taken away all variety and all
human interest. Only so many muscles
of the hand or the foot are brought into
play, and the next step in invention may
supersede even that voluntary motion by
wheel or an extra screw, and dismiss
the operative.-Mrs. j. 7. Perry in Earnest
Worker.