Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-02-07
The Servant Girl.

The current number of the Nation has
a long article on the difficulties which
American housekeepers find in getting
efficient and Trustworthy service in the
kitchen.
There was q time in this country when
it could be said that honest labor of any
kind was not only respectable in fact,
but was regarded and treated as such
by people of every social grade. Forty
years ago the farmers daughters in
New England went out as hired ''help"
in their neighbors' families without a
thought of degradation, and the same
custom prevailed almost everywhere in
the rural portions of the Northern
States. Yankee girls who were ambi
tious to make higher wages than they
could get in the kitchen went to the
factories at Lowell and other places, and
many mortgage on n homestead
among the hills was paid off by the aid
of the daughter who worked in the mill.
Prior to 1910 there was no feeling of
caste or of social inferiority which kept
native born girls from working for
wages in factory or kitchen.
In later years came the influx of
foreign maids who took possession OF
the places that were then open to the
labor of young women. They were
mostly ignorant, unframed in their
work, and not well fitted to shine in
polite society. Kitchen work became
disrespectable'' can occupation to be
followed only till something better could
t<,h nl nd hn nf md 20
full housekeeping set in.
With all the inducement of high
wages and a chance to make more
money at homework than at almost
anything else a woman can do, there is
an unceasing complaint that good serv-
ants are hard to find and hard to keep.
Besides the event of matrimony to
which they all look forward rs final
deliverance from the hardships OF
scrubbing and cooking and washing and
busting and sweeping, they are attracted
by the factories where they can have
more companionship and avoid being
perpetually reminded of their social in
feriority. and so away they 60, knowing
we'll enough that the change will bring
them less money as the net result of a
years work.
1t sufficiently easy TO exclaim against
the foolishness of the girls, but that does
not bring them back. The fact is that
their mistresses, ninety-nine times in
hundred, would do the same thing if
their positions were reversed.
Second and third-rate servant girls
are always to be had, and there are
many most excellent ones who under
favOring circumstances retain their sit
uations for a long time; but the con-
slant tendency of the better class is to
drift away into other pursuits.
Some of the contributing causes to
this trouble are doubtless beyond reach,
but if any woman who has a house to
keep would know the most common
reason why really good servant is apt
to dislike service, she has only in i'm
agination to put herself in the girls
place. The servant is the only person
in the house who is expected at all
times to be polite and respectful in be-
havior. She must take the reproaches
of her mistress, however un Just, with
out talking back" She must endure
the pranks and waywardness and irri-
tating words of the children. She must
hear the man of the house grumble
over his dinner without the opportunity
of saying word in explanation or self
defense. She must leave her washing
or cooking to bring bod of coal into
the parlor the moment it is called for.
without the liberty of suggesting thai
her work is sadly broken up by the in
corruption, and still be held responsible
for the proper performance of her
work. She is frequently subjected t.
arbitrary and unnecessary rules about
going out, and to unnecessary restric-
tons about the times and places of re-
ceiving her company. She is, in shore
not as rule. but in hundreds of cases
subjected to the whims and caprice of
a woman who is careless of the serv-
ants convenience, comfort and pride,
and who is often enough the servants
inferior in good sense and good breed
ing.
This is the side of the case that pre-
sents itself to the kitchen girl, and it is
a side that is sufficiently familiar to
make the service unpopular among
great majority of those who are best
qualified to perform it well. Taking
girls as they are-good, bad and IN
different-the blame does not wholly rest
with them. The employer can by consid-
crate treatment make the servant feel
that she and her duties come within the
pale of responsibility. and that minister
ing to the daily wants of a family is BY no
means degrading to any woman. The
servant girl-who may not be much &C.
customed to read newspapers--bas had
her full share of reproach and good ad-
vice; it may be worth her while for the
other party to the housekeeping enter
prises to consider whether at least half
the fault does not lie at her own door,
Detroit Post and Tribune.