The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-03-27
The HIRED Girl.
Her Traits and Privileges-How Much 1t
Costs to Keep Her.


The discovery was made by news
paper Photographer some years ago that
It takes three to make a pair-he. she
and the. hired girl. This truth was sus-'
pected for a previous decade or more,
but no mind had been discerning
| enough to formulate it. Since it has
become an axiom of family life, it
raises the party of the third part to an
| important rank in the domestic circle.
That she is important no one who has
ever hired her has failed to find out.
Happy are they who meet in her a
treasure. Twice happy are those who
can get along without her. Here in
Springfield the servant girls are Irish,
and form two distinct classes, the ma
tives of the realm of St Patrick and
those of American birth. As rule,
the latter, having had at least the rudi-
ments of common-schooi education,
are. to marked degree, more intelli-
gent and capable than the former. The
wages paid these domestics range from
two to four dollars week. tho former
sum going to the least experienced and
efficient, and the latter to the favorites
of wealthy families and cooks in
restaurants, whose work is especially
hard. The average pay of the girl
who can wash and iron and do part or
the whole cooking of family of rea-
sonable size is three dollars: and it is
price which makes these girls one of the
most independent classes in the COM
munity. Some business men would be
! glad in these times, after paying all
their bills for food fuel, rent: washing
and lights, to- have three dollars Il
week lett fsr clothing and other purely
personsf comforts.
When the average domestic appears
Oh the street in her Sunday clothes she
carries about her an air of comfort and
Responsibility which is often painfully
| lacking among crowd of shop-girls.
! And there are some kitchen maidenS of
| whom it can truly be said: ''She is very
much of lady" 1t is common TO ac-
ctrse this class of putting every cent
/ they can earn on their backs, and that.
! too, is fashion which will cause the
| most possible display. Still there are
! Springfield hired girls who are real-es-
tate owners and ''fore-handed' in other
| respects. Many of them have money
! laid by in the savings bank. and one
| local institution can count mp more than
thousand depositors from this class.
| The amounts invested are also conSid.
| cradle, some of the books bearing
| credits Of one thousand dollars and even
twelve hundred dollars. The uSages of
society are as firmly established in the
| kitchen As in the parlor. Calls are made
and returned with due formality. As a
! general thing the domestic does not as
sociate with the shop-girl, the feeling of
! superiority of one over the other being
| mutual. And the domestic has set OF
her own. into which not every servant
need apply for admission. The stand
ing of the employers family is general
" considered when a newcomer seeks
to mingle in the highest circles, educa-
ton, ability to do fancy work and few
similar accomplishments being also re-
garded. Some of the Springfield do
mestics have married very well and
maintain orderly and attractive homes.
to which they welcome their unmarried
brought up III our best families. have
married poorly, and the places where
they live are as untidy and feyer-breed-
ING as any in the city. The contrast
between the knowledge of this class
and their use of it is painful enough TO
sicken the most hopeful union relief Wis
itor in the land. They hold themselves
to step into any house to which they
may be called on an emergency and 90
up the work, whatever it may be, in en-
cellcnt shape, and they teach their chill
dren to do the same, for a consideration.
But in their own quarters they some
times live with a very uneisilized fash
ion.
The hired girls privileges vary consid-
erabiy in different families. 1t is gene
rally understood thai after the Sunday
dinner is out of the way she shall have
the rest of the day TO herself. even though
the family are forced to be content
with bread-and- milk supper. Some
housekeepers think they must be very
maintaining discipline. They lay
down the law that their girls can have
only one afternoon and one evening
out each week. while others allow their
servants to be away whenever their
absence does not inconvenience the
family. And the contrast is kept up
all along the scale. One woman was
heard to remark a while since that
when she caught the girl reading the
daily paper she guessed they'd catch
it. But other families are glad to keep
help Intelligent enough to care for the
papers. These people are willing their
domestics shall have a fire in their
sleeping-rooms a part of the day, Sc
that place may be afforded for sewing
and recreation, and they need not be
tied down TO the kitchen during all
their working hours. The best girls are
kept in the same families year after year,
while the poor ones are constantly
floating through the intelligence Offices
A well-to-do family will do almost any.
thing in order to keep tirst-clasS girl.
Gases have been known where they
paid her full wages and also paid her
board during their absence in,Californis
or Europe. 1t is probably more com
mon to pay halt-wages in such cases.
How much it costs to keep girl is {:
much mooted question. Some mis-
tresses of experience put the amount as
high as ten dollars week, and claim
that they have figured out this result
carefully. TEey allow three dollors fol
wages, three dollars for board, ard fGm
dollars for waste, provided the servant
is Left TO do about Us she pleases. The
last item seems large one and doubt
less it depends very much on the char