New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-12-25
PHASES OF DOMESTIC SERVICE.

The current discussion of the state of the work
ingwomen has brought out some views concerning
the domestic service question OF character TO
surprise good many veteran housekeepers ono
of these strange deliverances is to the effect thai
worlingwomen do not like to go into house service
because employers are apt to be naughty and
domineering Now without denying the existence
Of this kind Of employers, it may be asserted with
some confidence that they constitute very small
minority and that as a rule il is the employers
who are domineered over by the servant girls.
What really makes 1t so astonishing that POOR
sewing girls half starving on three or four dollars
q week, do not seek the snug harbor OF domestic
service is tho fact that the position of the aver
age servant nowadays is enyiable that many
q care-worn mistress must sometimes long TO
change places with her overbearing and refractory
"help." In fact great many people have been
driven TO such despair by the caprice, insolence,
incompetence and Independence OF the servant
girl class that they nave surrendered ignominous-
w. and now let the help run their establishments
as seems good to- them, never venturing upon pro
test much less upon interference, lest they should
suddenly be left helpless.
To those who have been through the ordeal or
housekeeping the idea that the servant girl IS an
oppressed and ill-used creature must seem the
widest irony or course it will have to be adj
mitted that the worst faults Of the class have been
aggravated by the weak submission Of employers.
But unfortunately it is a trait of the times for
people to tolerate abuses rectiiication of which
involves trouble, and then too it is to be said In
extenuation Of the surrender principle that no
body has yet succeeded in showing how better
state of things is to be obtained. The employer
who determines TO "stand no nonsense from ser
wants will very soon be obliged to do his or her
own work, OF give up housekeeping. Practically
thuc IN Oiy those
who cling to it are made to realize that a prime
condition Of existence on this plane is the mainte
nance OF q humble and contrie demeanor toward
the servant tyrants. Nobody who values per
sonal comfort ventures to be Icremptory with
those toucby and thin skinned people Few ven
ture to curtail any Of the privileges which are
insisted upon such as "a night out once week
and every other Sunday" Numbers are con-
strained to change their habits. to eat dinner at
unconventional and depressing hours, in order not
to interfere with the social arrangements of cooks
and water-girls. AS rule Difference is paid
servants which fairly amazes the unin1tiate, but
which is really an expression of that hypocrisy
which always develops among subject races. 1t
is the sign of the subJugation under winch the
housekeepers have fallen.
In truth they do not dare to abuse their help
OF treat it harshy in any way. There is room
for complaint and commiseration in the premises,
but it is not the denizens of the kitchen and the
servants hall who are best entitled to find fault
with the situation. Nearly all young housekeep-
ers and not few mature ones, are in bondage.
Their life is perpetual putting up with
things which vex and disappoint them, but of
which they dare not openly complain. Cndoubt-
edly they do much to maintain their own con-
dition of servitude, for they abiecty accord the
wages of competence to slatternly incfciency, and
so keep recruited the dread ranks which so OPP
press tem In the light OF the facts it is almost
comica to hear it alleged that domestic service is
Stunned because women and girls cannot stand the
treatment. The simple truth Is that the servants
are nine times in ten, the "bosses," and lay down
the domestic law to their employers. This being
the case and the being notorious 1t Is the more
mysterious and inexphcable that the poor sewing |
women, at least a goodly percentage OF them, |
do not leave their machines and make dash for |
this promised land of domestic service. What can |
reasonable girls demand better than the oppor |
tunity to live in clover and at the time to |
harro'I the souls Of their "captalistic employers