Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-11-05
SERVANTS WAGES.
How Women Hurt Themselves by House
hold Extrayagance.


It must be admitted that all dealings
with female house servants are intrusted
to women. They, then, are responsible for
the prices paid for the work they have to
offer; and it is equally clear that they are
paying for it at ratio with which nothing
else in the labor market is comparable.
Are female servants scarce? Certainly not.
Look at the crowded benches in our So
callel intelligence Heaven save the
mark j offices glance at the long line of
steerage passengers as they defile into Cas-
tie Garden from the crowded decks of our
emigrant ships. Hundreds of women and
girls are fastening to our shores from
every part of Europe, asking for places in
our kitchens. Is it that most Of these are
ignorant and valueless TO the housekeeper
who must have skilled labor? No. Ignor-
ant most of them certainly are, and many
seem incapable of learning; yet the Irish
girl. who, if employed in Dublin, would
consider herself well paid for her labor by
SO, or at most 912 per annum no sooner
presses her foot upon American soil than
she demands $500.
More than any class of women in the
world, if we except the indolent Asiatic,
do American women need servants. We
have not the robust frame nor the sturdy
strength of the British matron or the Ger
man hdusfrau. Our climate is exhausting,
our lives are varied and exacting, our
frames are slight and our nerves weak
We can do much with our heads-much
planning and thinking, much arranging
and directing. To supplement this we
need the strong arms. the tireless backs, of
the peasant women of the Old World. If
we were wise and sensible enough to pay
them moderately, but fairly, to make them
dress sensibly and live plainly, in every
case where we now can have but one pair
of hands to assist in the household work,
while we make shift to do the rest, we
might have two. Yes, there is no question
that if the maid of-all-work, who now re-
ceiyes SIG per month and is fed like one
of the family" were to receive the same
wages that an English housekeeper would
pay, to eat what English servants are given
to eat, instead of broils and roasts and
dainty luxuries in the way of deserts,
the jaded female head of our smaller
American households would find that she
could keep two girls without adding
dollar to her yearly expenses. And why
cannot this be done? Is it not a positive
wrong that it should not be done? The
poor of Europe are crowding to cur shores
demanding work, and there is none for
them: begging for food and shelter, and
suffering misery and lapsing into sin for
want of decent homes and honest labor.
Are not our women blind to their duty in
giving one what is abundant for two,
in keeping mp an unnatural and unreason-
able scale of prices for the benefit of
few? We have not waited for our en-
ployes to impress tho boycott upon US we
have boycotted ourselves. Without reason.
without outside pressure. in defiance of
common sense, and to their detriment and
ours; we insist upon state Of affairs that
is a sarcasm upon our judgment and a con-
vinciDg proof that, whatever we may attain
10 in the future, men are very right yet in
saying that we lack business knowledge
and capacity, and show ourselves siDgu-
larry unintelligent in regard to the conduct
OF affairs.-Aaantic Monthly.