Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-05-05
EMPLOYMENT FOR GIRLS.

wisdom that ought to sink deep into the
American heart" it is the refinement of
cruelty to educate girls in the aimless
fashion of to-day" The boy is trained to
look forward to some useful vocation and
honorable career, for the girl oftenest there
is no fixed purpose in life except mar
riage. When the women by reverse of
fortune are thrown upon their own re-
sources the great majority find themselves
unframed to the self-helpfulness that
reward-winning, honorable vocation as
sures. The question "What shall | do to
make money for my necessities? ~ may
present itself to every woman. The re-
course of the widow, the orphaned daugh-
ter, the wife with dependent family is in
nine cases out of ten toll of the severest
character and meanest reward. The one
vocation of all others that pays best and
is most independent, is that most avoided
by American working women-domestic
service. As the Century writer well says
Domestic servants are well off in Amer
lea; they are the most independ-
ent class Of women-workers. The
great army of shop girls, factory girls, sew
ing girls, those engaged in trades of all
kinds, may congratulate themselves upon
their comparatively happy lot. They
often look with envy upon those who, they
fancy, are better off than themselves. Let
them cultivate spirit of contentment.
There are trials-bitter, bitter trials-in
the lives of some of those they are foolish
enough to envy, of which they know
nothing. There are miseries of which
they never dream"
In California We are rapidly approach
ing the day when we will be put face to
face with the question of supplying the
demand for domestic service. The Chinese
domestic is to be eliminated from our
system. 1t will be but brief time before
he will be known in the households of
California only in memory. His place
ought to be taken by American labor
taught girls. Any fairly intelligent girl
can, in year or two of time, be brought to a
high degree of skill in housekeeping. 1t
will serve her when she is compelled to
earn her own living, and serve her better
still when the mistress of her own house
hold. There is only one real barrier between
the American working woman and do
nestle service, and that is false estimate
of the character of the labor. The idea
prevails that it is below the grade of the
shop girl. typewriter, telegrapher, sewing
girl, ETC., when in fact domestic service in
its independence and character is superior
to them all. 1t is the least dependent.
the best rewarded, the least trying to
health, and the best adapted to vigorous
woman. The farmers daughters, the girls
who come of families in which the labor
of each member from earliest ability was
necessity, understood this well at the
East few years ago, and in the West
still do. 1t is there more honorable for
the daughter to go out to service than to
measure tape behind counter, more so
than to serve under tyrannous task
master in factory, or to bend for weary
hours over a sewing machine in the cheer
less loft of some cheap clothing establish
ment.
We do not lose sight of the fact that
there are very many domestic circles
where the knowledge of how to treat the
working woman is woefully small house
mistresses who are more tyrannous and ex-
acting than Shahs of Persia, and who make
their domestic help feel that a dogs life is
to be envied by them. But with the
American working girl in service this
class would be brought to a better apprc-
citation of the relations of employer and
employee. These petty hearthstone tyrants,
the product of the system that crowded
the American girl from the service she
once controlled, will themselves come
into harmony with the better system when
society, as it probably will, DEGREES its re-
establishment. When working women re-
turn, as they may, to domestic service, they
will be able to avoid these first-named self
sufficient people, better than they now can
avoid the latter class.
There are tens of thousands of house
holds where competent, Independent, mod
est and willing working girls can secure
employment, and find in service the re-
ward not only measured by coin, but
by recognition of the honorableness of
labor; tens of thousands of homes where
the working women will find kindness,
consideration, discipline and comfort. Out
of such homes willing workers will go
with money saved, the happiness that
springs from congenial occupation, and the
independence co-equal with honorable, use
full labor so capitalized by skill that it can