Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-12-04
TEACH GIRLS TO WORK.

An Exhortatlon CHAT should Re Read by
Every Morner fn the Land.
The difficulty Of getting or keeping
good servants while every other en-
ployment is crowded with applicants is
well-known TO be the result of ideas
that domestic service is a. mark of social
inferiority. and this is SO incompatible
with American notions of equality that
the Nation has virtually gone on a
strike against doing household chores.
Our domestic servants are an imported
class.
It is only among women that the alb
surd notion prevails that any sort OF
dishonor can attach to an honest occu-
patton, so that the cause of it must be
sought in differences Of the training OF
the sexes. When our boys get through
with their schooling they are put into
the Office of a professional man or in
store or a counting-room, where like
as not they have to sweep out in the
morning, dust off the desks, put things
in order, run errands, and in general
do as they are bid without murmuring.
Inflated and self-important notions are
snubbed out of them. and to rise to po-
sitions of authority they must
first learn to obey well. American
customs are not, however, cal
culated to impress upon girls
At a time when French or German
lady is in the heyday of her social en-
lOyment an American mother has abdi-
Gated in favor of her daughters. While
it is the mistress of the household abroad
who has the most expensive costumes
and takes the place of prominence at
social gatherings the American mother
provides first for her daughter and con-
tentedly takes a back seat, finding her
recompense in her daughters enjoy
ments and successes. Thus girls are
encouraged in self-assertion; they get
the idea that the attitude Of obedience
is humiliating and resent restraint as a
hardship. Indeed, SO widely diffused
is this notion that certain wise ladies
who have taken upon themselves the
reformation of the world insist that the
obligation of obedience should be omit
ted from the marriage vows; as if any
cooperative work, whether the making
OF apair Of shoes or the establishment
of household, or the management of
the affairs Of the Nation, could be car
ried on without the duty of command
for some and the duty of obedience for
others, the one duty as useful and hon.
orable as the other.
What wonder then is it that profess
sional domestic service should be dis
credited when caste distinctions are
drawn against itP The radical cure of
This great evil in American life is then
CLEARLY to put household service on an
honorable footing. Treat our girls as
fairly as our boys. Make their allow
iances compensation for the perform
.ances of specified household tasks. and
strictly conditioned upon the exact dis
tcharge of duty. If the daughters of the
house are themselves enrolled among
its hired servants, distinctions based
merely on character of employ ment
can not survive. Moreover, in so do
ing, the great law of nature will be con-
formed to, that all gains should be the
result of Individual effort Violations
of this principle invariably cause de-
terioration of character. Any plant or
animal that adopts parasitic habits in
evitably suffers a degradation of type.
Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette.