The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1891-08-21
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GENERAL UTILITY WOMEN.
A Writer Thinks There Is Opportunity
for Working Women in Summer.

A Writer Thinks There Is Opportunity
!. for Working Women in Summer.
wonder why some enterprising wom-
an does. not start general utility
bureau" This bureau should supply
capable women who would go out by
the hour or half day to do all kinds of
odd jobs from cleaning windows to hair
dressing.
In the beginning of the summer sea-
son the manager should establish one or
two of her women in each resort and
send their addresses and prices to every
cottager.
The smaller and more remote resorts
should be her chief sphere of action.
In these places it is an almost utter
impossibihty to secure help of any de-
scription, and the majority of families
bring only one servant with them and
often find it difficult to keep that one.
am in charming and beautiful nook
upon the sound, four miles from the
nearest railway station and seven miles
from spool of thread We have the
ocean in front and on each side of US, the
country behind US. A hundred or more
cottages, mainly owned by their occu-
pants, bring several hundred people here
early In the season, who come for pure
air, rest and freedom from the tyranny
of fashion. For these hundreds of peo-
pie there are but two women who can
be hired to work out by the day in any
capacity. Ihave heard score of ladies
already complain of their need of differ
ant 10 of Il,
OF similar resorts scattered through the
country and along the coast, and the
utility bureau" would find ready de-
mand for efficient women if it once pro-
vided them and advertised the fact.
The utility woman should be able to
do four hours work, or to aid in it, If
need be, but she should not make this q
speciality to the exclusion of other things.
She must be able to turn her hand to
many other tasks. She ought to know
how to run sewing machine to "help
OUT the people who left town with their
sewing undone, and who do not need
dressmaker or professional seamstress,
but merely an extra hand"
Lamps are the bette noire of all
country houses. The utility woman who
would go from door to door cleaning,
trimming and filling lamps would find
blessings and silver showered upon her.
Though she might draw the line at
washing, leaving that for the laundress
proper, she would be capable and willing
to aid with the ironing.
The.utility woman who chose the sea-
shore resorts for her sphere of action
should be able to give tired swimmer
a good rub down" in alcohol or per-
fumed oils. She need not understand
massage" as administered to invalids,
but she could easily acquire skill enough
to give the body a good hand friction;
and then she should be deft with fan
bathers. This service alone would net
our utility women a fine bit of profit.
There are few women who would not
gladly pay ten cents for this brief service
after bathing and a quarter for twenty
minutes "rub down."
The utility woman could easily rent
small room of one of the cottagers for 50
or So week, and she could earn from So
to SIS week and her board during the
IuIto SuuuuucI LuOuIuS, WcI6 BIO db dill
skillful or willing, in her various capaci-
ties, no one Of them severely laborious.
The utility man" could do equally
well in these places. But he needs to be
sort of combination of gardener, street
cleaner, house painter and decorator,
chief cook and bottle washer, marketer
and errand boy. And we seldom find
men able to combine many trades, while
the average woman is by nature an all
around worker.
When I left New York on every side
men and women were begging their
bread and complaining because they
could get nothing to do. Ever since
came here the cry which has resounded
upon my ears has been, eve can get no
one to help US at any price" We are but
eighty miles from New York, and the
metropolis is surrounded on every side
by similarly situated summer resorts.
Let some woman, then, introduce the
utility bureau!-Ella Wheeler Wilcox in
New York World.