The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-05-06
TALKS OVER THE TEA CUPS.
DAYS OF UNsKILLED LABOR GONE.
A Sketch of q Celebrated English Woman
Are You MArrisd?--Ths Decorating
OF Summer Home-Some
Odds aud Ends.
The most prominent figure before the

The most prominent figure before the
working world today is the business
woman. One would think, to hear and
read all that is being said and written at
the present time about the wonderful sue
cess of women in business, that women
had been asleep heretofore. and had just
awakened and gone to work.
There is one fact that ought to be firmly
impressed upon the mind of the girl who
desires to earn her own living. The day
of the iack-of-all-trades is past, and skilled
laborers are demanded in every field of
work. Two-thirds OF the so-called bust
ness women are simply playing at work.
They are working to earn pin-money
enough to dress well, or in hundreds of
cases girls go to work to earn enough
money to buy wedding finery; and then
there is a wedding, and the business man
has to train n new hand into the work.
Pick out the women who expect to work
throughout their lifetime and you would
find about twenty-five out of 100 who had
gone through thorough course of train
ing and were trying to reach the top OF
their profession.
This state of affairs holds true in almost
every line OF woman's work. The em-
ploye expects to get her experience while
in the service of her employer, and makes
but little actual preparation Tor her work.
This is notably true OF domestics a
ready-trained servant is a great rarity.
Instead of girl going out into service
with a thorough knowledge OF cooking
and household duties she boldly an
nounces herself as capable of doing house.
work, accepts position and expects her
mistress to instruct her in all the branches
of homework and plain and fancy cook
ing, while her mistress gives her so
much per week for learning what
she has adopted as her
calling. Then after her mistress
has spent weeks in the kitchen over the
hot stove, teaching the servant to cook;
has seen her choicest china broken in a
thousand pieces; has patiently stood the
waste and extravaganza of an ignorant
cOok-after all this, when she is ready to
boast to her friends that she can turn her
household matters over to her servant,
she is confronted with a demand for higher
wages, and has the pleasure of seeing her
pupil leave in wrath to go where she can
get higher wages.
Industrial schools and kitchen gardens
will do a great deal to obviate this exas-
perating state of affairs, Tor they will
place skilled domestics within reach. The
girl who goes into service, an apprentice,
who has TO be taught the very rudiments
OF housekeeping, ought not to demand
wages. She is receiving her board and in
struction in her work free, and the brunt
OF her inexperience falls upon her suffering
mistress.
We would keep out of every profession
the women who are simply dallying with
work to kill time or to earn spending
money. We would encourage every girl
who is forced to earn her livelihood, to
choose her profession, whether it be to be
housekeeper or a physician, to enter into
it seriously and to perfect herself in every
detail of the works, TO not content her
self with getting through her weeks work
in slip-shod manner and getting her
money; but to take pride in becoming
skillful and rising to the top of her pro-
fession.