Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1891-08-01
CHOOSING A SERVANT.
OPINIONS OF stveRAL lNrELLl-
GENcE oFFlGE KEEPERS.

with Ordinary TASK He'd Help the Chief
Trouble l. Generaii y with the Employ
er, Who IL Usually a Woman = In
Justice TO Hardw"r king Girls.
A small tow headed boy, with a vacant
look ON his face, ami thumb worn old
blankbook in his dirty hands. sitting ON
a short stool before d Uttered desk, whis-
Ting in lazy. half hearted tone; a small
stove emitting fierce heat in an indig-
nant sort Of way. al If disgusted with
itself and its surroundings; nine rickety
chairs, set in rows along the walls: a
faded old carpet. a s tnoke stained ceiling
and rickety table these are the OBJ
jects Of furniture in a small square room
one one OF the east side avenues
The interior of tine roon Is screened
from the view Of pdssers by dingy blue
curtain drawn over the lower half of
the windows. A le gend in faded yellow
'--ence gilt--letters over the door aud ON
the windows ammo ounces that servants
may be hired theI Ie This is typical
Employment Agency
A reasonably careful observer win see
many curious things in an hour in one
of these agencies II is always easy to
get high priced help. There is plenty Of
It, But the less skilled and lower priced
service is hard to obtain That is the
kind most Of the agencies have to do
with. Nine out Of ten Of the agents will
tell you that the great trouble in secur
ing satisfactory he is with the employ
ers. A casual Investigation goes TO show
that they are right
VARIOUS OPINIONS.
The agents say that the business has
changed greatly ih the last few years
Twenty years ago" said one of them
recently. when a young couple set mp
housekeeping they expected to start a
permanent establi shment The women
in those days We're familiar with house.
work from their own house training.
They were not ashamed to go into the
kitchen occasionally and give the green
help little instruction Then. too, we
got great deal of green help from the
constant immigration which stopped
here
Now. all that is changed The women
either don't know enough, or are too
high toned to go into their kitchens and
give their cook a pointer when things
don't go right A nd the supply of green
help from immigrants is cut off. They
don't stop here an more They go on
out west, where the old way has not
changed so much for the worse. Its
almost impossible to get the ordinary
plain help now"
Very few people know how to engage
help" said another agent. "They come
here and talk To the girls for an hour at
a time, and they don't know enough to
pick out the on who will suit them
Four-fifths Of the time they go to telling
what said To my last cook. or what
she said to me. and the npshot of it is
they make the girl think the place is too
hard and she won't go. whereas If they
went at it in "A busnesslike way they
could soon be suited"
Yes, said "A third agent, 1.-The ever
lasting shifting Is making "a lot of irou.
BILE now. It's r are thing for a girl to
have place more than few months
even when she gives the best satisfaction
People go to Europe for the summer and
/ go to Florida for the winter, and keep
house in the intervals between their
pleasant trips. Then they growl because
they can't get irst class help. They're
the people that 1io the kicking. They
want servants 10 show references for
years Of service when they only expect
TO hire them for d few weeksor months. :
TWO AGENCIES
| There are two inside rooms at the place
above described where girls looking for
work wait for possible employers. They
come early in thu morning and wait un.
til the office clio ses at o'clock in the
afternoon. Mhdn an employer comes
the agent politely offers chair and in
quires into the needs of his customer
He then goes intp one of the inner rooms
and looks over his supply The accom-.
plishments and pedigree of each one in
the inside rooms have been fully noted
down when the applied to the agent.
and he is pretty familiar with them all
He selects what one he thinks will best
satisfy the visitor, and indicates with q
graceful wave bf the hand the one Il
whom the sspitant for work is to ad
dress herself. sometimes bargain Ia
struck almost Immediately.
There is an employment Office in Sixth
avenue that is Just little different from
any of the rest Of them. 1t is run by a
woman, clear headed, gray eyed Eng
lish woman, who was for years the
housekeeper for a well known New
Yorker. Her clientage is almost wholly
among the wealthy people. And the
peculiar part Of 1t is that they scarcely
ever visit her Office She has Who'll,
deskful of letters which say. "Yon know
just what | wa ut, and trust you to gel
1t for me"
Some day this woman will wake up I,
the fact that ahe has valuable lot o.
autograph letters from many Of the bes
known women Of this city, with not !
few from Philadelphia, Washington
Baltimore and other towns An anctioI
sale Of these autographs would Interest
great many people and be very profit
able TO her. New York Sun.
Practical Joke.
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