Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-06-01
NOTHING MENIAL.
BY HELEN EvERTsoN SMITH.

''We want work; or, rather, we want
money, and suppose we shall have tc
make some effort to get it. We DOM
know how to do any thing in particular,
but we are willing to take any position,
providing some one else does the work
and we get the money"
How else are to be construed ap-
peals like the following: ga lady in
reduced circumstances would accept q
position as housekeeper, or anything
not menial!'
1t is true that twenty-one such pur.
poseless walls are but a small proper
ton of the six columns of advertise,
ments, most of them making at least O
claim on part of the advertisers to pos,
sess an ability to do some special
thing; but they put into words the
feeling of a very large class whose
ideas of the qualifications necessary to
earn living in any way are still more
indefinite.
For some years past / have been so
situated as TO know much of the pitt
full needs of helpless women, and the
still more pi iful shifts to which they
will resort in order to escape the ne
cessity for work; and have come to the
conclusion that the dictionary
have good deal to answer for in CIV
ing domestic service" as one of the
definitions of "meDialp' The resem-
blsnce between the sounds of mean
and menial is so strong that the con-
clusion is almost irresistible to the un-
educated that "Menill service is a
mean thing; hence, domestic service,
being menial, must be mean; of course,
only mean person can do mean
things; We are not mean, therefore can
do nothing meniaP'-a conclusion
which puts domestic service out of the
question. Yet the two words not only
have nothing in common, but are even
derived from different languages;
mean in the sense of vulgar and base,
coming from the Anglo-Saxon; and
menial, through the Norman French
adjective Bleiq,laL, from the noun
"nleSHie-family, household, or COM
pa1y have not in their original
significance any closer relation than in
present fact, which is none at all.
In the struggle for subsistence the
poor are nee, ssarily handicapped,
though less so in this country than in
any other, and poor women everywhere
are even more heavily handicapped
than men; and this "menisl" bugbear
is one of the heaviest of the impending
weights.
1 once knew a pair of middle-aged
sisters who had lost all by removing
their money from a safe investment at
hve per cent. to put it in an unsafe
place at fifteen per cent. A wealthy
.sdy of their acquaintance rented and
stocked for them small clancy
store" in the little town where they
had always lived, and where everyone
tolt kindly toward and wished to help
them. But the town was hardly large
enough to support such store in
way that would enable tie two sisters
to hire all the assistance which they
Eancied they required Even to keep
their own books they felt to be 'meni-
al" yet there was no help for it, and
One of them did manage to keep
their little accounts in a slipshod
style. The other sister, it seemed,
could not even do so much as this
The lady who furnished the capital
WAS obliged to make all the purchases
herself and to affix the selling price to
each article, ard even then would find
that the sister VINO most grudgingly
acted as ''saleslady" would continually
confuse matters in such way that for
a hunh ed skeins of wool sold at one
asked than if sold singly; that for
6ve-cent paper of pins ten cents would
be demanded, or spool of silk worth
forty cents would be sold for twenty.
10 the minds Of these unfortunate sis
ters the earning of ones bread in any
form was ''menial, and the sole con-
ISOLATION of their lives was in telling of |
the luxurIes they had once enjoyed |
(which Injuries grew no less in appar-
ent number and quality as they re- |
ceded from view.
OF course a speedy end came to this
sort of work, the patroness being de-
cldedly out of pocket from her at
tempts to help, aud the sisters uniting
IN attributing their failure to her pen
uriousness and the harshness of an un-
friendly world
Another woman stranded on life's |
lands by the death of her husband-an
averworked bookkeeper-dec1ded that
The "would accept" a position as house,
Keeper in wealthy family where she
Eould have to do nothing menial."
Under examination it was ascertained
shat she had never kept house in
sven the plainest way, did not know a
prime rib roast" from a "chuck, :"
aad no idea vhetever of the require
nents of a fine establishments and
,ould not even have arranged the de-
ails for the simplest well-ordered din
ser. She had fancied the duties of a
aousekeeper to consist solely in hiring
md discharging servants and paying
The monthly bills. Even for these
things she was unfit, knowing nothing
of the duties or rights of servants and
nearly as little of the simplest rules of
arithmetic.
A highly educated woman, who for
years had been practically the honored
"head Of the house" in the family of a
wealthy invalid widow, took pity on
this poor soul and said: sit is evident
ihat you do not know the elements of
The calling upon which you wish to
enter. If you are in earnest, l will
leach you, but [ must have you under
my own eye. l am allowed an assistant
who must be able to fill any gap in the
household service. You do not know
The things that such an assistant should,
but will waive that and teach you
everything, and you will have a good
home and S12 per month while learning.
''What-what," hesitalingly queried
the apI licant, ''what shall 1 have to do?
'Well, you see, my dear" cheerily
tepIled the housekeeper, '1f the cook
IS i'll, or quits, or misbehaves herself,
Just when we expect large party to |
dinner, there must always be some one !
who can step in and make good all de- ;
hciencies. l can, and have done so :
many time, L will teach you what '
you have to do to make everything run
smoothly. In such an emergency, ,
when IN the city, we send out and buy :
what Is lacking, but You must know ,
what and how to order, and how to .
dish it all up, and see thntit is properly :
put upon the table. Then sometimes =
we may have to change chambermaid {
Or waiter. You must know how their y
work should be done, or you could !;
not Judge or train new one. See?"
And the hriCht black eyes of the