The record-union., 1892-06-04
Weather Forecas
THE SERVANT GIRL QUESTION.

Mrs. Amelia E. Barr, most accom-
plished writer, comes to the rescue of the
servant girl in an able paper in the
North american ReVieU. Mrs. Barn
checks those in opposition to her views
by frankly admitting that domestic
servants every year grow more idle,
snowy, impudent and independent. That
is, she admits the latter charge and holds
that it accounts for and includes the
others. But, says Mrs. Barr, this inde-
pendence is the necessary result of the
worlds progress, in which all classes
share.
1t must be admitted that the conclusion
of the essayist is strong. The fact that en-
ployers Of domestics have not considered
the question in the same light, accounts
very largely for the complainings. They
have themselves advanced along the line
of independence, but are unwilling to
admit that the servant girl has also been
the object of the same influences, tending
to the same results.
It is within the memory of MANY a
householder of to-day that there was
time when but very few servants in
America could read-at least their read
ing was confined within most limited
bounds. Now there are no domestics,
certainly but very few, who cannot and
do not read the daily press, the n?aga-
zines and the latest novels. This very
fact in itself is sufficient to account for
the growth of Independence.
Time was when the servant remained
in the household lifetime, but now
means of travel are so numerous, cheap
and easy that the domestic can seek new
fields and find them in an hour, and is in
no danger of being cast helpless upon
the world by reason of discharge. This
is an additional reason for independ-
ence.
Mrs. Barr points out that as people live
better now than formerly, servants have
partaken of the improved condition, and
as more servants are employed in a
household, and specialism in service has
grown, it is natural that the servant
should do less work and make greater
demands. Mrs. Barr dwells with en-
phasis also upon pregnant source of
trouble with house servants, one that all
thoughtful people must recognize-that
is the position the mistress of the
household assumes towards her do
mestics, in which she plainly in
dicates that she retains the ancient
ideas about the inferiority of the domes-
tic, not only socially, but Intellectually.
She forgets or ignores the tact that her
servant girls read perhaps as much or
more than she; that they do fancy work,
are possibly fair dramatic critics, are in
formed of the worlds advance, keep
pace with the news, and are abreast with
the doings of society" Such resent the
idea of inferiority beyond the strict lines
of duty. They insist that their relation
to the household should be purely COM
mercial one, much like that occupied by
the grocer, fruitier or merchant; that they
bargain for so much labor, and when that
is given faithfully they are otherwise
free beings, and equals in all that goes to
make up political equality, if not social,
with their mistresses
In short, servants, contends Mrs. Barr,
are part of our social system and must
psrtake of its uplifting or depression. its
enlargementor change of conditions. AS
for the servant girl herself, her error is in
her dislike for her work, in her mistaken
idea that it is less honorable than to
sell tape or serve behind a counter.
She has been inoculated with false ideas
of service by the modern drama and the
modern novel, and been taught by these
and other influences, including the mis-
tress, to consider her calling menial and
vulgar, whereas she ought to esteem
housewifery an art, and possibly as one
writer in the Cottage Hearth has put it.
fine art.
Mrs. Barr thinks that the carrying out
of three points would probably revolu-
tionize the whole condition of domestic
service First, putting the relation of
mistress and servant upon a strictly
commercial basis, so as to make it as
honorable as mechanical or store service.
Second, clear definition Of hours and