The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1893-04-21
ON DOM ESTIC HELP.

Nowhere on the American continent
is there a better field for a number of
good women who are qualified for gen.
eral housework than right here in Great
Falls.
At present the market is not adequate
ly supplied even in respect to quantity,
and as for quality there is much to be
desired. A large percentage of the
women or girls who seek ard obtain sit
u~ations in families, are but i%nditferently
qualified for the work they are expected
to perform. There is not one in a dozen
who can prepare a meal and serve 1t in a
satisfactory manner, while there are sew
eral in a dozen whose cookery amounts
simply to the virtual spelling OF the
meats and vegetables left to their tender
mercies in the kitchen.
Think Of a shoemaker or a blacksmith,
a dry goods clerk or an editor demand
ing employment at the highest wages
paid for such service, and possessing no
training, experience or qualifications for
the work in hand. And yet this is ex-
actly what a large proportion Of the do
nestle help in the United States does.
1t is the same from New York to San
Francisco, and from Duluth to New Or
leans. In the south the colored women
are nearly always good plain cooks, and
they make willing and agreeable house,
hold helps; but in all other sections Of
the country a majority Of the house,
keepers are wrestling with the problem.
1t is one which few have been able to
solve,
Among the very rich the difficulty is
reduced to a minimum by two facts.
The first is that they employ only trained
help, each individual of whom has proper
credentials as to service and ability; and
the second that they pay high wages,
and keep 80 many servants that there is
not a great deal for any of them to do.
AS money solves so many other problems
of existence, so it solves this one, and
the people who have to suffer most be-
cause of inadequate and inefficient do
nestle service are those of moderate
means, which means by far the greater
part of the human family who have any
mean at all. Many of this class are so
situated that it is almost out of the
question for them to get along with COM
fort unless at least n general help can
be kept. They are able and willing to
pay tie high wages, but what do they
usually get in return?
Take the situation in Great Falls. \
woman who can cook ever SO little, and
who has what may by courtesy be re-
garded as a smattcring of household
knowledge will demand S25 per month.
She has in addition to be fed and lodged
and provided with light. AS rents 60
here $40 a month is a moderate rental to
place Oh her comfortably furnished room;
she could not be boarded for less than
S25. and her electric light will cost at
least 81, making SOL, or more than 81
per day all the year round, which is a
great deal better than most workingmen
make who have families to support.
The domestic help, moreover, gets many
holidays, "days off" ana other privileges
for which no deduction is ever made on
her wages. If the wastefulness of many
of the more ignorant we're taken into &C.
count the cost to the housekeeper would
be greatly increased.
1t may be admitted that many people
who employ girls Git is not allowable to
call them servants, though any person
who serves another for wages is properly
so called, and the name should have no
lowering signifcance), do not treat them
kindly or considerably, but this is rarely
the case. American women, as a rule,
are kind to their help-often too kind.
But what about the help themselves?
The generality of them have never sus-
pected that a course of training for the
manner and duties of their station
would be necessary. Unlike persons in
other callings named above thew seem TO
think the only thing necessary is to
bungle through their work somehow
ana get their wages. This is where the
whole difficulty lies. The time has come
for the proper training Of persons in
tending to enter domestic service, as in
the case of those who expect to follow
any other calling. 1t would be as much
to their advantage as to that of their
employers, and they would be better
qualifiad to keep a home of their own
when they marry. Thus equipped a
woman may enjoy a much more indie
pendent, pleasant, AID healthy life than
in any of the pursuits they seem to like
30 much better, and they can make more
money. On this point, however, argu,
menu is useless. But for those you g
women who must earn a livelihood and
are anxious to do so in a calling that is
honorable and pleasant the advice today
of all the best friends of the sex is: Fit