The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-03-08
HOUSEHOLD PROBLEMS.
Why So Many Girls Prefer
Factory and Shop to
Kitchen Work.
THEY HAVE NO SOCIAL LIFE
Relations of Employer and En-
ployed-lntelligent Out
side Help.
THEY HAVE NO SOCIAL LIFE

There are two reasons for the9tur.
MOL and unrest in American house.
keeping. One is the rapid change OF
fortune; the other. the difficulty OF
adjusting the relations of employer
and employed in a republic whose
people are not free from aristocratic
traditions and aspirations.
Few families retain the relative So
cial position they had a hundred years
ago. A Judge of the Supreme Court,
who in his youth frequently woke on
a winter morning and found the bed
covered with snow, which had sifted
through the rafters, in his age fndsa
house with twenty-five roons heated
by steam throughout, none too great
for his comfort.
Despite our enormous growth in
wealth, social distinctions are far less
marked than they were in pre-Revolu-
tionary days. One may see the Gov
ernor of the State hustled off the side
walk by a small boy, when once the
whole school would have been drawn
up in line and would have courtesied
as the great ina passed. In our
grandmothers' time there were lanen-
tations owe the extravaganza OF the
period, and sage parallels showing
what becomes of young people who
buy alabaster vases for their parlors
when they have not copper kettles for
their kitchens.
THE KITCHEN, PAST AND PRESENT.
The gradual evolution of housekeep-
ing has been from the ~log-cabin to the
frame house, where the kitchen was
the central and most Important de-
partnent. There was little house
work to do. Help when needed was
hired from neighboring households.
who worked, ate and went to church
with the family. From the rural
frame house, the next step was the
house with modern improvements,
including the dining-room; and it was
then thai trouble began. The kitchen
was degraded and no longer the centre
of family life. AS soon as social dis
tinctions were made, it became impos-
sible to get American girls, and the
degradation of household service was
completed by the introduction of
foreign labor.
Household service is better paid
than almost any other manual labor
performed bv women, and is done
under more favorable or at least more
comfortable surroundings. People
lament chat intelligent, self-respect-
ing girls Will starve at any other oc-
c~upation before entering household
service. City orators urge the boys
10 stick to the farm, but they them
selves did not. The fault with farm-
ing is that it brings in no money.
mes of sncce,with household service is
with adyersinands no respect. So long
n still Greater are regarded as a distinct
Nine ont rs must remain as they are.
We been eally way to make cooking,
,ir calIingfg, and the other forms OF
nm IbcaFork respectable is to have the
,ces performed by respectable peo-
~ Die. The conservative English adopt
some new ideas more quickly than We.
The profession of a trained nurse is
regarded by them with enthusiasm,
and hundreds of American girls OF
good families are now looking for
ward to this profession.
NO SOCIAL LIFE FOR SERVANTS.
One great objection to work is
that the domestic, isolated from the
family life, can have no society, as she
can never call any time her own.
Girls will work all day under very
many disadvantages for the sake of
being their own mistresses when the
days work is done.
In thicklv settled communities it is
becoming more and more practicable
to have household labor done outside
the house. The expense of cooking is
greatly reduced. Butter making has
been given up to the creamery with
greatly improved results, and bread
would no doubt be greatly improved
in quality if made scientifically in
large quantities. Many other depart
ments besides cooking car be handed
over to skiliful outside labor. Dust
ing. lamp trimming and dish washing,
req hiring intelligence and careful fin
gers, have become a new occupation
for women of refinement suddenly
thrown on their own Ali
the work might thus be specialized to
the advantage of the mistress and the
self-respect of the domestic. Miss
Frances N. Abbot in the Forum.
Society at the Capital.
The society of the capital that is
Immediately before our eyes is a NOV
ing and breathing picture of the life
of the country. 1t is essentially re-
publican. The men and women who
compose it come from all ends of the
land. Its chief interest lies in the
fact that it is not like the society that
is to be found at courts or in the
charmed circles of those who hedge in
kings. Here we have the people do
ing as best they may what is done by
the select of Europe. They may do it
crudely, indignantly, even bolster
ously, but will any one who has par
ticipated in their pleasures say thai
they do not do it generously, and
with a certain nobility Of Kindness,
that. unfortunately for them, is q
stranger to many who look at them
hrough cynical lorgnettes2
From the Presidents dwelling
down. the houses of the official peo-
nle who care to perform the social
function are open to tine public. 1t is
absurd. of course, to speak of i So
cial intercourse carried on on such a
basis as involving in any but the
SLIGHTEST degree the element OF selec-