Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1894-02-18
crIcAco's IDLE SERVANT GIRLS.
Since the Fair Closed Agencies Have Been
PILED with Applications for Work.
(Chlcago Trlbune


servant girls. good ones. too. now seek
ing situations. Every employment Office
in the city has fifty girls who want en-
ploymcnt to one application for their SER
vices. The houscAeepers IN SUBURBAN
towns and the smaller country places
within reaching distance OF the city, VINO
have had such "A hard time OF 1t during
The Fair. cannot only now get an me
servants they want, but can NE'udiS
dictate prices 20 them. For moro IMAM
the last six months. indeed. Tor nearly a
vcar the servant girl has been an auto
crat She has rot only demanded hut re-
cciyed prcposter0usly hish wages. aAi
has been so arrorant about her hHiI'@
and privileges that thousands OF mousse
keepers have given up trying 10 L"-
servants and performed tho servants
d,tics themselves This has been cspc-
cially trying during the tair season
when everybody entertained guests from
one months end 10 d. other. and Wnsn
oven with mode. servants ID" hou Boo
tooncrs' duties would have been heavy
enough. Many holarkecpcrs have been
kent away from The Fair by this en-
forced work.
put the situation. bal enough IN all
Coincidence I'm the city. has been Infinitely
worse I'm the suburbs. Tho girls refused
10 go outside the city N any price. no
matter what Gattcying promises were
made 10 them. EyfD in such suburbs az
Evanston. E.gleWo0d. oak PARK. and ih'
Ike. where the servant Girl has plenty
Of society and plenty 81 beaus, Hight and
casy work. ami in an resu cts q very
comfortable time OF IT, good servants
were scarce. II 10y any chance or mis-
chance "a situation became vacant u
usually remained So and the women OF
the household barat-d all servants WINE
doing The work themse Ives. In ihouf" hI is
OF comfortable and even luxurious homes
in the suburbs for the last six months
tho women OF the household have shaved
Hni toil.d as never before, TO the SERIOUS
sctrimcnt OF their .healths ana tcmpers'
Many Of them have repeatedly said thds
they would never employ servant fri
r.lln. while countless others IN Sh, r
despair. have been compelled to abard0n
tneir comfortable homes and seek refuge
i'm hotel or boardinc-house. and put up ire
qucnty with very Indifferent aCcc,nmo-
GatiOus rather than endure ID" tflhls
and misfortuucs Of hous excepting.
All this is changed now. Th" girls VINO
have had employment a. big wages dur
ing the fair are out Of II job. The
Worlds Fair hotels, most OF them en-
pIoved girl walters. and the thousands
and one boarding houses and apartments
in that vicinity had use for pretty much
all the female help they could eet at
handsome wages. This brought girls here
I'm swarms from all over the country.
They got work, but they have not got II
now. Many Of them do not want TO
leave the city or the ncighborhood. ana
many of them have spent all their money
I'd -
ti,llarly, are willing and anxious 10 go
anywhere. city or country. that will ar
ford them good home and steady en-
plovment even If the wage are small.
Mrs. George Crummett, who has been
In the employment business at No. 4gl
Wabash avenue for ten years said She
had never before seen anything like the
present situation. She said:
There are thousands Of girls out or
employment now, and ! do not see how
we are going 10 find employment Tor q
tenth Of them, at least until the southern
hotel season opens, which viii not BE-
until the middle Of January. Nine tcnths
OF these girls came here from other cities
and towns for the fair, and now they are
here they do not want 10 leave Those
girls having places now are mighty giad
to keep them. Last summer We were Sc
curing places for from Il hundred ana
fifty TO two hundred girls day. Today
we did not have more than dozen APP
,,Iications for servants, while between
five and six hundred girls have been here
to-day looking for situations. II had an
order fer one thousand girls ! could i'll
II tomorrow. They comprise everything
hotel servants, cooks. laundresses, waiter
elrls-while the number OF house servants
ont Of work IS simply astonishing. The
wages now are not fixed by the girls
themselves. as was the case last summer
but they are glad TO take anything rea-
sonable to get a good home for inc VIII
ter.
Excellent cooks and housemaids can
now be had in numbers vastly exceeding
the demand at s. TO $50 a week. during
the Fair season their wages were oIleh
as high as S a week for the same blIlS
and the same services. Ihey are OF an
uationoIities. the Irish-CathOlic predOmi-
Mating, and many American SlrlS a4''o"'
them. particularly those who have come
from the small country towns, and are
rather above the average In intelligence
and address. The downtown hotels that
have been employing girl walters have
been letting them go. too, and mat serves
to swell the number Of the unemployed
These girls that have been working AT the
Fair have. most OF them, used about all
their money to buy cloTnes with ana
are now running very short. Several OF
Them have said to me that they were on
their last dollar, and absolutely had to
have work or go hungry / shall BE-
glad TO have the country housekeepers
particularly know that they can get
all the girls they want now, and good
ones.
I'VE were informed to-day that twenty
families in South Bend, Ind, were in
need OF servants. and understand that
the same situation exists in nearly all The
surrounding towns and cities