Omaha daily bee., 1895-10-06
MANUAL TRAINING FOR WOMEN
Important Problem Of Domestic Service
and the Solution.
WHAT OLD WORLD HISTORY TEACHES
Domcstic Training Schools an on-
qualified Success Abroad-An Ex-
ample for the United states
to Follow.

The problem Of domestic service Is one
that touches a majority OF the homes OF me
land. Ten years ago there was an abundance
of material TO select from, and housekeepers
experienced little difficulty In supplying their
needs. But the supply Of servants has not
kept pace with the demand. In fact, the
decrease has been so marked in recent years
as to attract general public attention and
discussion. Among the many solutions Oh the
n, oblem offered, that of Mrs. Gracia Vroo-
man in the current Arena possesses unques-
tened merit. Mrs. Vrooman is the wife OF
Rev. i. b. Vrooman Of Boston, who has
been filling the pulpit Of the First Congre-
gatlonal church, and daughter OF General
John c. Black OF Illinois.
Mrs. Vrooman's paper is as follows:
Three years ago, on returning home to Chi
cago from a long Journey, l found that d
certain little maids supply Of school frocks
had arrived at that point in their history
when they, like the deacon's one-horse shay
were ready to go to pieces all at once. IL is
one of the curious things about chlldreh 5
clothes that they have a way OF wearing out
without any warning and altogether. with
this dire event pending ! wrote to my seam
stress asking her to come to me at once
In a day or two l received a letter saying
that she was engaged for weeks aheau' 50
i wrote TO HnOtneT Woutah WIN h"N
for me, and she too sent word that she
could give me no time until a month or SIN
weeks later. Then l obtained from my
friends the addresses OF several women
whom they recommended; time was pressing,
and | called upon these to nnd IN
every case that 1t was impossible to secure
their services. This was discouraglng.
But l vent to the Young Wom-
ems Christian association and to
the Woman's Exchange, and after
o,,, intaryiawo uitSh peOplp who were I'M
available either because of their own en-
gagenents or because Of my prejudices In
favor Of intelligence, at least In some de-
gree, | succeeded In capturing a scandinavian
who would come a week later for W per
day. with board. BY this time two pretty
little pink elbows had appeared upon the
scene in a way that was rather heartrending'
The scandinavian and | managed to get them
comfortably, though not very neatly covered
UP; the clothes that she made were always
an annoyance by reason of broken threads,
clumsy At. and unaesthetic outlines.
AT this time QS92) the Chicago papers were
full Of the accounts of the official investiga-
lions of the condition OF working women.
Every day revealed new sorrows and new
injustices in the lives Of these women
scanty wages, miserable environments, otten
the entire lack Of work and inapn-
ity to procure 1t. 1t seemed to
me extraordinary that l on the north side
should be vainly endeavoring TO secure
a servant while women on the west SIDE
were starving 10 death. And 1t was difflcult
TO feel acutely sympathetic with the 'unem-
ployed' at the same time that l was fah-
ing in my vigorous efforts to give employ
ment to somebody. 1t is a very curious
economic condition in which on the one hand
there exists a demand impossible to NIL ana
on the other a supply for which there Is no
demand.
I asked the master Of the house about 1t.
GLOW can 1t be-, l said, that l have tried
in vain for a fortnight to find a seamstress
t-.z hoo III 20 n " GO mr. ~
Der day, besides her car fare and her break
fast. her luncheon and her dinner-and tea.
too, IL she wanted it, while there are scores
of women in this city who are able by work
ing fourteen hours in a day to earn IL or IL
cents. out Of which they must pay their whole
living expenses, and other scores who are
starving with no work at all; and there are
shops down town advertising bargain sales
of overstocks Of goods at prices that hardly
cover the cost OF the raw material?"
We discussed the question thoroughly then
and many times since, but we have never
been able to come to satisfactory explanations
of it. Only the master Of the house ap-
preached the difficulty when he asked me
uuizzically, "Do you think you would care
for the kind of work that one Of those women
could do for you?"
Very often, and especially in the suburbs
and in the country, one hears a woman who
says something like this: 81 am SO tired
My cook went away a week ago and / cannot
fnd another" Within the past week l my.
self have found Vt impossible to secure a
servant at any Of the three principal intelli-
gence offices of Boston. The house servant
good, bad or indifferent, is becoming scarcel
every year. The newspapers are full OF ar
ticles. some plaintive, some jocose, some
pseudo-scientific. all lamenting the inefi
cheney, the rarity, the untrustworthiness, thu
instability, OF the American domestic servant
There have been despairing housewives WHIT
have sacrificed the individuality Of theil
homes to experiments in cooperative house
keeping as at Evanston, Ill. There hav,
been a few scholarly attempts to solve wha
has become a very serious national problem
notably by Prof. Salmon Of Vassar, Mis-
Elizabeth Bisland and Mrs. Helen Campbell
of Wisconsin university, but very little seems
to have been actually accomplished.
1t Is to the old continental countries, will
their Industrial traditions and inheritances
that we must look for advance in this direc
ton. Since the great guilds Of the middl,
ages manual training has been developing int;
an exact science which has embraced anC
s~ystematized all the details Of the instruction
Of the apprentice. And these ways Of work
ing and thinking about work have so marked
the national character that when the new
idea Of industrial schools arose about thirt,
years ago it found a congenial and receptive
atmosphere, in which II has nourished 81
vigorously that for once Europe has preceded
America in a belief that what is good for
man is good for a woman, and has established
women's schools. which have met with uni
versal appreciation and approval. All owe
the continent are manual training schools TO
girls. Sometimes they are state enterprises
sometimes municipal. There are cooking
schools. laundry schools, dairy schools, nurs
Ing schools. ewing schools. lace maxim,
schools, There are also great private tech
meal schools attached to different manufac
tories, as at Mulhausen. Lille, Sevres, Torrj
del Greco, Venice, where all kinds of wo
manly work are taught. Each district Il
provided with the schools adapted to III
wants, and the currcula of these school.
are determined by the requirements Of tn,
people" (Sir Phillip Magnus. report to tn,
royal commission.)
Switzerland, probably, leads the world IL
the number and the excellence of her house
hold schools. The pupils in general com
from the farms and mountains. so that awk
ward and unsophisticated girls are initiate,
into the graces OF household ways; and from
another class, the daughters Of rich mer
chants and manufacturers, who attend to TAX,
a course in ideal housekeeping in orde
to be able to direct the mechanism of thei
homes most easily and advantageously. / be
lieve Switzerland is the only country wher,
the industrial educator bears the mistres!
quite as much In mind as the servant. An
other striking characteristic OF these schools
Is that the ethics of work, and Of every de
tail Of work, is studied as carefully as III
performance. Another characteristic Is tn,