The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-03-20
1 have already said, they cam mot relieve

1 have already said, they can not relieve
housekeepers of the pressure under which
they arc sinking
One constantly hears condemned the dc
mands of the servants for opportunities to
indulge tastes out of keeping with their
positions " Yet no aspiration which is
elovating In tendency should DO 'uut Of
keeping" with any position. Tho existing
system makes any desire for intellectual
cultivation seem inappropriate. Women
will get no relief from their difficulties
until they recognize that such system is
radically wrong When reviewing the
matter, they steadily refuse to sec that tho
change must be from the foundation, and
that none of the oxpedients proposed touch
the root of tho difficulty. At present If the
true cause is brought to their notice they
Immediately explain how the details of
their lives are such that no change, under
any circumstances, can possibly be made,
ignoring, as all unframed minds insist on
doing, the fact that If the principle of
system be correct the details will slowly
work out Alright. Otherwise no amount of
ability in handling detail will avail in the
long run.
Evolution must always be slow and
gradual, and should women make a con
certed movement to free domestic service
from those conditions which now put a
social stigma upon 1t 1t would be some
years before they could hope to place it on
basis that would induce women of
reason and intelligence to enter it in large
numbers. In the end the housekeeper's
relief must come through such change,
and her only choice lies between fastening
or retarding it
For her to consider whether or not she
likes the form Of change proposed Is sense
less, for whether she desires It or not there
Is ample indication that it must come
One mistake many woman makes in
thinking Of this altered plan of housework
is to imagine that all the details of her
effort must be radical changes from this
present system. She recognizes that some
of the work must be planned on co
operative basis, and the conditions of co
operation preclude her indulging in Ger
tain personal eccentricities of TASTE so that
she rebels against the experiment. But If
the word " concentrated" were substituted
for co cooperative" her prejudice would be
less reused She is not likely to reason
that all concentration is cooperative.
Our conservative ancestors thought that
1t would take more brains to control the
range than could DO supplied for the occa
sion. The modern housewife must realize
that the sooner she places domestic service
on plane where it is generally acknowl
edged that it takes brains to carry on the
trade the sooner she will induce intelli
gent women to enter 1t.
The housekeeper is frequently over
whelmed with despair at the apparent
hopelessness of her outlook. She looks
with certain envy on those who have not
her cares and worries. But she would feel
she had no Cause for such envy could she
once know the heaviness of heart with
which those who have been laid aside
from active service realize that they see
the way clear to lettering the conditions,
that they really know part of what is
radically wrong, and yet perceive that
they will not be listened to- cannot per
suade one acquaintance to try, even fee
bly,, to work toward the solving of the prob
lem. There is deep pain in feeling the
belplessness Of the theorist in the face of
the prejudice and shortsi ghtedness of the
active struggler. 1t must be that each
fills needed place, but that is something
that the struggler will never acknowledge
New England Kitchen Magazine.