The San Francisco call., 1895-07-28
A PLEA FOR THE DOMESTIC SER
WANT
INTERESTING LETTER TO 'sTHE CALL" FROM !
WOMAN WHO WORKS.

an article in Wednesdays CALL speaks OF
contrast between the laboring men and the
laboring women which has come to light since
the opening of the Free Labor Bureau. Now
as am one of this selfsame laboring class l
beg leave to state my views upon the subject
also. He says that the men are eager to take
up any work offered them, no matter how
hard it is nor how low the wages may be,
while women hesitate and declare they will
not work for less than $25 or $50 month. Do
you know the reason why? l shall give my
reason, but dozen others might give better
one if they only took the trouble of doing it.
Take the unemployed when this bureau
opened and you will find that the men regis
tered by the hundreds, while the women were
q great deal less in number. A woman need
never be without employment as long as she
is willing to work like slave for two or three
dollars over her board and lodging; but the
men have not even this privilege, and no
doubt for the past year have had to turn tramp
in the struggle to keep body and soul together.
cannot see anything very wonderful in the
fact that they eagerly take any work offered
them at any price whatsoever, can you? But
the women perhaps for the whole of the past
year have been toiling for very low wages, be-
cause their employers tell them they cannot
afford to give more these hard times. But, if
the times are so hard, why do they not roll up
their sleeves and do some of the work them
selves, and not allow the servant to toll just as
hard for ten dollars as she does for thirty
do not see any unnatural contrast in standing
back and waiting for better wages. How long
do you suppose these men, if they have any
ambition at all, will be content TO work for
small wages?
And now, again, when a woman accepts a
situation she knows that she is dead to the
outside world, aud the ninety ninth part out
of q hundred of her time she must spend
within the four walls of her employers home,
always within hearing of the doorbell and
ever at the beck and call of a generally speak
ing) overexacting mistress. From early morn
until O'Clock in the afternoon she tolls like
slave-upstairs, downstairs, sweeping, dustlng,
washing, scrubbing, cooking, answering bells
every fifteen minutes, and so on. You will
always find stiff, uncompromising looking
chair in the kitchen, but this worker rarely ever
finds time to avail herself of the privilege of
testing its restful capacities for each day brings
enough work OF its own without any leftover
fragments from the day before. Four o'clock
she snatches time to bathe her hot, tired face
and hands and, just as the laboring man
throws down his shovel, pulls on his coat and
leaves off work for the day, the laboring
woman is gathering up her tired forces to do
battle with the almighty dinner. When 1t is
well under the process of cooking, steam puff
ing in all directions and savory smells sharp
ening the keen appetite of the back-door trav-
eler she rushes to the dinihg-room to set the
table.
AT last all is ready, and in and out she trips
with course after course, becoming SO weary
that when her time comes to break bread she
cares not whether it be soup meat or chicken
she partakes of. But this is not all; the china,
silver, pots and pans must be thoroughly
cleansed and everything put in order, and-well
about o'clock weary woman with candle in
hand, may be found every night vending her
way to the attic, or to hot room just over the
kitchen.
Can any one imagine such a woman sitting
down calmly to read the newspaper at this
hour? can't; but if she has an aged father
or mother or deformed sister to support she
will no doubt make and mend her own clothes
between the hours of.9 and IL P. NJ. Such is
the life have, in part, experienced myself, so
that there is no mistake about it, and am not
talking through my hat, although many will
no doubt think so.
Now take the laboring man. He rarely ever
has to cook his own breakfast, but after eating
a good hearty meal, shoulders his shovel and
marches off to work. There is no doubt, if he
is conscientious man, he certainly works
hard, and sometimes has exacting employers to
deal with also, but in digging ditch, he digs
1t; in hoeing field of corn, he hoes it; his
brain is not in constant turmoil as every one
knows woman's must be when she is expected
to do half dozen things in one minute and be
in half dozen places the next.
At noon the man always has his hour. He
leaves off work, 1 will say, at P. NJ, although
/ have often seen men between and O'Clock
jogging homeward, with their lunchpails
swinging from their strong, sun-burnt hands.
He is, of course, tired, but after eating good
hearty dinner-for outdoor exercise never fails
to whet the appetite-he lights his pipe and
strolls off whithersoever fancy leads him; he is
free-free as air; he has his evenings and his
Sunday from Saturday night until Monday
morning. But woman is bound year in and
year out the greater part OF the time; the only
sniff of fresh air she gets is in carrying the
potato peelings to the garbage can, and it go
ing to church makes a Christian of any one
she never, never can be one
The unjust slavery of her own sex is ever q
dark blot on the fair page OF womanhood. If
the employing woman would earnestly set to
work to regulate her own home life on a truth
tul, loving, whole-souled foundation her pres
ence at the polls might possibly work wonders.
Now, where the social benefits come in that
the writer in THE CALL tells us the laboring
woman enjoys more than man is deeper than
1 can fathom, but as he has just as good right
in his opinion as 1 have in mine, the riddle
may "gang its ain gait" I am not holding
up the average domestic by any means, and
can truthfully assert that if 1 had home of
my own would rather do the work myself
than employ any one out of the large number,
employed or unemployed, have come in con-
tact with. Still, can further assert that it is
the employers fault that truthful, honest
working girls are so hard to be found, for ''like
master like man. may be aptly quoted as re-
CARDS mistress and maid. If a mistress had to
furnish reference from her last cook as the
cook must from her, employer and employe
might possibly come to better understand
ing with each other. L. J. B.
San Francisco, July 26, 1895.