Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-09-24
A Plea for the Servant Girl :"

ing service as clerks, stenographcrs,
scamstrcsScs, or teaching, for a voca-
ton Which certainly shields them
from many Of the annovances which a
closer contact with the busy world in
volve. Why is it? There must be
some cause for this abandonment of
the ma or sphere OF womanhood for
those employments which are not
based upon nor surrounded by the
sacred shrine of home life. There
must be some reason which impels wo-
man to seek independence at the cost
OF sacrifice, in some degree at least,
of that innate refinement which re-
coils at publicity in matters of personal
endeavor.
The cause probably exists in the
treatment of Servant girls" as they
are denominated, by the average Amer
lean families. Such wide line of de.
markation is drawn between the par
lor, and the dining-room and kitchen,
that the blood of any one born and
reared to look upon equality as birth.
right, fairly boils when submitted to
an afiectation of superiority which has
to be asserted continually to show that
it possesses precarious claim to an
existence. In many instances the
kitchen, if it would, could teach the
parlor gentility and good manners, but
this would not, of course, be tolerated,
no matter how adequate the ability on
the one side and the necessity for in
struction on the other.
1t is always proper to distrust the
gentility of those who have to set up
safeguards for its preservation. True
refinement consists in seeing all that
is good and true in life and ignoring
all that is gross and evil; in aiding all
that is pure and deserving, without
DOMINIC the cap and bells to fight real
or imaginary faults in others. This is
a trait OF character which was, in ante
bellum times, peculiarly prominent in
Southern character. The typical
slave-owner treated his bondsmen with
kindness and consideration, and the
Lagrees were only numerous enough
to prove the proverbial exception to
the rule. Kindness was rewarded with
affection and no barrier was erected
for support of the dignity of the mas
ter nor was one necessary to keep the
servitor at his proper distance.
Very few sensible women "a syno-
nym for refined women, in the writer's
lexicon) would presume, on barely
kind treatment, to invade the parlor,
to sit at the table, or to use the bath
tub or towels that belong exclusively
to the mistress of the house, and it
would, therefore, indicate anything
but true refinement-which would not
offend the most humble of Gods Crea-
tures-tO intimate an inhibition of
such privileges as condition of SER
vice. Still this has been done by par
venu applicants Tor domestics' services,
without the slightest apparent sense
of wounding the feelings of a human
being.
Is it any wonder, under these cir
cumstances, that Cinnamon or unedu-
Gated foreign domestics should be the
only ones who can stand the regime
of those who have not been accus.
toned to the direction or management
of others? Pursue different course,
and there will be many American
girls who will be only too willing to
earn livelihood by performing house.
hold duty in all its details. All they
want is kind and considerate treat
ment. The possession of money may
still the tongue of malevolence, but it
does not cover up imperfections of
character, and the want of it does not
imply the absence of truth, honor, vir-
tue, fidelity, or the embodiment of all
these-true refinement.