The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-11-29
In Womdn's Realm.

through the efforts OF the committee of Bos-
ton women to whose diligence In studying the
servant question the New York Evening Post
recently called attention. To hosts of uues-
tons which they sent out to a large number
OF housekeepers they received replies touch
Ing the hours OF 245 servants. and these he
ures have been tabulated by the Nassacbu-
sets bureau OF statistics OF labor
The 245 schedules filled out for the purnoses
OF the investigation came from 1S4 different
families. OF these more than one-half kent
only one servant, about one-ouarter two
servants, ten families kept three, eight four.
three five, and only one six, and this is sun
posed TO be not far from the general ratio OF
those employing servants in the community.
The families who employ but one domestic
are largely in the majority. and just here, 1t
would seem, is a point, worth regarding. The
training of servants should bear especially
upon the better education Of the general
homework girl
But returning to the schedules. The CUES
tons asked the housekespers were very def
mite. viz: At what hour does your girl begin
her days work? What is the latest hour of
the day during which she is employed? How
many hours Of the day are perfectly free
time? During how many hours Of the day
must sue De uH Gdlt though not actually
at work? To get accurate results, the house
keepers made careful observations every day
for two weeks, and as all these records were
kept conscientiously, the averages must be
regarded as giving thoroughly reliable ac-
count OF the length of hours In domestic
service. 1t took ten girls In the bureau Of
statistics OF labor six weeks to tabulate the
results.
Mn
teen different headings. according to the spe-
eial duties deyolviHg on them, and their
wages ranged from 81 10 1916 week TAX
ing them as a whole their average busy time
was found TO be, for two weeks, ten hours
and twenty-seven minutes daily. when Sun
day and the day OUT were counted; exclud-
ing these, the average working time on the
other days was thirteen hours and eleven min
utes. The average free tiHe-also excluding
Sunday and day oUt''-was three hours and
thirty-two and one-half minutes and the time
for rest, eight hours and twenty and one-ha,t
minutes. Those 6omestics who combine
chamber and laundry work. cooking and lsun-
dry work. and those who did laundry work
alone, had less busy time" than the Others.
Nursery maids. nursery governesses and
chambermaids were the busiest The general
houseNork girls, as a whole. worked the lat
est, often until nearly IL O'Clock, although
there were. naturally enough, exceptions in
every class. G .gs
The lack OF uniformity in the hours OF do
mestics is Offset by other things Much OF the
work is wholesome and not excessively IA
tiguing. But the investigation just finished
shows that there is a great indefniteness and
lack of uniformity In service for which just
the same pay is given The meal hours of do
mesics, which statistically are included in
the busy time, really shorten this time con-
siderably. For somes domestics take long
time for their meas, while others spend much
less time in this way than they might or
should Again, the trained servant will make
her head save her heels, and her hours of
labor would usually be found to be much less
than those Of the unskilled shop girl Even
the factory worker, whose hours OF labor are
specifically shorter than the domestic or the
shop girl works for the most part much mora
continuously than the latter
Il is worth while noting that thu domestic