The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-30
In Woman's Realm,
A COOPERATIVE BUREAU.
How New York Women Have Sim
plified the Servant Problem.

How New York Women Have Sim
p1ffied the Servant Problem.
The Cooperative Employment Bureau of
New York Is an institution worthy the care
full consideration Of house. mothers as well as
OF those seeking situations. The bureaus
success is due to the excellent and unbiased
Judgment of the woman who brings mistress
and maid together or else apart It takes
more than an ordinary mental roise to d s.
criminate between the temporary shortcom-
1ngs of servant and hopeless ineffi eiency
1t demands more than usual tact to worm
fIGm an exasperated mistress a true state
ment of servants worth and it calls for a
marked versatility to deal successfully one
hour with the suddenly rich" woman. who
demands servant for every position thew
have in the Vanderbilt house, and the next
with t.mid ard rerplexed bride who must
conduct her house on SIS week s.al,.
In '96 the high character of the MANAGE
ment and the standing of its patrons brought
not only the best class of servants to the
bureau, but teachers, governesses and ira n
ed nurses. OF the thousand servants apuli-
cations received in 49, six hundred and ffty
were registered as worthy of employment.
At the present time new and important
labor of the bureau is the complete orgapiza
ton of new households. II inexperience
leaves a bride in doubt as to the number of
servants she requires, or perplexed as TO
Their exact duties, frank exp anat on of the
scale on which she expects to keep up her
establishment, and request for coun; ell and
aid, will bring her a clear und erstanding Of
what she ought to expect and demand of
each servant. They will, If she prefers. he
selected for her, and even the first movement
Of the domestic machinery be superintendent
for Ter. The exact wage fer the exact sort
of work is given and she is protected from
imposition. The newly rich sometimes seek
here the knowledge of how to found a er at
establishment.
But 1t is to the overtaxed young or Invalid
mothers. who perhaps have had ..ffteen
nurses In a winter or thirty cooks in
year." that this organization does the Isrpest
service. There is only an occasional chance
that they will find themselves disappointed IN
the moral character of those who enter their
houses through this gate. Recommendations
are so necessarily the result Of the fancias Of
the employers, who are often also inccm2e-
tsEt to judge of what is excellent in various
branches CT hGusewifery, but no experienced
houseleeper will fail to acknowledge that If
she is cnly secure from impostors drunkards,
or worse, she has found blessing for which
she cannot be too grateful.
The organization now locks forward to es-
tablishing servants training school, and
hopes to effect its establishment in shcrt
time The New York Post thus describes the
inception CT the cooperative bureau:
1t was the c.ever idea of the originators To
add to the system CT fees, so universally in
vogue in all so-called intelligence offices.
an ample supporting subscription list by
which a steady maintenance of TIE hfzh
standard CT its w.rk ecu be secure D -rlna-
Den:iy. In 1855. when the thought first took
shape. circulars were sent out in New York
city and to its estreaching suburbs,