The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-22
Pertinent Reasons for the Lack
of Good Housemaids.
SLAVERY OF DoMEsT|Cs
Drives Women to Other Fields-Disad
vantages o: Such Positions Clearly
Set Forth-American Independ-
ence Most Potent Factor.

private everything connected with the
home is kept secret, from habit, and
the question was not brought forcibly
, to the front until it had gathered en-
ergy that forced it to the attention
of the general public. That there is
dearth of servant girls there is no
denying. That employers are required
to hire men to do their homework be-
cause girls cannot be secured is a
truth. The cause of the famine is l-s-
ing eagerly sought for, not in Chicago
alone, but all over the country. The
exclusive Back bay matrons of Bos-
ton recently held a meeting and invited
several girls to attend who had at
one time earned their living by doing
homework, but who had deserted that
field of labor for factory work.
why do you prefer working in
factory to working in my homer" one
Of the matrons asked.
II will tell you why. madam, was
the reply. "There are several rea-
sons. l will name but three l do
not care to come into your family and
be addressed as Mary or Jane al
though l had never met you until that
day. l could not keep my self Prospect
. under such conditions. I wish to be
called Miss Smith If l worked in
your home you would consider such a
request an impertinence, while in a
factory it is accepted as the proper
thing. Then, too, there is not one of
you ladies who have met here who
does not compel your maid to wear
uniform-a cap and apron. 1 object
to that Most important of all. you
do not provide proper place for your
maid to sleep in, and you will not pay
! her enough wages to allow her to hire
a room outside the house. These are
; the reasons why l prefer to work in
I, a factory" -
One Of the prominent members of
the Chicago Womens club. after a
meeting where the servant problem had
been discussed long and learnedly ask
ed her colored cook, a regular old
southern ''mammy." why it was so
. hard forsher friends to secure servants.
\ It's lust this way, Miss Mary the
/, old won1an replied. They drive them
7 so. You can always tell woman of
= quality Ike you, they act as if they
were used to things. But those other
women drive the girls like slaves"
: An Agents Views.
Murray. Matthews, the north side
= employment agent, was asked why
employers were hiring men to do
: housework He replied that he saw
nothing remarka BILE in receiving sew
eral orders a day for men to do fam
Many such servants are fully as
!, competent as any housemaid.' said Mr..
Matthews. They even do the wash
ing and ironing in some cases. Many la
dies find it more economical to keep
man servant, and do their own cooking
up to the point of serving, as the man
, is usually a good waiter, good cleaner,
he will attend to the furnaces, he cleans
the sidewalk, mows the lawn. cleans
. the windows. scours the steps and
III. xl-i.. ~
: that sort of work. At first the man is
employed only to do the rough work.
But the hired girl leaves and an in
terval elapses before another is secured
I to take her place. In the meantime.
John is asked to wash the dishes and
scrub the kitchen. The next thing he
knows he is doing the sweeping and
making the beds and minding the baby.
He becomes so handy and, mind you. no
further expense, that my lady makes
herself believe she can't find girl,
and before long John finds himself an
experienced 'housework girl This fact
makes the lady independent. She comes
to an intelligence office and offers $3.50
week for a competent homework girl
and wants her to be an angel She
must be good cook, an excellent
laundress, she may have one afternoon
week, which means she may get out
of the house at 2:30 and be back at
D. m. to get dinner. 1t means base
ment room or an attic room or cubby
hole off the kitchen. Often, too, ladies
are looking for a servant for $3.50
week when they could not get their
regular washing done for cent less
than that amount, calculated by any
product of labor. Yet they pretend to
think that girl should do the wash
ing and work IA hours a day seven
days a week besides and consider her
self well paid.
toxy iI1rf onw
family lives in an elegant apartment.
l know the rent must be SIS month:
The lady wears elegant gowns and
jewels galore, but she will not pay a
girl more than $3.50 week. She can't
get girl to accept the place, and just
now the man of the house telephoned
me to offer 1918 Now, just think of
that, raised the servants wages Is cents
week. 1t is people like this that holler\
mo servants to be had
German Servants in Style.
another thing-eight out of ten
women are to-day looking for Ger
man girl, because it is the style to have
German servants. Nowadays a German
girl gets 81 week for being German,
and then you have to pay her for her
work besides. When these women can't
get German girl they cry No servants
to be had The surplus of servants left
on our hands after the worlds fair and
made girls so plentiful in Chicago that
everybody who had an income above 81
a day kept a hired girl. They got in
the habit of it. Times got good, work
in the factories and stores offered itself
and these girls accepted it. Now the
little fry are looking for girls, and will
keep looking, for they will never get
another until there is worlds fair
and panic again at the same time.
They are crying No servants to be
had The other class of women, who
always kept a girl got in the habit of
treating the servant with contempt be-
cause she had only to open the door to
get another. When this employer of
labor learns that she must lower the
angle of her nose when she is look
ing for girl and request her, instead
of commanding her, to do this and do
that matters will be adjusted and the
servant girl problem will solve it
self. Then men won't have to do house.