The record-union., 1899-08-07
ADDRESSING DOMESTICS.
That Employers Should
Remembers.

1t is one of the most extraordinary
inconsistencies of a democratic society
that the dressmaker, the milliner. the
shopwoman may demand a certain re-
spectful treatment, while the waitress
and the cook must accept the treatment
accorded only to menials Much of
this is explained by the traditions of
feudal servility, from which nearly all
classes of labor, except household se1v-
ice, have been emancipated. A deeper
cause, however, is the liking of human
nature to command it's interiors. Wo-
men, especially, do not want intelligent
equals to serve them: they want an in
ferior, a subordinate-a servant, not
an employe. Compare the attitude of
the business man toward an employe,
and the attitude of the mistress toward
the servant. Because there is this
indefnabe social stigma attaching to
service, intelligent, self-respecting wo-
men shun it; because self-respecting
women shun it, the social stigma in
creases. Cause and effect are recipro
cal. The fact of social inferiority is
expressed in many petty ways-by the
use of the Christian name, by the re-
Quirement of livery when not on duty,
by servile manner, and, more than
all, by the social isolation. Every other
class has it's amusements, every other
girl her opportunity for suitable mar
riage: but the maid-servant must go
out of doors to be entertained or to be
courted. Some of this is due to the
low social standard of domestics as
class; but much more of it is to be
attributed to the notions of the mis-
tress. The social ban extends to every
stratum of society; the petty trades
man will marry sewing girl, a shop
girl, tailoress, but not a "hired" girl:
the working girls clubs admit all kinds
of respectable women to their mem
bership except the domestic. Socially,
the domestic is tabooed, ignored, slight
ed by every class except the day la.
borer
We are accustomed in the United
States to think that social distinctions
are of consequence only among the
classes where wealth, breeding and ed
ucation set the lines of demarcation.
The fact is, however, that the lower in
the scale of intelligence, the more
sharply marked are the lines, and the
more conventional the judgment. Who
is to change all this? Doubtless, the
maid herself, by efficiency, dignity and
good sense, can climb to the upper
grade of her own class and may attain
to the society of sewing girls and work
ing families of established position
and reputation. More could be done
by the intelligent mistress toward eie-
waiting the equality and character of
domestic service, by respectful recog-'
milton of the maids individuality AMI
inspirations. 1t can cost the mistress,
whose social position is a known guam
tity. nothing but sympathetic apprecia-
ton, nothing but the effort of putting
herself in the other woman's place, to
help the maid to a place somewhat
above the lowest in the social SCALE,
Would it in any wise lower the dignity
of the mistress to call the maid Mrs
or Miss? Is there any logical reason
why the cap and the apron should not
be removed as soon as the work is
done? The policeman, the conductor,
the porter and the waiter doff their
uniforms so soon as work is done; yet
some mistresses require the maid to
wear her livery on the street, as sort
of badge of servitude. But more gall
ing than all is that attitude which is
commonly called keeping her in her
J place." by which is meant to say: "Let
no one suppose that this person has