The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-24
DOMESTIC SERVICE,
Why Women Prefer
Shops and Trades
to Housework.
IN A TRANSITION STATE.
Responsibility for Condition
Rests with the
Mistress.
IN A TRANSITION STATE.


The responsibility for all these condi-
tons rests with the individual mistresA
except as limited by competition AS
a consequence, the field of responsibility
lis neither understood nor clearly de-
fined says Prof. Mary Roberts Smith
of Leland University, in the Forum.
Hours, wages, living conditions and So
cial privileges depend on the caprice,
the convenience or bank account of the
employer. One mistress requires from
eight to ten hours of service per day
and gives complete freedom to the maid
for all the time after work is done, be-
sides the usual weekly and Sunday "af-
| ternoon and evening OUT; another re-
quires twelve hours of service per day,
and gives no free time except one after
noon weekly and Sunday evening: and
| still another requires thirteen hours of
Idaily service, giving only one afternoon
! in alternate weeks and on alternate
| Sundays. AS to wages, similarly wide
| variation prevails. Four families liv-
ling insone neighborhood are of the same
social set, and have incomes not vary
ing one from another by more than $500
a year. Each keeps one maid. Mrs.
A. with no children, pays $25 per
month puts all the washing out, re-
| quires never more than ten hours
| daily service and gives absolute free
| dom the rest of the time Mrs. B, with
! three children, also pays $25, requires
| the maid to do most of the washing
and to take care of the children in the
evening when the mistress goes out.
Mrs. 9, with four children and much
sickness in the family, pays $40 for in
definitely long hours of service and
requires the maid to do a large family
washing and to help with the children
| Mrs. D, with no children, also pays $40,
has very little company, puts the wash
ing out, and has light work. The last
named 1!sl however, finds it exceedingly
dfhcult to keep a maid at all, because
she supervises every detail. not only
OF the work, but of the maids private
4 NE as well, and, although thoroughly
KIND, is excessively fastidious.
AS for living conditions, these vary as
widely as the caprices of the plumber
and the domestic architect One house
mas two single rooms with a bathroom
between on the third floor for the two
maids; another, an attic, cold in winter
not IN summer, shabby, and comfort
less One offers a good bed and neat
Deddlng; another, a bed without springs
ana bedding so unsavory that the cook
buys her own, and thereafter carries it
with her One house has a good kitch-
iesiiSS' SoilNS AleHl SINK, sanitary
PLUMBING and a well-equipped laun-
dry; the other balky and gassy range
no laundry, and a dark, ill-ventilat ted
kitchen.
4 AS to social privileges, there is no lin
II 70 the variations of practice On.
maid is allowed to have a man friend
70 visit her once a week; the second
may have no followers at all": the
third may have as many and at what
ever hours she chooses, One maid nust
De IN every night at 10; the next NAV
go out only once week, and must he
IN at 10; the third has a latch-key and
may Keep her own hours Many similar
Illustrations might be cited to show the
ehaotlc and conflicting requirements of
poth mlstresses and maids. Each mis-
tress and each maid is a law INTO her
sen, without regard either to the gener
al interest of the community or the re-
qulrements In other industries. II ie
apparent that we are in all stages of
transition between the ideal of the old
fashloned American help, on the ono
hand, and that of the dererentiaI F,uro-
peah service, on the other; and neither
is adapteG to the economic and eooiaI
conditions of modern American iifc 20
A new ideal is inevitable standard
Whlen snail harmonic with the tenden-
II cles IN other industries which SHAH
snare the democratic spirit developcd
IN This country, and which shan ak
INTO account the race constituency If
the American people. The social stand
aLu q domestic service in the far west
where chinese and Japanese domestics
| are employed, or in the southern states
MIefe the negro is the only help avail.
aple must differ widely from tha+
! when should prevail in the eastern ana
central northern states. e''iu
IN discussing what is necessary m thu
LorInatlon of this new standard Of ra~
~ spoHslpIllty and requirement, it must
| ~, ,S Joiieeueu lhat the responsibility of
! enlployefs of domestic labor is NOT onl1,
greater, but more difficult of definitiop
eHaH that OF the employers of women in
olner KINDS Of labor So long as the 10.
mestic lives in the house. botb bor
privileges and the housekeepers obIi-
sdttohs must be modified by personal
tbis i i'eit.y GoIlslderations Doubtless.
ei,ie lnltlal dlthculty is partly the cause
| OF the belated conditions of bo1,eoboil
service. The welfare. the hahits 800
lhe Whlms, of the family must he nara
mount to the comfort and cony,enia,,,1,
q the employee. She is in the bo,iso
aioiu, PUT not Of 1t; a vital part of tie
serenity and ease, but ALWAYS wboi liz
suoordlnate to it, On the other hand
me .he pdtrlafchal traditions of service
| ~. Il, Us mistress to attempt to control
49, - VI the maid, is though
NY were really a member Of the family
Us mistress still insists upon the sub-
orullatlon Of the servants 70 the Ca
ny put she is no longer willing Ia eillo
eneIil tHe compensation which thew for-
merry mad The old-time SERVANTS
Mhether european or American found
"a "a quite different ways, family affec,
tl t,' sympathy, protection; loyalty and
attachhent We're mutual, not one-sided
All this has gone by. Neither mistress
! nor servant wishes to restore If. bnt
I neither wishes to give up the adyantaee
es which We're incident to it,
Inc minute regulation and adnoni-
tlon winch many mistresses stilI feell
opllged to insist upon are the slIrvi,,ai
] both of the medieval tie OF feudaI Ok
/ LEGATION and Of that semi filial reIa+ion
! between mistress and maid which char-
acterized the era Of domestic helm IN /
America. Prof. Salmon of Vassar coI
lege proposes, therefore (in her hook ~
Domestic Service'D, as the first RENE
dy for domestic chaos, the eliminatior
| OF the maid from the household This
| is generally declared to be quite i'm
practicable by the average housekeen-
err; but when one has seen the svstan,
in operation in the west, where the Sd.
clal requirements and family habits arc
similar to these in other parts of orr
country, one can no longer think n so |
impractcable In the Hawaiian To-
lands and in California, wherever Chi
nese or japanese servants are EN- |
ployed, they live out of the house IN al
1acent cottages Indeed the continual
presence of employees in the bo,,.a |