The age-herald., 1899-05-02
Mrs. Kirk, President fenelOn
 Club. Writes of Servant Problem

CIuD, WFlteS or oeTNdnt FTOuicni
 In the discussion of the servant question, and the planning for it's improvement, the club women have, indeed, reached an im- portant milestone in their course onward and upward, bearing 1t does, directly on the homes, from whatever standpoint we may view 1t. I can offer new sugges- ton on this old vexing question which, since the time when the famed proclama- ton reverberated through the land, declar- ing free and equal rights to all, regardless of creed, ,-=color or previous condition or servitude deluged our fair sunny south in ever-increasing hordes of shiftless, in- competent, irresponsible domestic service, besetting the path of her home-makers with thorns-an endless stretch of gnarled roots and jagged stumps, against which her tired feet must stumble from day to day. Though none of us here can remem- Der, we all know that the old "blaek mammy' of ante-bellum days, with her good, faithful heart and honeyed words, so soothing to childish ills. finds no pro- totype in the befrizzed, bespydied "colored lady" who rings the front door bell to inquire if "the woman that lives here wants lO HiI6 d lduy u uO htt WdSAiihs5. NS, OA the south have learned enough of the negro character, if the improvldence, dis honesty and utter disregard to morality and cleanliness to know that it is not to these ebony -hued sons and daughters of Ham that we must look for that ideal do- mestic service of which the tried house. keeper but dreams. For this reason then, in considering the domestic problem, have taken into view only the intelligent, self respecting white woman from whom we have right to expect perfect service, the same service that a man gets from his typewriter, or from the woman behind the counter. and here the first question pre- sents itself. Is there a standard of perfec- ton in housework, as in all other trades and professions? If not, then it would seem that the first step in the direction of improvement would be to create a stand of improvement would be to create a stand by whatever name you may, to accept no service which, weighed by that standard, was found wanting. This would be hard, as who that felt the powerful grip of that most relentless of all task-mas ters, house. keeping, does not know that there are days when any kind of help is better than none? Those days when so much awaits one pair of hands, shackled by the many cares of motherhood, one pair of tired feet weighted by the suffering which comes to us all, as a heritage of the eternal femin- inc? But there must be some martyrs. <SrSS there to every cause. That there-~5re two sides to every questioH.,is is rather true saying, but one->%hich has nevertheless stoou the tsSSof time, and did the servant glrls pave a representative in the hall, no -65upt she would tell us that the grievances are not all on one side.
 Are there not houses of which we all know where bedlam reigns supreme from morn till night because of incidence; where children are undlsciplined and taught no respect to one who is merely a hire ling. Those houses where there is no ap- pointed breakfast hour, but where each struggles in regardless of trouble given, be- cause there is a hired girl?
 Poor, tired house-girl, you have your grievances, as well as we, and how my heart has gone out to you when a dozen calls interrupt the completion of a single task which had madame performed in her idleness would have been but a lno- mentary cheating of him of whom it is said: 'tHe has his workshop in idle brain."
 Another phase to be considered in at taining the ideal domestic science is the lack of conscience with which recommen- dations are given. I was told not long since of young woman who answered an advertisement in a Birmingham paper from far away New York. She came well recommended, but on trial she proved in 
 position. It meant also wandering about in a strange city far from home or friends What may be the outcome we are all suf- Nficiently women of the world enough to know, and when on the last day accounts are balanced some one may have to ans wer for having given that recommendation, thus helping one soul down the path of destruction all because it was easier 10 write the recommendation and seemed so much kinder than to utter decided no. These, I consider the pebbles in the way, impediments. as it were, to be removed, ere we attain that perfect domestic service. First we want a standard and unity of ac- tion in maintaining It. second more con sderation to the trials and ills of the do- mestic servant third, the stigma which attaches to this service, and, fourth, the giving of recommendations with more due regard to truth. To remove these mpedi- ments let her who may solve the problem and greater than Joan de Arc, who listened to the voices in the wilderness, and greater yet than a Catholic Corday, whose act of patriotic fanaticism had rumbled down the ages, will she be who unravels this tan gled skein, bringing relief to tired mother hood that she may husband her energies for duties higher and holier than the mere lynn Nff fha hnoY1 al