The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-02-01
HoUsEWORK OR FACTORY.
Why So Many Girls Choose the Latter
 Employment,

Why So Many Girls Choose the Latter
 Employment
 | In a certain hill town where many families live in self-respecting econo-
 my and few are able or anxious to have large esta blishments the women of the
 place find it increasingly difficult to ob-
 tain domestic servants. Few homes
 are palatial. The majority are small,
 substantial houses, in which a single
 maid is quite sufficient to aid her mis- tress in the general housework, or where a second girl to assist in the care { of children, answer the door-bell, and
 wait on the table meets every possible | demand. Yet this modest requirement. of one or two maids is not readily full | filled; wages on a liberal scale, much in | dividual freedom, and a good home do not attract the young women of the class from which household help is usually drawn. They go into the fac tories in preference to entering on ser- vice in families, even when it pointed out to them that the variety of employ ment the board and lodging, and the protection of home life in the latter are so far in excess of anything which the
 
 heavily in favor of housework. The factory girl from her weekly wage must pay her board among strangers or it's equivalent at home if she have parents, the maid in service is out of pocket only for her clothing, and her doctors bills, and not invariably for these, since in some families a sort of uniform is provided, and in others, medical attendance, when occasionally necessary, goes into the general ac- count of the family. There seems no good reason why maid-servant in the average well-to do middle class Ameri- can family should not save very de- cent sum of money from her weekly or monthly stipend, and have sum in the savings bank as dover when she marries, or as support for her old age.
 Fartory work is not particularly easy, it is to a degree monotonous. sand it implies compulsory faring to and from work, in all weathers and under every vicissitude of health But it has an undoubted charm for young women, partly because they are naturally gre gariousu and enjoy companionship, and partly because it's hours, are fixed, and if the clang of a bell summons the workers to their task, equally the clang of bell releases them when labor is done for the day. Their evenings, their Sundays, and their legal holidays are their own, with none to interfere, none to challenge their right to late sleeping, or visiting a friend, or receiving any number of friends, On the other hand tol, stantly busy every hour from dawn un- til bedtime, except on her afternoons out, at the beck and call of her em ployers; she cannot be sure that her work is done until she turns the key in her bedroom door; she cannot, as a rule, step out for a call or walk without asking and obtaining permission and she Is frequently aebafred from enter taining her acquaintances, in the house of her mistress although to all pur- poses and intents this is her only home
 Why should not every housekeeper so arrange her affars that after the even ing meal no call should ever be made for service upon the maid, and, with the understanding that she should be at home by specified hour, why should not the maid have the evenings to go out orsto stay in as she may please? Recognizing her need of friends, why, too, should the employer not permit their coming, as they come to the daughters of the house, for evening calls, stipulating that manners and social usages should be observed, even in the kitchen:
 The situation bristles with embarrss- ments, but none of them is beyond ar- if -keen-witted, clever | brained American women will under | take to untangle the hard knots.-Mar- | garet Sangster in Golfers Weekly.