The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-29

fruits are cheaper and labor is cheapest,
ana the transportation of machinery has
peen the prime cost; it is the oyster pack
ing house On every salt water tide. These
thflIlng invitations Of their Whistles rare
~ go unheeded. The cook who has
barely begun to learn the alphabet of the
Ktchen, whose blunders have been paid
Lor IN hopes Of better service throws her
knowledge to the winds, forgets it in one
tenth of the time she learned it, and
takes her place under the packing shed.
IN these small establishments they are
aIloWed to work as they please-an hour
DAY, half Cay-and are paid accord
ing to their card punches: and the SENT
independence with the small sums of cash
forms an irresistible allurement IT is nor
IN TINS case the fact that they can come
ana go from the factory to cabin as ia
CLAIMED in favor of factory work. Few
household servants in the South sleep
under the roof In nearly all cases they
come and go from their homes to tbe;r
places Of service
In several towns, probably SmlthneId
and Portsmouth of Virginia, they come
ana go simply according to their work
This theory of labor has been recently
put forth by students Of domestic econ
omy and by members of a well-known
Womans club of New York as an adj
vanced and possible solution of domes-
COOK to prepare and serve meals. ana
her liberty to come and go as she pleases
between WhlleS. 1t is interesting to note
that While it was advanced by the stu
dents and club members as a. theory. il
mas been practice in the places named
for at least ten years. In both of these
towns there is a distinct and comfort
able negro settlement. The cook pre-
pares meal for her own family ff
necessary, goes to the house where she
is hired, gets breakfast and things In
trim for dinner. She often then returns
TO her home, comes back in time for
dinner, and so on. An early supper ends
her days work This is the best local
solution of the domestic service problem
OF the south which has come under the
notice of the writer
Elsewhere there are MANY difficulties
There is no class to fill the places of
the negroes who have left the service
of the household. The Irish or German
or Swede is unknown; the farmers
daughter VINO might be hired in the mid
die West IS not to be found, and the
poor white trash" lives only in scattered
districts, and can be depended on for la
Dor of no sort
1t is always unsatisfactory to face
difficulty and fail to see the cure There
is possibility that the cure in this
instance may come in two ways Every
appliance of science to domestic service
is saving Of muscle and brain and Il
lift to a higher level of living The
electric cooking stove and other assist
ants may thus befr,end humanity. But
this will not touch the far-stretching
country homes. In the negro education
however, has sounded a new note When
the instructors of the Tuskegee insti-
tute are urging their students to apply
their chemistry to the washtub and stove
and when there comes an insJstent cry
that manual training. including cooking
classes for girls. shall be a regular part
OF the school course for negroes, there
is chance that domestic science may
assume it's real Importance, and an influ2,
OF trained and intelligent labor set toward
the kitchen. AS hopeful as this is to
look forward to, it seems as far away
as, and one of the good things Of, the
millennium