The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-02
cooKs AND poUsEkrEpERs.

The question of household help is be-
coming about as acute sn the South as in
the North. AS long as the supply OF COL
ored servants trained before the war be-
tween the states held out we had no Sc
rious servant problem. The supply OF
help was abundant efficient and cheap
the cheapness being in so far as the indi-
Vidual wage was concerned. The cooks
knew their business thoroughly.
The housemaids were tidy, pailstaking
! and conscientious in their work. The
cheapness OF this help, however, was only
in the size of the wage paid to the indi-
viduaI; in the aggregate the cost was Of
ten quite large For instance, in the
Southern household of average prosperity
there would be found Betty the cook,
Salhe the housemaid, "Old Maufna" who
looked after the children and her daush-
ter who "nursed' the baby, and Uncle"
Dick who kept the yard clean, chopped
wood and cared for the family horse.
Thus the servant contingent consisted or
dinarily of five hearty eaters, each of
whom hooked out for one or more mouths
outside that were fed from the employer S
table. In the aggregate. therefore, the
grocery bill took on large proportions as
a consequence of the appetites of the SER
wants and their dependents or hangers-on.
Nevertheless, the old-fashioned servants
were faithful loyal and efficient If they
were not thoroughly honest always. it was
often because they acted upon the princi-
pie that whatever belonged to the family
belonged to them as constituent parts of
the family, therefore they took what they
wanted
But the old-timers are about gone, and
the survivors are yearly growing fewer.
In their places has come young colored
help that is inferior. unreliable and I'M
satisfactory. The young cofored women
are poor cooks and worse housemaids.
They do not know the business, and do
not seem to care to learn. The same is
to be said of the young men who apply
for servants places. 1t seems to be the
purpose of each individual among them to
get living by rendering the least posi-
bic value in return, and TO do no work
that can possibly be avoided.
What seems to be needed is a system
of training schools that will teach young
women how to be good cooks and good
housekeepers. There should be such
schools for each race. Young white wo-
men need to know more about housework
than the great majority of them do. AS
a matter of fact, every woman ought to
know how to cook keep house and sew,
so as to prepare herself for the duties of
life 1t may be that she will never be
called upon to put her knowledge into
practice for the purpose of earning liv-
ing; but there can be no assurance of
that The mutations of human life often
bring about unlooked-for conditions.
There are hundreds of young women in
this city to-day, who, If thrown upon
their own resources tomorrow, could not
earn the salt that goes into their daily
bread They are not competent to make
homes for, or to properly supervise the
homes of the men they hope to marry.
Being raised In idleness, they devote their
whole time to trashy novels, beaus, silly
| gossip and parties Becoming wives,
they soon develop into dead weights. upon
their husbands; and many unhappy house
holds have resulted from the unftness OF
the women to make ard manage a home
In this matter, parents are largely to
blame.
The organization of schools of domestic
science in Southern cities, for the proper
training Of household help, would be more
beneficial politically and socially than
many of the so-called patriotic societies
that now have such vogue. An "Ameri-
can Society Of Cooking Danes" or an or
ganlzation of Daughters of Cookery ane
Housework," could find an abundance Of
opportunities for work of a character thai
would conduce to the health and happi
ness of the human race.