The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-08-14
CHINESE TO THE RESCUE.

One of the most noticeable things
about the Eastern man who fares this
way in his sea travel is his enthusiasm
for Chinese servants. The def hand.
the light STEP the respectful manner,
the neat garb, the polite attention to
duty of the Chinaman who serves his
stateroom and table aboard ship make
the Fastener long to get such workers
for his home. A year or two ago an
eminent jurist, man from the Supreme
bench of a populous Eastern State,
asked Honolulan if it was not easy
to smuggle Chinese servants into the
town where he lived via Canada; and
If caught what the fine would be. We
don't much doubt that a part of the IL
licit immigration of Chinese to the Mid
die and New England States is due to
the eagerness of trans-Pacific travel
ers TO replace the servants in their
households-the insoIent and incompe-
tent help of the Eastern kitchens
with the trained menials of the Orient
whom they have met in travelling.
Just what the servant problem means
in the East is partly revealed in this
telegram from Chicago:
CHICAGO, July 28.-The Servant Girls
Union has formulated scale of prices
as follows: s&iHE
Cooks and housekeepers :. SIS to 81 a week
General and second girls. "a to IS a week
Young and Inexperienced
girls -. ....................S3 to "a a week
These mandates for the mistresses are
now being concocted by the members OF
the organization. and this is to be their
tenor: <,ft@
Rule. l. Work shall not begin before
$50 a. m. and shall cease when the even
ingss dishes are washed and put away.
Two hours each afternoon and the entire
evening, at least twice week, shall be
allowed the domestic as her own.
Rule D.. There shall be no opposition
on the part Of the mistress to club life
ON the part of the domestic Entertain
ments of friends in limited numbers shall
not be prohibited, provided the domestic
furnishes her own refreshments. :.
Rule 8. Gentlemen friends shall not
be barred from the Kitchen or back
porch. Members of the family of the
house shall not Interrupt the converse
ton arising during said visit
% q Rule T.. Domestics shall be allowed
such hours OFF on Monday as will permit
them to visit the bargain counters of the
stores and enjoy on that day the same
privileges enjoyed by the mistress and
her daughters.
Rule 5. All complaints shall be made
W the uuSlHeSS agent OF the union, The
question of wages shall be settled at time
of employment and no reduction shall be
allowed"
Ii these servants were competent the
rules might be borne; but the majority
of them are slatternly unframed, i'm
pudent and lazy, their chief business il
life being to impress their employers
With an idea of their social and intel
lectual equality. To get better class of
chambermaids and cooks has been the
aspiration of the Eastern housewife for
thirty years. She has tried Irish, Ger
man, Danish, Swedish and English
peasants in turn; has struggled with in
tolerable American help and wrestled
with the negro problem all to no avail;
ana she was just getting ready to try
the Chinaman when the exclusion bars
were put up.
Now there is a chance to let the bars
down again. The housewives chance
10 get servants from a servile race is
coming. The Chinaman is knocking for
entrance. He doesn't want to vote: he
is sure that he is a servant and not a
master; he does not insist on an eight
hour law; his vices put him to sleep at
sleeping-time and don't send him to or
from mixed-ale carousal: he Is hon
est and competent; If he sends his mon
ey back to China that doesn't hurt a
country any more than does money sent
back to Ireland or Germany or to the
Pope Summed all up, he is as near be-
ing perfect servant, when properly
trained, as the world can supply. The
East needs him and needs him badly
and the East can get him if 1t wants to.