The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-07-19
SERVANT QUESTION
is YET U|NS.O.L|'YI|E|:.D
Wild Irish tassies Bespoke fol
Chambermaids.
PATRONS ARE DIsAP POINTED
PATRONS. ARE DISAPPOINTED
Disguised With Intelligence Establish.
ments Because They Get Poor Work
from Raw Material of Which
Servants May Be Made.

Whenever two or three arc gathered
together in the name OF afternoon tea,
or pingpong, or golf, the servant Dues
ton is discussed. The black ingrau-
tude. the culpable carelessness, the alb
soute incapacity Of maids. is aAtopic OF
conversation among housewives only ex-
ceeded in fruitfulness by the horrors OF
being without a maid.
Housewives read with joy that OF, the
last day of May 1859 immigrants were
received at Ellis Island, and that among
them were roo Irish lassies. Surely here
was a. solution of the servant problem.
the raw material out Of which they
could form 700 neat. deft-handed. white
aproned bccapped Phillyses. And they
hied them gaily down to the barge Of
flee with visions-such visions!
All in vain. Nearly all thcse girls
were bespoke Their arran6 enlents
were made before their passage was
taken. And the disappointed ladies'
could only storm in the immisl alton Of
flee in vain and nlurmur locohercnt
threats about the penalties attached to
importing labor. They didn't know any
thing about the penalties attached, but
1t sounded we'll.
It seems queer In face of the enor-
nous immigration that the servant ques-
ton remains a question, the servant ia
mine remain unrelieved Ellis lSQond1
is a busy place. During the month Of
May over $1,000 immigrants were and
ed there-an average of 5000 day. Or
course 50 per cent. of these aio men put
even So it would seem as If more than
enough girls were pouring into the coun-
try to meet all demands. And Now
York, be it remembered, is only one
port There are others where the Inn
migration Office is no sinecure. The an
swer to the housewfely wall Of What
becomes of them al?' is simply that
they are bespoke
SPOKEN FOR.
OF the 700 who came over week ago
over a hundred were cared Tor at the
Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary. But
rather Henry says that not one of them
was without promise Of employment.
"Ninety-nine per cent. Of them have
friends to go to. and I canot provide
a servant to one out of 4 hundred ap-
piicants.
At the immigration Office they tell the
same story You see things are going
pretty badly in the old country.
family makes up its mind to come to
America It saves and scr,rnps. every
member of the family gives its last cent.
begs. borrows, perhaps steals to raise
enough to send one 1rember over AS
soon as that one gets over. particularly
If it's girl, and finds work she begins
saving up to bring another over, and
telling everyone her sisters coming
over. do they want a good. honest. Will
ing girl. who doesn't know. but VIII
learn. Some one is always ready for
such q girl, ready perhaps. TO pay a Ut
tie of the expense Of bringing her over
So she comes, hundreds of her And
thousands Of servantless women hearing
Of her arrival rush down here to grab
her up. only to find her. IS she puts
it, bespoke. Then they gs mad at US
and talk about imported LABOR
RAW MATERIAL.
At the intelligence Offices they smile
cvnically at the arrival of 100 wild Irish
lassies What has that to do with the
servant question? It is the raw mate
rial. of course, for it's solution, bat so
frishtfully raw. 1t may help them solve
it two. three five years hence but 1t
offers no immediate relief. These girls
come over green as the grass in the
fields they come from and expect TO
make ZIG or SIS a amonth and their board
when they ought to be willing to pay
their first mistresses for tuition in the
keeping. They can't be sent to our
customers, who want experienced help.
Experienced help is hard to find. A we'll
trained maid is a rarity. Sc, too. is the
houselseeper who knows how to train
maid Girls go from one place to an
other among people who lay down GER
tain rules and allow them to be broken:
who give certain instructions and don't
see that they are carried out: who don't
hacSnSn thew rpal-
" don't know themselves what they
want, but none the less expect maid
to do it, The girls are put IN a little,
close untdy hole in the wall which they
are told is their room Scant furniture,
IA eyed carpet. if any. running water IN
undreamed of luxury. and yet they are
expected to be tidy about their own per-
sons They are given poorly equipped
kitchens, bad ranges. WORKOUT brooms
and rags for busters. and without decent
tools are expected to do decent work.
And all the time they are getting eH-
perience and a year or so OF that sort
Of training is expected to turn out an
experienced maid ready to so into
well-kept house, and do her share IN the
ordering of it. This is what has hap
nened to the girls who came over two,
,hree five years ago, and who ought
to be solving the servant question OF
today. This is what will happen to
nine out of ten Of the 700 girls who came
over a week ago and who ought to
relieve the servant famine of two. three
or five years hence. These are the
views of an unusually intelligent intel
lipence Office called upon to explain why,
in view of an average daily lmmlSfd-
ton of probably at least QUO girls Tor
Nav. why this famine?
Fishin'.
Did you ever go an loaf on tn bank of