The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-27
Men as Domestic Servants.

Good Housekeeping
The negro, Chinaman and Japanese have
been successfully employed as domestics
for many years. but the white ''housework
man." the American, if you will, is COM
paratively new product. Two years ago he
was scarcely known; to-day he may be
found in every large city from San Fran
cisco to Boston, and not only the want de-
partments of the newspapers, but the in
telligence offices, attest the steadily grow
ing demand for him. He is, however, the
product of no school, institution or organi-
cation; if he shows efficiency in his chosen
line of work il has come through a natural
adaptability, and faculty for close and
careful observation rather than for scien-
titic or domestic training.
The experiment of employing white men
for general homework is so new that full
estimate of the merits or dement's of the
system cannot at this time be given, but in
scores of cases which have come TO the
writer's notice the experiment has been
qualified success. qualified, because the
mistress has, IN many cases, been able 10
find flaws in the system, but fewer, per-
haps, where men were employed than in
corresponding number of women. a Chi
cagO experimentaliSt tells of an uneX-
pected visit which she made late one night
below stairs" Her homework man was
holding a reception in honor of his male
friends. On the kitchen table an ample
wet goods" the room blue with to-
baccO smoke, and all the guests were more
or less under the influence of liquor. The
banquet was permitted to proceed, but the
servant was discharged next day. Cigar
cite smoking appears TO be a general fault
among young men who engage as house
hold servants and the liquor habit is much
more prevalent among the male than fe-
male help. 1t Is admitted by many, how
ever, that men fully as honest and
trustworthy as women.
A young man OF twenty native of Yer
mont. after meager education, ran away
from home. and eventually found himself
i'm the numbering camps of the Northwest.
He was not fitted physically for the rough
life of a lumherman, so. on his application
for employment at one of the camps, he
was instructed in cooking. He also acquired
a certain knowledge of rough homework,
washing. sCrubbng and bedmaking. After
a year of this work he drifted TO New York
city. Without money, work or friends, he
resOTted TO the want columns OF the daily
paperS where he found that a young man
was wanted To- do general homework by
fashionable East End family. He had never
been inside such a house, but in no way
daunted. he improVised a letter of recon-
mendatiOn from his last mistress pre-
81 a week with the understanding that he
was competent 10 do any and all the work
required OF a girl in the same position.
IL was only by close observation and "A
careful study of cook books that he got
over the rough places, but confidence came
with knowledge, and I'm three months he
was receiving s. a week for his services. In
less than a year he had graduated from the
East End kitchen TO one in a fashionable
uptown hotel where as steward he re-
Ceived SO a weeks SO good hOUsework
man was lost 10 the world. And right here
seems 10 lie the difficulty. The young white
man OF spirit, wit and intelligence Is not
satisfied with the duh routine and small
wages attending domestic service.