New-York tribune., 1902-05-14
THAT SERVANT QUESTION.
HOUSEKEEPING TRIALS IN CALIFORNIA
AND THE SOU UTHWEST

If the women of California and the Southwest
were entitled to vote the Chinese Exclusion BILL
SaId Western woman yesterday to a Tribune re-
Poi'el' II goes without saying that there would
sooh De an influx of almond eyed pigtailed Orien-
'alS' Tor we housekeepers are the verge of de-
SPAR 1t is the same story everywhere.
Inc capable old China-boy servants who are
JuS' ABOUT worth their weight I'm gold getting
harder and harder to secure. You can't touch one
ior Tess than $50 or $40 month, and with no new
ones coming in. they will soon be able to command
even more. They are much more reliable and
'ioiieS' thah the Japs, and while they in
hurry and never seem to be doing anything
everything in their special department is kept up
just as 1t should be- You never find an untidy
lcebox or a cuttered kitchen or backdoor when a
'hlna-boy is in charge. and then they are so
cieVer about supplying deficiencies This is an
lhNdiudple faculty on a ranch, where YOU are
often ten miles from a lemon as we'll as every
thlng else If one seasoning or what we might
consider an essential, gives out they rise to the
occasion, and by some hocus-pocus peculiar 10
themselves alone devise a combinati ton or sub
stitute that would deceive the very elect Then
they always look tidy and dish their food 50
attractively.
You can get a pretty good Japanese boy for
$50 month. laps are usually better walters than
the chinese, and a butler your Jap is dignity
itself. For the small family limited income $50
seems a great deal to pay for a general house
worker and the washing has to be sent out be-
S'oes Maid servants are practically out of the
market.
In California women looking forward to
plenty of work in the fruit season and good
wages and they won't go into the kitchens They
say they can make enough during the fruit sea-
son to live on the of the year so the prospect
Is not at all propitiouS for employing hired girls
the cities housekeepers manage to get along by pa
Tohlzlng the bakers. sanatorium health foods. the
ueHcdtesseh' canned soups and the wOmeu's
change supplies, but on the ranches there are not
even these alevatng circumstances
In Arizona, where there are so many Indians
-NeNlcahs and negroes, and Mormons of Scandinavia
an German and English extraction. it would seem
aS though a housekeeper ought to get assistance of
some sort but II is wellnigh mpossibility.
Thirty dollars is the lowest price paid to
cook and in even the smallest families they object
10 doing anything outside OF the kitchen and dining
room friend on a ranch. whose family usually
numbered four, had kept colored man cook for the
last two years. About a month he would go
off on a spree be two three days and
then come back used up that he would be prac-
ucally useless for many All this the
family stood for the sake Of his cooking when he
was all right but when a couple of weeks ago
they had a couple of guests come for few weeks
stay, and he fatty refused wash dishes for
SIX, they told him 10 and are now doing their
own work with such help they get in by the
day.
Another family Of three on ranch. whose work
is of the lghtest. had been trying for a month to
get help but all in vain. It's too lonesome
girl, upon being assured that she should lust be
one OF the family agreed TO come for $l5
month. When the head OF the house after
her, she had changed her mind I'm busy. she
said with my elOCutOn lessons. my guitar practice
and my rehearsals for dramatic entertainment
that / really can't give the time Being assured
mat she could have the OF the piano and
abundant time to continue the study of her
'ompNShmentS. she still declined, the plea that
she had To be I'm town at the Mormon Hall Of
Amusement every evening, and the ranch would be
inconVentently far for any one to see her home
Another plump Mormon girl would come only
she was afraid homework would make her hands
dark so they wouldn't look well at the piano Both
these girls live in tiny adobe houses Of two rooms
each; but Mormon girls Will work for a
Gentle II they can help it, nor for any else
for that matter. They out 10 dance
amateur dramatic performance almost every night
in the week, and care sits lightly their shou-
ders.
The Mcxicans distinctly gregarious that
they Will never leave their own quarters n they
can help II. Occasionally, you get one by the
day n sh" happens 10 be entirely ont OF money,
hut she neither cook nor iron. These women
wash very well. but have rooted objection 10
hanging the clothes line. a bush wire
fence or a pile Of brush suits them much bet
ter. They will never stay over night. nor even
after dusk, and as soon as they get a few bits
ahead, enough for few frijoles. some coveted
article Of hnery, that is the last you will see Of
them.
Nor the Indians much better Occasionally
you can get fairly good boys or girls from the
Indian schools, but they are usually so slow and
Indifferent that the housekeeper feels she may
well put on the whole harness and do II herself