The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-02

royal domestic can have perpetual em- ployment. Thus. from a financial stand point, l would commend to our sisters and daughters this noble work of the kitchen and the nursery. l commend the occupation to you because the financial returns are princely in comparison with the mental equipment which many Of you are able to consecrate to thls ser vice.
 But there is still another advantage ous aspect of the question which should not be overlooked. Eliezer, the servant was the chief man in Abraham's house. hold, Tn how many American house. holds. think you, Is the cook the prinei- pal funetonary, upon whose skill and proficiency the physical, and to a very | large extent also the moral, condition of | the family depends? There are, l will venture to affirm, hundreds of thousands | of homes in our large cities. to say noth- l ing of as many more in the towns and villages. where the defection or incapaci- | ty of the cook or housekeeper would mean confusion and misery. A good. honest. intelligent cook is conservator l of health and happiness Brillat Savarin 1 once said that he who invented a new | sauce was a benefactor to mankind So the cook who brightens your table with a well ordered dinner and whose culinary skill gives zest to appetite is a benefac- tor to the home. There are chefs. many of them. who by reason of their skill command salaries reaching up into the thousands of dollars. They understand the chemistry of the kitchen; they have made a study of dietetics. and their ex- : perience is quite as valuable to their employers as that of the skilled physi- cian There is abundant scope for ambi- ton In the kitchen
 Advantaae of Domestic Service.
 Another advantage offered by domestic l service Is that it's surroundings are purer. The royal domestic is subjected to less temptations than are her sisters who are earning their livelihood in other walks of life. Queen Victoria in Windsor Castle for over fifty years refused knowingly to give audience to any man or woman of impure or wicked life A royal servant girl, if she enters a Christian home, can. as a queen choose her own associates. She can go with good people If she will. The choice rests with her and with her alone.
 This statement Is not always true in reference to women who have to work for their living outside of the four walls of home. Without they are often com pelled, even against their wills 10 lnhale the vitiating atmosphere of sin. They are often compelled to see sights which their eyes ought never to behold and to hear sayings which ought never to be heard and to stand shoulder to shoulder with moral lepers. whose sins if not con tagious by too much association may be- come fatally infectious. Here, for in- stance, Is a young girl just arrived from the country. She declines to enter a fac tory and become q day wage earner That factory has scores of girls whom she would never dare introduce to her old Christian m pfr ri xrtfl in four weeks service in that factory has seen and heard more wckedness than she has ever known before. Then this young girl goes from her factory to her boarding house. Upon her small salary she cannot afford to pay very big board bill. The result Is that she lives in a boarding house near her daily work That boarding house in all probability has young girls in it whose lives are not what they ought to be. Seeing sin by day and necessarily seeing and hearing about sin by night has a hardening influence upon the young girls soul. Of course the Di- vine Protector can and will preserve that young country girl true and pure and noble If she keeps cllnging to the omnipo- tent arm, but without that superhuman aid the moral tendency for the female worker In the factory Is downward The life there is in some respects the came as that upon the theatrical stage, about which noted actor once wrote. "The sad dest fact about my pro ,ession Is that the constant seeing of what one ought not to see has tendency to blunt the moral sensitiveness and blind one's eyes to his moral duty and 10 right"
 Temptation Avoided.
 Then consider the besettine temptations ready to greet the young girl who applies for a position as clerk Tn a large down. town store. Parents. it is high time that you fully realize there are among the owners of large downtown dry goods stores some who do not expect their clerks to live upon their salaries There are hun dreds and thousands of those young girls whose costly dress proves that they are not living upon their weekly wages Ey- anywhere in those downtown stores sin stands around with outqtretchoa arms cry ing; "Comel Come and wear fine clothesl Come and be respected as you cannot be In the kitchen or the nurseryi Come and have your nights to yourselfi Come and see the brightest part of city life through the undimmed eyes of youth" And the young girls from the country by the hun ureds and thonsanus, are turning their backs upon the refined employment Of a domestic life. and flinging themselves into the whirling, brain destroying. heart crushing maeistrom of temptation, where so many have been destroyed forever.
 The royal domestic should be among the most honored of all women 1t large ly depends @- te~ ~~~ 7',,oea to perform her duties and her efficiency in her service whether or no this country is to be a na- ton of of homes. God setteth the soli t"ry in families" or as you could read if In the Bible margin God setteth the so- itary in house." What does that mean2 Simply this: Every ideal unit of society should be home. What Is an ideal home? A father and & mother for the heads of the table, children for the nursery ser wants to help provide for the domestic wants. While the husband is off to bus mess the wife must be doing her work in the house. But there Is limit to a wife's physical and mental capacities No av- craze mother can perform her domestic work without help. She cannot be nurse and dressmal<er and cook and chamber maid and waitress and marketer all in one. She must have female assistance She must have servant or servants to aid her. or else she must give up house. Keeping. As a strange and unaccountable prejudice has gone abroad against our daughters and sisters going to work as servants in the kitchen, one by one the homes of America are being closed The husbands and wives, with their children are going to live in boarding houses and hotels If you ask the average wife why she gives up housekeeping she will an swer: l could no longer endure the un reasonableness of servants The servant girl question simply racked my nerves until l was in torture. One day I vould seem to be getting along all right. But if