Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-07-30

class of labor requiring equal mental
and physical equipment.
A merchant never considers the gross
returns of his business, but the net.
He says to himself; These goods were
sold for SO much. Now | must find out
my cXpcnscs-so much for store rent,
SO much for night Waterman, so much
for cxprcssage, so much for commercial
travellers, so much for advertising, so
much for taxes. so much for this and
so much for that and the other thing"
Then that merchant subtracts the ex-
pcnses from the gross receipts, and he
says, II make so much net" No ad-
vantage in buying goods in foreign
market IL the tariff laws eat UP all the
profits or in raising potatoes and apples
in the Dnkotas or Montana IL the rnil-
road freight 10 bring the fruit to the
market costs more than the goods are
worth. No financial advantage in be-
ing downtown clerk and receiving
IS or $40 week II the expenses Of
room rent and car fare and the lunch
counter and board and laundry bill
and extra clothes absorb all the salary
And 80 when you place the net income
OF an average servant girl against that
of an average clerk yon find her salary
is mostly gain, while his, at the end
of the week after his legitimate OK
penscs have been met, is absolutely
nothing or about nothing.
Income of servant Girls.
am talking about the princely net
income Of an average servant girl. But
If yen arc going to judge the condition
of each class Of laborcr by the standard
Of money then the servant girl Is not
only better paid but she receives
stcadicr service all the year round. She
Is not laid off like the masons or car
pcnters or the lake sailors or like the
many employees who. though during
the busy seasons they receive high
wages are idle during certain months
of tho year. The royal domestic can
have perpetual employment. Thus.
from n financial standpoint, I would
commend 10 our sisters and daughters
this noble work Of the kitchen and the
nursery. | commend the occupation
to you because the financial returns are
prinCely in comparison with the mental
equipment which many Of you are able
to consccrate to this service.
But there is still another advan-
tagcous aspect of the question which
should not be overlooked. Eliezer, the
servant, was the chief man in Abra-
hams household. In how many Amer
lean households, think you, is the cook
the principal functionary, upon whose
skill and proficiency the physical, and
TO n very large extent also the moral,
condition OF the family depends? There
are, | will venture to affirm, hundreds
of thousands of homes in our large
cities, to say nothing of as many more
in the towns and villages, where the
detection or incapacity Of the cook or
housekeeper would mean confusion
and misery. \ good, honest, intelligent
cook is n conservator of health and
happiness. Brillat Savarin once said
that he who invented new sauce was
a bcnefactor TO mankind. SO the cook
who Drightens your table with a we'll
ordered dinner and whose culinary
Skill gives zest to appetite is bene-
factor to the home. There arc chefs,
many of them, who by reason of their
skill command salaries reaching up in
to the thousands of dollars. They I'M
derstand the chemistry of the kitchen;
they have made a study of dictetics,
and their experience is quite as valu-
able TO their employers as that of the
skilled physician. There is abundant
scope for ambition in the kitchen.
Advantage of Domestic Service.
Another advantage offered by do
mestic service Is that its surroundings
are purer. The royal domestic is sub
jccted 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 and
wicked life. A royal servant girl, IL
she enters A Christian home, can, as n
queen, choose her own associates. She
can 20 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 a home. Without they are
often compelled, even against their
wills to inhale the vitiating atmos-
phere of sin. They are often com
PEELED to see sights which their eyes
ought never to behold and 10 hear say
ings 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 NAV
become fatally infectious. Here for
instance is young girl just arrived
from the country. She decides to enter
factory and become a day wage
Garner. That factory has scores of
girls whom she would never dare in.
troduce to her old Christian mother.
That young girl within four weeks
service in that factory has seen and
heard more wickcdncss than she has
ever known before. Then this young
girl goes from her factory to her board
ing house. Upon her small salary she
cannot afford TO pay very big board
bill. Inc result is that she lives in a
boarding house near her daily work
That boarding house in all probability
has young girls in il whose lives are
not what they ought to be, Seeing sin
by day and necessarily seeing and
hearing about sin by night has hard