The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-02
By
A
CLUB
WOMAN
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confronted with a condition rather than a
theory in regard to the matter.
Let any woman-even a club woman-talk
long enough, and she is sure to get around TO
the servant-girl question at last. If good
advice could solve the problem certainly the
newspaper men would have had it settled
long ago. But somehow their advice seems
singularly irrelevant to the cases where the
problem is most acute. 1t always seems to
be based on the supposition of wealth. or
at least. moderate wealth. on the part of the
employers. But the rich are not those who
suffer most from the problem. for the pres
tige of living in immediate connection with
such splepdor and the pleasure of having
| several companion servants insures them
! service of some kind.
| 1t is in that very large number OF fam
ilies-usually families of young professional
| or business men-which must live on an in
come of from $1,000 to 5000 year, and
where even one domestic is a serious ex-
pense. that the difficulty of securing that
one is most severe. Now, the newspaper
mans suggestions seem to be founded on
the assumption that the domestic has griev-
ances which her employer can remove. These
long hours of labor. insufficient pay. AS to
the first. it is not superior airs on the part
of her employer that vex the girl-she would
admire more of these than she sees in most
| cases. 1t is because the young men and
women of her own grade regard the factory
girl as her social superior that she is dis
pleased, and has a right to be, but how can
the girls employer prevent that? AS for the
of Lob Sir1na mir nirla1 RI
of her work is to prepare and clear away the
meals which precede and follow the working
day of the man of the house. how can they
| be avoided? The adviser probably has no
idea of dispensing with either his breakfast
or his dinner in order that the girl may
work only eight hours day. AS matter
of fact, she generally has some hours of
| leisure in the afternoon. and her long day
| OF labor is more apparent than real. AS to
the matter of wages. she is paid more than
| her employers can afford, and more than
most other working girls. There are few
occupations that can be filed by unedu-
Gated girls. in which they have three or
| four five dollars week. after their
board and lodging are paid for Many of
the nicely-dressed girls who sell goods in
the stores get less wages by the week than
| out Of IL.
Is her work too hard? If she abandons it
the young mistress of the house has to do
| ii, besides all the other work which she has
been in the habit of doing when the girl
was there. Where only one girl is kept the
mistress of the house almost invariably does
| much Of the work herself If the family is
small, without young children or invalids,
hnnSpWork lie w ba
bilities of woman's time and strength.
| the lady of the house usually prefers to dis
pense with "hired help" no one is more
| competent to do the work of house beau
tifully than are most American wives, and
| happily, they do it without the least
loss of self-respect or social standing. An
| American lady was visiting friends in Ire
land-peopie of more pretensions to gentil-
ity than money. At II the guest proposed
| to retire. being fatigued with her journey.
but the hostess said, "Oh, please sit and
visit little longer. 1 want to wait until
| it's little later, so as to be sure all the
| neighbors are in bed and then clean the
front steps.
If an American lady, of whatever station,
| had occasion to clean her front steps she
| would do it IN the eye of day, and glory
| in her own spunk, and her neighbors
| would admire her for it. But where the
domestic is a necessity, she very frequent
| ly does less work, has more leisure and
very much more spending money than her
so-called mistress" Thus it happens that
| if the girls have grievances. they do not
| seem to be grievances that the employer
| can remove. "But what are you going to
| do about it?'' 1 am L do not know.
The only practical suggestion l know is
| the example of Thoreau. who, when he
| found that the two pieces of Gale spar he
had picked up in Walden woods and laid on
| his study table had to be busted every day,
threw them out Of the window And that
| does not seem very practical, either. There
are too many things that have to be busted
| every day. If we threw them all out of
the window we should be arrested for OBJ
structing the street. Besides, wherewithal
should keep house when they
| gone?
| There are women, however, who have
| no trouble with the servant girl question.
| OF these is the wife of the old German
| farmer, who says: What little bit of house,
work woman does / don't call dot any,
ding My wife will do dot and just as
much work in the field as 1 can besides.'
|
There were dozen or more boys in blue
on the fair grounds car going downtown
| ward to spend the evening. The conductor
was goodnaturedly trying TO get them all
| off at the right places. At Twelfth street
he stopped the car, said to the young SOL
der beside him: This is Twelfth street.
| The young fellow rose and beckoned to a
comrade at the front end. Comrade did not
notice. "Come on, this is Twelfth street."
he said in a suppressed voice, which, how
ever everyone but his comrade heard
Corporal Mclaughlin. Corporal McLaugh-
| linz he shouted. By this time every one
! in the car was smiling except the mortified
young soldier and the impatient conductor
| Corporal Mclaughlin finally awoke to the
| situation and the two got off. Fine exam
| pie of military promptness, said a spec
tator and the conductors frown relaxed
| a choir at home. and given piano lessons
| I worked and saved; my father saved. my