The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-31
rNprAxs As sERvANTs.

1NUlANS AS SERVANTS. The servant girl problem is one for the solution of which. various expedients have been suggested and tried. but 1t is still an unsolved, and, possibly, an unsolvable question. Doubtless the perfect servant girl does not exist. and 1t is vain to ex- pect her. Doubtless. also, some of the trials and vexations incident to house. keeping. and the tribulations caused by incompetent and unsatisfactory service. is not wholly and entirely the fault of the menial. It may be that if employers would bear in mind that servants are hu- man beings and not machines. there would be less cause of complaint on both sides.
 However, we do not know that there is any need to discuss that question. We have no right, perhaps, to read a lecture to employers or to instruct them in their housekeeping arrangements. any more than we have the power to make ser wants more careful and satisfactory by featuring them. What we set out to do was to call attention to the following dis patch from Duluth to The Chicago Re- cord Herald:
 Interesting and gratifying results have been sesursd ey Major ,Sd,a B w. Campbell IT, the matter of having Indian girls trained for general housewOrk and giving them employment in the families of white peo- pie. He says, in an interview here. that all the girls who have gone out to ser vice are giving entire satisfaction. Fifty Red River Reservation girls are to enter tended as fast as possible to other Chip pewa bands of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. None but good homes are con- sidered by Major Cabpbell in passing on applications for the girls.
 This will doubtless be news to most people who know nothing of the Indians except what they have read in novels. It is not only in novels. however, that the indisposition of Indians to work for white people has been shown. for history from the days of Columbus tells us the same thing. In their savage state the male Indian would not work under compulsion. and rarely in any other way. The history of their race from the date of the first European visitation contains numerous instances where Indian men either suf- fered themselves killed or took their own lives rather than become the slave of the pale-face. It was so in the days of Co., lumbus. of Cortez, of De Soto. and it has remained so The proud spirit of the Indian brave refused to bow in servitude to the white man.
 With the females it was different, for the woman was the slave of the husband in their savage state, and there are nu- merous instances where, both half-breed and full-blood Indian women have made cheerful and willing household servants. but even in such cases there was usually some peculiar reason for their acceptance of such a position. Generally they had the same objection that the males did to becoming servants for the whites. In this respect. as in many others, the change in the feelings of the Indians has been brought about partly by education and partly by contact with the whites. They have learned that labor is not dis graceful, even for their men, and that lives of idleness are not best for them. This knowledge appeals to the Indian girls with much greater force than it does to the males. for the girls see so many white servants of their own sex in
 menial positions. and note that they enjoy
 large degree of contentment and inde-
 pendence, that they are willing to take
 service and test 1t for themselves. There is good reason for believing that trained Indian girls will make excellent
 housemaids. nurses and cooks. They
 have all the intelligence needed to fit
 them for responsible positions. and, when
 removed from their original savagery
 they are neat, cheerful and obliging We see no reason to doubt the success of the | experiment and it may go quite long
 way. especially in the North. towards
 solving a vexing question.