Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1903-07-31


penses have been met. Is absolutely
nothing or about nothing.
Income of servant Girls.
am talking about the prlnsely net
income OF AN average servant girl. But
IL you are going to judge the condition
OF each class of laborer by thestandard
of money then the servant girl is not
only better paid, but she receives
steadier service all the year round. She
is not laid of like the masons or car
pentcrs 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 the year. The royal domestic can
have perpetual employment. Thus.
from n financial standpoint, I would
commend to 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 consecrate to this service. a
But there is still another advan-
tageous 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 hous sholds, 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, 1 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. y good, honest intelligent
cook Is a conservator of health and
happiness. Brillat Savarin once said
that he who invented a new sauce was
q benefactor to mankind. So the cook
who brighteus your table with a well
ordered dinner and whose culinary
skill gives zest to appetite is bene-
factor to the home. There are chefs.
many of them, who by reason of their
skill command salaries reaching up In
to the thousands OF dollars They un-
derstand the chemistry OF the kitchen;
they have made study OF dietetics,
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
nestle service is that its surroundings
are purer. The royal domestic is sub
jected 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 so
any man or woman OF impure and
wicked life. A royal servant girl, IL
she enters Christian home, can, ms a
can go with good people IL 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 vItating atmos-
phere OF sin. They are often COM
ought never to behold and TO hear say
ings which ought never to be heard
and to stand shoulder TO shoulder with
moral lepers, whose sins, IL not con-
tagious, by too much association may
become fatally infections. Here. for
instance, is a young girl just arrived
from the country. She decides TO enter
a factory and become n day wage
Garner. That factory has scores OF
girls whom She would never dare in
troduce 10 her old Christian mother.
That young girl within four weeks
service in that factory has seen and
heard moro wickedness 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
bin. The result isI that sIi5 lives In a
boarding house near her daily work.
That boarding house in all probability
has young girls in II whose lives are
not what they ought TO be. Seeing sin
by day and necessarily seeing and
hearing about sin by night has a hard
ening influence upon the young girls
soul. or course, the Divine Protector
can and will preserve that young coun-
try girl true and pure and noble IL she
keeps clinging 10 the omnipotent 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 same as
that upon the theatrical stage, about
which a noted actor once wrote, THE
saddest fact about my profession is
that the constant seeing OF what one
ought not TO see has a tendency TO
blunt the moral sensitiyeness and blind
ones eyes TO his morh duty and to
right"
Temptation Avoided.
Then consider the besetting tempta-
tons ready to greet the young girl who
applies for u position as clerk In q
large downtown store. Parents. IL is
high time that you fully realize there
are among the owners OF large down
town dry goods stores some who do not
expect their clerks to live upon their
salaries. There are hundreds and thou
sands Of those young girls whose cost
ly dress proves that they are not living
upon their weekly wages. Everywhere
in those downtown stores sin stands
around with outstretchcd arms crying:
"Comel Come and wear fine clothes.
Come and be respected as you cannot
be in the kitchen or the nursery! Come
and have your nights to YOURSELF
Come and see the brightest part OF city
life through the undimmed eyes Of
youth" And the young girls from the
country. by the hundreds and thou
sands, are turning their backs upon the
refined employment Of a domestic life
and fiinging themselves into the whirl-
ing, brain destroying, heart crushing
maelstrom of temptation, where so
many have been destroyed forever.
The royal domestic should be among
the most honored of all women. 1t
largely depends on her readiness to
perform her duties and her efficiency In
her service whether or no this country
Is to be nation OF homes. "God set
teth the solitary in families" or as you
could read 1t in the Bible margin, "God
setteth the solitary in n houseo What