The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-11-18
sALARrnD DAUGHTERS.
mn IndeDIkInIId'kInIf.

question much debated few years ago. Many |
solutions were offered; none very adequate, If
we may Judge from the census returns of the
growth of cities. "How to Keep the Girls in the
Home ~ Is very similar and more important
problem now demanding attention. That 1t Is
desirable that daughter should remain in her
fathers house during that period of indefinite
length that comes between the end of school
life and the beginning of matrimony is generally
agreed. She is better protected there. physi-
cally and morally, and her parents feel that they
have right to her companionship, since they
have, perhaps. deprived themselves Of it for
years while she was at school, and they must
anticipate another and more complete separa-
ton in the course of the next few years.
At the same time the feeling that leads the
young woman to leave the home to seek eco
nomic independence is a normal and creditable
one. Every adult, able-boded and capable indi-
vidual ought to earn his or her own living and
in such way as to realize it. No matter how
useful a daughter is in the home she usually
thinks, and usually not without reason, that her
work is not appreciated at its full value. To
ask father for money is as disagreeable az ~
ask husband. If she earns it, she ought not to
have to receive it as gift. When we are young
we clamor for justice; when we get older we
generosity. The daughter in the home knows
thatshe will receive the same treatment whether
she is good natured and helpful or disagreeable
and lazy, and who has an ethical nature SO stout
as to resist such demoralizing influence as
this?
At this period of her life, when she 10 most
energetic and ambitious, and most needs work
and responsibility. the young woman is either
not given anything of importance to do, or re-
ceives no specific compensation for her infinite
and voluntary service. Feeling that she is not
appreciated or needed at home, she listens
favorably to any young man who processes to
appreciate her and declares that he needs her.
Or she is tempted by her talents into the profess
sOnal study of art or music, not realizing that
fingers that are nimble at the piano can usually
be made more useful in other ways, and that she
can exercise her gift for acting without going
on the stage, in making herself agreeable when
she is feeling cross.
If there is nothing for the daughter to do in
the home except to amuse herself, she had bet
ter get out of it as soon as possible. It must be
acknowledged that household industries are
being taken away by the factories so fast that it
is increasingly difficult to find really profitable
employment for women in the hcme. But in
many cases where the daughter leaves home
wholly or for the day to do teaching. type
writing, or other work in Office, shop factory,
there is need of her work in the home, and often
help has to be hired to take her place. In such
cases the daughter should be given a regular
salary, approximately the equivalent of what
she could earn outside after making allowance
for board, room rent and the numberless privil-
eyes girl has in her fathers house. The salary
should be at least equal to what would have to
be paid for the same work if a stranger were
called in to do it, and the duties should be as
distinctly defined and as promptly and efficiently
performed. This is a very different thing from
an allowance without definite duties.
We know of several families where this plan
has worked successfully. In one instance the
daughter while unmarried. became capable
housekeeper and manager. buying all supplies
and relieving both parents of care and annoy
ance, for which she received housekeeper's
wages at the end of every month. Another,
whose mother is an invalid, gets weekly en-
velope containing the same amount that would
have been paid a nurse Both these salaried
daughters were happy. contented and efficient
| and each had feeling of independence and
self-reliance never to be attained under the
allowance" system or the usual haphazard ap.
peal to father for money to crafty needs OF
| whims.
Her earnings the salaried daughter can use as
she pleases, spending it for her clothes, and in
| gifts, charity and pleasure. If she puts part OF
| it in the savings bank, as she should, she pro-
vides her own dowry, just as many girls now dc
| by outside work. This is return in nove
way to the good old plan of primitive times
| when no girl was eligible to marriage until she
| had "hatching- chest" full of linen and clothes
| of her own spinning, weaving and sewing. In
| those days daughters were thus given an oppor-
| tuuity to earn their own dowry in the home
| although they received no cash. Whether the
| work of the salaried daughter be as house
keeper, nurse or social secretary, it is a better
occupations. The plan does not in any way alb
| rogate flial affection or its implied duties
| Where daughter stays at home from a sense OF
| duty to her mother, the approval of good con
science and the verbal recognition of her value
are not always sufficient to alleviate the feeling
| of dissatisfaction and unrest caused by her de-
| desire to realize her economic entity.
1t is, after all, only phase of the genera
difficulty that parents. and mothers especially
have in knowing that their children have grown
up. Mothers are apt to try to prolong the little
Lord Fauntleroy period as far as possible, and
they keep their daughters in short dresses unit
they look like ostriches 1t is a rare woman
who can delegate responsibility, even to hired
| help, and it is much harder for her to take hel
| daughter into partnership than it is for father
| to take his son.