Los Angeles herald., 1905-10-15
DoMEsTIcs OF oLDEM TIMES
How Modern Servants Differ From the
zone of the Family" Type

"The old fashioned patriarchal sys-
tenn which permitted the help to be-
come an integral part of the family
presented many Objectionable features,
yet the natural and logical result of
such relations between employer and
employed was to secure better and
more intelligent class of servics,p says
Martha Baker Dunn in the Atlantic
Monthly.
"It would not be a difficult busi-
ness to collect a sheaf OF testimonies
from housekeepers who are able to re-
member the changes of the last fifty
years certifying that the thrifty, capa-
BILE and reliable hired girl with whose
virtues and usefulness so many New
England households have in former
days been happily familiar, no longer
exists except in infrequent and sporadic
instances.
"The younger class of girls who un-
der the old regime went out to service
now employ themselves in the shops,
factories and similar establishments
where their time after working hours
is their own. They know the sweets of
independence and the proud, IL i'm
aginary, satisfaction of being Just as
good as anybody
"The domestic ranks in the New
England towns of today are largely
recruited from a wandering tribe of
more mature women, who vary the
serial of matrimony by Emergencies
into the field of working out. Some OF
them belong to the variety known as
grass widows, some of them have
either Just got bill or are Just about
to get bill from their husbands. some
have husbands who appear spasmod-
ically and then pass once more into
observation. During the intervals Of
these interrupted romances the hero
ines of them bestow a somewhat inter-
mittent and perfunctory attention on
households whose need is 80 urgent
that the members thereof are willing
to suffer and be strong.
"There was a certain, neat, spare
gauntly decorous, middle-aged woman
who, during my girlhood, always spent
a part of each day helping out in our
crowded household, whose memory re-
tains for me an abiding fascination.
She exemplifled a type which had in
those days many representatives; a
type of woman strong both in mind
and body, with an untutored intelli-
gence born of necessity and experience.
These women were apt to be sharp
cornered, full of individuality, incisive
of speech and act, a surface OF un-
graciousness which did not long con-
ceal a repressed sweetness of nature,
often the outgrowth Of deep and con-
scientious religious feeling.
"It was always gala day to me
when Aunt Sophia came to abide with
us. It meant that there would be
things doing, fresh interests added to
life. interests more or less piquantly
favored with the newcomers ind1vid-
uality. Aunt Sophia's sharp sayings,
her idiomatic stories gathered from
experiences in many households, the
very unexpectedness of her stand
points all helped to flavor the COM
nnonplaceness of daily living; and
though I have spoken of her and her
class as creatures of untutored intelli-
gence, in comparison with many or the
fippant and shallow beings who in
habit our kitchens today, these old
fashioned domestics were admirably
educated. Sophia read her Bible as
eagerly as her prototype Of today reads
Bertha M. Clay's novels"