The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-02-27
HIRED GIRLS
SCARCE
Housewives Are Clamoring for
Help" But Girls Prefer Days
Work to General Service
Shorter Hours, Better Wages.
Do you live in town or in the cou,

try?
How many children have you?
Do you give every Thursday after
noon and every other Sunday OF?
Do you hire a laundress to do up the
shirtwaists?
Is there private bath for the maid.
or does she have to use the same bath
tub. as the family?
These are only five of the dozens Of
questions that arg filling the air daily
around the employment bureaus, intel
ligence offices, as they are called,
though nobody in-the world can ex-
plain, neither can they understand.
what the latter appellation is APP
piled to the, says writer in eastern
paper.
This is the time when the wander
lust seizes upon the maid who has been
faithful for months. Perhaps the
spring has got into her veins. Per-
haps. it is the close proximity of "mov-
ing day." Whatever it is she is i'm
PEELED to make the change. She can
no more help it than the little birds
can help chirping, or the grass from
growing green. She simply must make
a change, no matter what the result.
Every intelligence Office is crowded
these days with women from all coun-
tries, and in every state of preserva-
ton. Yet they are all alike, only some
are older. All seem to have been made
in the same mold, and all are looking
for soft snap"
A trip through half dozen intelli-
gence offices yesterday drew forth the
same result in each and every case.
The answer was the same, the demand
for domestics exceeds the supply.
Housewives on every side are clamor-
ing for housemaids, but the advantages
offered are SO few and far between,
and the wages so small, in comparison
with what may be made in 9th ,r
branches of work. that the prospect is
not alluring to the average work girl.
Wages for housemaids are higher
and advancing every year. Where,
year or two ago a good girl for gen.
eral homework could be had for $3.50
a week she cannot now be induced TO
work. for SIS unless the place offers
unusual privileges. Year by year
American girls are forsaking the field
Of domesticity and are taking posi-
tons in shops or factories. Large
buildings, too, take their share of wo-
men, who before did general house
work. They are paid better wages and
the hours are much shorter.
Nop,a,, x1yho In doxy,, 1uor1y oro ,,o;l
s1.50 a day, the hours being from in
the morning until or $50 at night.
When this latter hour comes Bridget
or Lena or Maggie or Dianah can bun
lie up her apron and her old skirt, don
her coat and hat, and tell herself that
her days work is done. The evening
she has to herself, to do with as she
likes. For her the joys of the dance
or the christening or the parlor social
On Sundays she can do her own wash
ng and ironing, baking, mending ur
whatever else she cares to do and has
SO instead of IS, together with her
BOARD, as a result of her weeks labors.
Then her graft is greater. for graft
exists even below stairs. Where the
sirl who does general homework III
,ne family simply gets the discarded
Gibbons and shirtwaist and gloves f.
me "missis," loot from six families il:
or the girl who does days work in
six families.
There is but one solution to the
problem" said the proprietor of one OF
he largest employment bureaus yes
{1S..1
how to cook and wash and iron or in
ten years all of us will be living in
hotels"