Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-09-05
PASSING OF THE NEGRO SERVANT.
the QUESTION CREATES. A VERY DIFF.
CULT PRORLEM.

CULT PRORLEm.
While the industrial world of the
South is chafing at the restraint i'm
posed by dearth of skilled labor in
the shop, mill and factory, the lack
of domestic help in the conduct of
the household is breaking up the
home and creating problem in ano-
ther direction equally as difficult of
solution. So far no organized effort
10 solve it by immigration or other
&ye has been attempted, as in the
case of skilled labor, nor, in\ fact has
it been generally discussed with a
view OF adopting remedy of any
kind, but az it becomes more acute
some plan must be tried to improve
the conditions. Already in many
Southern cities and towns, boarding
houses lodging houses and hotels
are crowded with families who are
incapacitated to do household drudg-
cry and unable to have it done at
any price within the reasonable
bounds of economy. They are
forced to accept all sorts of incou-
veniences and discomforts in conse.
quence, not as makeshift, but as a
permanent thing, while the dream of
home and its freedom becomes
more vague and unreal as domestic
help grows more mythical.
: AN IMPORTANT QUESTION.
Is there any wonder that the ques-
tion of race suicide should become
80 important when the very founda-
tion of large families is crumbling
into decay 80 fast Without q
house and without domestic help the
rearing of children becomes burden
which many people are all toorglad
to escape by doping their conscience
with the excuse of no home.
But what are we going to do about
it? People must eat and they can
not all cook, so what will the end be {?
So long as the negro woman could
be coaxed aud cajoled to work for
double the wages earned, the south
ern housewife put up with her
slouchy ways and siipshod methods,
for the average negro woman is
about as innocent of any system and
method in her work as she is of am
bition and purpose in life. But now
that no amount of persuasion and
pay can induce them to Ego into ser.
vice." as they call it, some other
plan must be tried. What it shall
be is al open question. The South
ern people, as a whole, have happy
faculty of adjusting themselves to
the conditions with stoic fortitude
and complaisance which stand them
in great need now, for under the
trying circumstances they have ample
opportunity to call into exercise all
of their reserve power in this line.
LESS WORK FOR A LIVING.
1t is not that the negro servant
has grown more shiftless, indolent
and unreliable than formerly that
this elimination of idleness has been
reached, but is largely due to the
greater ease of making living here
now by less work than formerly.
Improvidence and irresponsibility
are dominant characteristics in the
negro's makeup, and no amount of
education and training will eradicate
it. They are, however, clannish in a
british sort of way, whether from
natural instict or general perversity
no one can say, and will occasionally
accept service to help out others who
are hungry, but it is e pretty vel!
known fact among houseleepers that
when one negro woman works
dozen eat, and often this is the
dominant incentive to induce them
to work at all. This statement seems
to be corroborated by the ratio of
fbooa xubo x1orL IN fhooo xuho ora