Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1912-11-01
SERVANT ENIGMA.
All Over the World This Is a Seri-
GUS Question.
CONCESSIONS TO THE MAID.
FIatterine inducements Are Now Of
fered to Girl Help In All Countries,
While She Can Safely Demand Many
Privileues.

fereo TO Girl Help IN All Countries,
While She Can Safely Demand Many
Privileges.
In England lovely ducheSses are i'm
ploring their maids to be obliging and
accept the provisions of the insurance
act which will provide them with
toast and tea in their old age; in Ger
many the women of wealth and posi-
ton, from the kaiser's daughter to
Frau Heyl, the famous woman manu-
facturer, are fighting the factory for
girls who shall be fitted to marry or
to serve in good households; in France
the complaint is rampant that the old,
reliable type of girl of all work.. who
used to take the mistress burdens on
her ready shoulders for the sake of her
modest wages and her universal dou-
ceurs, is disappearing from Paris, and,
as for the United States, every one
knows that troubles name is the cook.
What in the world is the world going
to do about it? asks the Boston Herald,
Well, there are number Of rene
dies and resources, but after review
of them all the most experienced are
inclined to think that the panacea re-
mains still to be found. Those com
munities are most fortunate where any
partial solution has worked at all.
The pictures of the nice young
Duchess of Marlborough taking her
pen in hand and writing n passionate
appeal to the domestic servants of her
adopted land to comply with the pro
visions of the recently passed insurance
act and to do it now, when the middle
aged woman can obtain government
assurance of aid in old age on the
same terms as q girl Of sixteen, was
true one in London. little time past,
but it was recognized generally as an
anxious noblewoman's plea for some
way of getting mistress and maid to-
gether on platform where each could
come in closer touch with the other.
Yet, sensible as her appeal was-for
Germany has been compelled TO in.
cude it's servants in the general insur-
ance act, although at first both Serv-
ants and employers regarded this AZ
a wholly superauous grouping for the
purposes of old age pensions-she has
encountered opposition from women in
| the English nobility rs well as wrath
and refusal from the mass of British
servants. The nub Of the question is,
| 11o1 10 n
And there have been some women of
position who have actually undertaken
| to do their own work rather than sub
nit to the added burden of their serv-
ants insurance.
But this new veXation is, after all,
only a symptom-the symptom of re-
volt which has been going on in Eng
land for the last twenty years, OF
which the gravest feature has beer
the gradual severance Of the tradition
nj loyalty of the maid to the house
| hold that employed her. Time was
when every servant in u great house
hold carried an old age pension in her
long service and her mistress feeling
Of feudal responsibility. The spare
| cottage OH the estate, regular gifts OF
| clothing and food, affectionate visits
whenever the lady of the manor went
| her rounds--these were the old age
perquisites of Margaret or Anne when
she was past her usefulness. But Mar.
garet and Anne have become much
more independent and quite nearly re-
lated to the gentleman from Missouri
who insisted on being shown. They
| have long taken the attitude that their
wages ought to cover all their income
| and that, if any assurance against
want is to be given them, it must come
| to them in the form Of pay for labor
performed and not as charity or dole.
Meanwhile they have been rebellipg
against cap and apron as badges Of
servitude and have SO far gained their
| point that the mistresses have been
| constrained to let them dress about as
they please in most middle class fam
! lilies. if not in the highest circles OF
British society. In effect, the servant
! question over there has reached the
stage it held here about ten years ago,
when there were servants enough still,
but the whole craft was breathing in
dependence and rebellion.
Germany's chief complaint has been
the lack of competent maids because
of the demands Of the workshop, and
France has seen rank commercialism
spelling servants who once were more
genuinely domestic and infinitely less
rapaciouS.
England is trying to keep the peace
by making slow, grudged sacrifice of
the mistress authority and preroga-
tives--precseIy the reluctant conces-
sions first made here, with every like
Iihood Of similar results. Germany is
Systematically endeavoring to enhance
the dignity of service by increasing It's
proficiency.
---
Helped Little.