The Washington herald., 1913-01-20
WHAT SHALL WE SEE?
By FRANCES sHAFFER.

AS the years roll by and domestic
science schools graduate class after
class of young women carefully traiped
IN the art of cooking and all the other
branches that give to housework so
many, many sides. what is going TO
| happen in the home?
II will be all very well. very well. in
deed, when the graduate becomes the
wife and mother. but when she becomes
| the paid employe, what then? For, you
see, she will enter the home with a
pretty clearly defined notion of the value
of her services and with the old stigma
of inefficiency and a few other things
gone forever.
Just now We are saying we hope TO
see a better class of girls. in the main,
attracted to the field OF housework.
where they rightly belong. We want
more intelligence, higher standards.
greater ambitions, improved service all
around.
And meanwhile?
Well, while girls are learning how to
steer away from the dangers of a one
sided diet, how to proportion the flesh
forming materials and the fuel ingredi-
ents, how to make nutritious but less
expensive foods almost as pslatable as
the eostlier kinds, and how TO do a host
of other useful, dignified things. we read
all about the desirability and exceed
ing attractiveness of 'colored hveries
for women servants"
We are told II is very charming
fashion that is slowly making its way
oversee and that II is certain to find
favor in smart households where the
last note in trigness Is eagerly sought.
And il II is true. We can easily guess
what the end will be. For an innova-
ton like this, pretty in Its way, very
chic and distinctive, when it starts at
the top is pretty apt to sift down just
as far and as well as 1t can. And the
coIored liveries, severely simple, in
dark rich shades of red, green or blue,
with tell-tale silver or gold buttons,
after the fashion men-servants wear,
will first he adopted in big. wellappointed
establishments, then copied by the next
and the next in line, as faithfully as
may be.
But what OF the girls, those higher
grade, better educated, softer-voiced.
Sentler-mannered gtrIsr what Will they
say-and what will they do? VIII they
cheerfuIly respond to those natty uni
forms, brass buttons, and all?
You know, these are the girls so re-
fined and true of speech that children's
manners and morals Will be quite safe
in their keeping. But while they are
studying in the schools. preparing for
their natural field of work. will they
read and hear and know about these COL
ored liveries, and what will happen II
they do?
OF course, We do not know but we
can safely guess, and we would be
rather disappointed In the type or girl
that the domestic science schools are
turning out II this new notion found
favor in her sight.
rne other morning, In a very modest
home where dollars and even dimes count,
a woman was out cleaning the front
steps. She was a maid-or-all-worK-tner
was Just one in that nome-yet, percned
on her head she wore the most RIDICULOUS
cap. One cannot say she admires the
spirit that asks a girl to wear any badge
of work, except as 1t rs necessary, even
in homes where there are as many
maids as there are kinds OF service to
be performed. But II becomes a bit
ridiculous in the ordinary homes or very
ordinary folk, where the maid is COOK
laundress, waitress, and a few other
things all in one.
Yet some foolish folk. as faithfully
and as well as they can. will COPY the
fads and friIls or the wealthy without
stopping to think how II looks to others
or how IT strikes the workers.
But when the time comes that work.
ers are better equipped, they will not
bow to such absurd little apings. And
the worst, or the best, of 1t is they will
not once think of or turn to the fields
where they are tolerated.
Then there's the matter Of pay. Skilled
hands, trained minds, and better every
thing will demand and must be given
higher compensation-do our housewives
think Of that?
They will call for better working con-
ditons, shorter hours, more regularity,
and stipulated duties. and will insist
upon the abolition of many of the ir-
rftating little exactions that have brought
the work into disrepute and have put
the workers, more or less, in a class
apart
That Is, they will ask for these i'm
provements If they think the field will
ever be made alluring enough that they
Will want to enter Il at all.
Meanwhile, 1t seems sort Of futile to
be talking of the good times that are
coming when the wonderful fruits of
domestic science training are all gather
ed IN, for those fruits win be of mighty
little use in the home unless the home
takes steps 70 clear the domestic work