The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-03-29

has no friends to visit and no place
to go but on the street or to some
cheap theater. She is debarred from
admission to many of the social clubs
which furnish diversion for the leis-
ure of other working girls. What
wonder is it that too often she falls
a victim to the temptation of the po-
! iceman the groceryman or some
other man who gives her an occa-
sional friendly greeting, and thus
joins the large army of unmarried
mothers who annually apply to char
liable institutions for aid?
1t Is a reflection upon the mis-
tresses more than upon the maids
themselves that by far the larger
number of these u~nfortunates are
girls who met their fall while in the
domestic service. The claim fire.
quently is made that the maid SER
want is protected by her mistress. but
this is not always the truth. An in
stance recently was cited at a wo-
mans club meeting of a mistress to
whom a young girl appealed for pro-
lection from the man butler in the
same household. Instead of DISMISS
ing the man, the woman selfishly dis
charged the girl upon the ground that
she could not be troubled with serv-
ants disagreements and it was much
easier to secure a chambermaid that
a competent butler. The social dis
tinctions which some mistresses at
tempt to raise between themselves
and the girls who are in their en-
ploy and should be under their pro-
! -, l., ~r~ - IT. ~nt-- ~-- 900
to the safety of the girl in domestic
service.
The rule that a girl may receive
no callers at her place of employment
has driven many virtnous girls to the
street, although considering the mum
Der who frequently are found to be
in league with thieves and burglars,
mistresses sometimes claim that such
a rule is necessary for their own pro-
lection. The proper adjustment of
the need of recreation n compan-
ship for a girl in domestic employ
ment, especially in houses where only
one servant is kept, is, in the eyes
of many students of the subject, the
most important matter connected with
the servant problem.
~ pIppitlll 10 illvSt disIbSStN vi
the larger towns, and yet it must be
admitted that the woman in the city
does not suffer so much personal
discomfort and fatigue from her ina
bility to secure help in the work of
the home as women in the country or
upon large farms out of reach of the
conveniences for tightening their
work. 1t is quite usual for the wife
of a prosperous farmer to have to
perform with her own hands all the
labor of cooking, baking. washing and
ironing, not only for her own family,
but for several extra men as we'll, in
addition to keeping the home. clean
and in order. She can not send her
soiled clothes to the laundry, procure
her bread and cake from the bakery,
and rely largely upon the delicatessen
store for her cooked food, as can her
sister in town. To her ever an in
competent servant is better than none
and there are girls in such situations
who are earning as much as $40 a
month n having all the privileges of
a member of the family in addition.
While such wages are not usual, the
scarcity of domestic help, together
with the awakened ambition of women
IN the farm to get some pleasure out
of life instead of remaining co%ntinu-
Gus household drudges, render then,
more probable each year.
The fact that the servant of
today may be the mistress of
tomorrow has a most important
bearing upon American domestic
EMBELLISHMENTS. The girl in the
Il lrit,1,,r ,,ny tl, o.a,o,,, ,1a,I.
and he may have special business ca
pacity which will enable him in a
few years to become a wholesale mer-
t chant with an income sufficient tC
provide his wife the means of en-
ploying as many servants as she de-
sircs, These instances are neither
impossible nor even i%nfrequent. Every
American girl of average educational
intelligence always has before her the
possibility of some day becoming q
mistress herself. This makes he1
hesitate to place herself in a posi-
ton where she is subject to the or
ders of another woman
The class distinction of Europe pro-
8 vide a continual supply of young
peasant girls anxious to enter domes-
tic service because it is easier thar
many other occupations. Moreover
in Europe the maid servants position
entities her to a certain amount OF
respect. The fact hat she lives in a
larger house, that she is entrusted
with the handling of fine china anC
the care of the family silver anC
other valuah1es. gives her a certain
prestige among other peasant girls
who are living in cottages supplied
with neCeSsaries of the plainest kind
She is not looking forWard to com