The Washington herald., 1913-04-05
Nv FRANCES sHAFFER.

The other day a woman sent a com
plant to a newspaper in big city
where the demand for houseworkers II
far in excess of the supply
She asked, as many another has done
before her, why il was that the press
of the country was flooded with maudlir
sentiment over the plight of some mil
and shop workers who were said to o.
forced into leading the worst KIND o.
lives when there were thousands anc
thousands of housekeepers Throughout
the length and breadth of the country
who were crying aloud for helpers. She
said that these women in the homes
were working themselves to death be
cause girls who should be laundresses
chambermaids, mattresses, nurses, cooks
and the like, actually preferred the shop
the mill and the factory to houseworh
at any price.
Why didn't these underpaid wage
earners, she questioned, seek the homes
where their labors were needed ano
where they would be paid s.. 6, 81 week
or more if need be. and 'found?'
And as We hear that question, and
others much like it, pouring in from
anxious. overworked housekeepers in
every land, we find ourselves asking the
very same question-why don't they:
-
women perform are sickeningly monoto'
nous; they are wearing, they are heavy,
nerye-racking. underpaid-they are every
thing that is bad.
We ask, and the answers come crowd
ing back, thick and fast.
And one of the very first is the stigma
that long has been placed upon house
work.
But why the stigma? 1t is shard to tell
all the reasons for that, for they are
many-sided. Conditions often forced
upon workers are humiliating. Milady's
maid is not always so fond OF her trig
little uniform as perhaps she ought TO
be, and, one and all, the workers object
to the supervision over their time, object
to the long hours on duty and cry out al
the lack of opportunity for personal life.
For it is this way: There is absolutely
no uniformity about ii. In one home
they may be granted a single evening
OUT each week, the rest OF the time
they are expected to be on duty to
answer bells and to respond to other
calls. They do not like-who would?-
the fact that they have no place to re-
ceive callers, and it pulls bit on their
sef-respect to he obliged to admit that
of all the industries theirs is the only
one that attempts to stand guard over
And in another home, where there may
be no restriction as to evenings, duties
are so long and so heavy and the din
ne. hour comes so late that there Is
mighty little left to call evenings.
Contrasts. too, are very sharp, far
more pronounced than in the factory or
shop, because, at the head, in the draw
ing-room, there sits a woman; and at
the foot, in the kitchen, there stands
another woman, with the eternal social
equality or inequality, between. to vex
and disturb. For, underneath the sur
face, il must be remembered there are
not always so many shades of difference
between employer and employed. Whether
we think there are huge differences or
believe that there should not be. is, in
some respects. less important than the
one fact that the maid-of-all-work does
not like the sharp line, and has struck.
perhaps for all time.
And cannot you guess, though there
is little enough in a name, that the very
terms mistress" and maid" strike dis
may to the average prideful heart,
whether that heart beats beneath laces
and jewels or under the workers garb?
Then the life of the domestic worker
is pretty lonely. She is in a family,