Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-07-26
THE SERVANT IN THE HOUSE
What Woman Thinks of the Greatest Domestic Problem in
AmercaShe States Elements and Suggests Way Out
PAYS Her Respects to the Sterner Sex.
By coRoLYN BULLEY

u,HE question Of hired girls is an extremely
! dangerous one to tackle. For landing you
swiftly and uncomfortably in personalities
! it is only edualed by the national pastime'
''DiscussnE T. r." Indeed, II Is far more
oppressngly near than that great household
duty.
Some people declare vehemently, 1T is all
woman's fault" others blame It (or rather
undenne it) on men, while again the nature
and habits Of hired girls come in for a severe
drubbing
But everybody agrees that there is some
thing vitality wrong at present In the regime
Of housekeepers and houseworkers
Now that is quite hopeful; because when
you get everybody truly convinced that there
is wrong abroad in the land, you have
done q considerable slice Of the work toward
getting It righted
Among other things, why expect all women
10 be either born or made not only house,
keepers, but teachers of the gentle domestic
arts as wel7 Suppose when a man "gets
himself house and gets a wife beside" he
be expected personally to install a plumbing
system in his house, and keep It In repair
afterward.
The Reductio Ad Plumber
II don't know anything about plumbing"
says he. How can 1 FIX UP a plumbing
system?"
"shocklng!" retorts the world (and his
wfe). Every home needs plumber. What
were your parents at when they reared you
to years of discretion in ignorance of mans
Noblest Art! However If you can't do the
work yourself, and perhaps you can afford
not to do It all, anyway here Is a nice
young man, a Moran Zone of those products
of our society whose mentality can never be
developed beyond the point supposed to be
attained by all normal children of say 10
years), you can teach him to plumb"
Worse and more of IT." cries the dis
tracted man. How can teach him, who is
in the first place unteachable, what don't
know myself?"
THAT is silly" he is told 1.-THE subject
must have been written up in books. You
can find out all about it If you try"
"oh, WELL" says he cheerily, being young
and hopeful husband mo doubt we can
both learn it together in the course of time"
Course of time, nothing!" rejoins his wife.
Cant you see, my dear, that as we begin
living in this house right away, now, this
minute, you've got to get some sort of de-
vice going while you learn the proper sys-'
tenn"
The world is nearly convinced, at last, that
there will be just as many marriages, and
more of them happy ones, IL girls marry be-
cause they have active desire to do so,
and not simply because there does not seem
to be anything else for them to do. But it
is perfectly Just criticism that, IL we want
to rush about doing every sort of thing ex-
cept or beside housekeeping we are much to
blame for the lack of system in the house
work proposition, for not organizing the
household arts and standardizing labor, as
am morally certain that in time we are 60
ing to do all these things. OF course, that
doesn't help the situation for this years
crop of brides, who are setting up house,
keeping now, this minute, and no doubt the
process is going to cost the world many
masculine digestions and dispositions But
we shall arrive. Don't forget that we are a
Big Social Problem, and Big Social Problems
move slowly.
The Eight-Hour Housemaid
Not that I mean to suggest, by the way,
taking the organized plumbers as our pat
tern of standardized labor Just picture it:
A young woman wanders in leisurely about |
1880 in the morning to do our housework
pokes at the dirty dishes, looks over the
dusty rooms, and finally announces that she
cannot do any work on the job until after
lunch, because she has TO go back to the
office to get her duster, soap and tea towels
OF course, she couldn't guess what she had to
do till she came to see. No, she can't stay
to get lunch, because she has left her union |