Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-07-18
Life'S Problems
Are Discussed
BY MRS. WILSON WOODROW

Where are the maids of yesteryear?
Where are Bridget, and Mandy,
and Fifne, and Gretchen, and Hilda ?
Ask of the winds that howl over
Babylon and Carthage and Nineveh
Along with the splendor that
was Greece and the glory that was
Rome" along with Paganism and
Chivalry and the Crusades and a
dozen other outworn creeds and
systems, domestic service as we
knew it has gone to join history's
seven thousand years.
In the general shaking out of
thrones during the past four years
the seventy-eight royalties who went
into oblivion We're not all who left
| us. With them went too, the So
| called Queen of the Kitchen" The
only difference is that she went of
her own volition, and that while they
never will be missed, she will be,
and is.
1t is useless to blink at facts.
The old order of housekeeping is
dead and done for There are, of
course, few scattered homes which
remain Unaffected everywhere peo-
pie, in the hope that old conditions
Will return, are trying to cling to
making a sorry task of it.
We might just as we'll face the
situation, and decide what we are
going to do about it,
Them was the happy days" al
most any mistress will tell YOU in
speaking of the years before the war.
When one needed a servant one went
to an intelligence office and, out of
a score of applicants, selected one
whose qualifications and references
seemed to suit.
That was all there was to it. If
one was willing to pay the price,
one was assured of trained, efficient
service-well cooked meals, a thor
ough cleaning of the rooms, deft
waiting at the table, spotless laund-
ering. If one preferred to do the
training, there was always a flock
of greenhorns, eager to learn at a
minimum wage.
There was grumblinG and fault
finding in those days, of course.
Some people would grumble at
heaven. And heaven is what this
former period now seems to the aver
age housekeeper; for to-day the
situation is in chaos.
Owing to the cessation of immi-
grafton from Europe, the inflow of
greenhorns-the raw material, one
might call it-has been completely
shut off, while the immense demand
for women in other directions of
labor has practically drained the
ranks of houseworkers.
At present it is often impossible
to obtain a maid of any sort, no
matter what the remuneration Of
fered; while those who can be Sc
cured are for the most part incom-
petent unreliable and shiftless
Women are to-day paying ten,
twelve, fifteen dollars week and
up for slovens and counterfeits whom
four years ago they would not have
permitted inside their houses.
They are granting all sorts of
privileges and submitting to un-
heard-of exactions, merely to retain
some semblance of help" The price
of a really efficient maid-if any of
The extinct species remains-is liter
ally above rubes.
Then what is going to be done
about it? The meals must be cook
ed. the dishes washed, the beds made,
the sweeping and washing and dust
ing and scrubbing done by somebody.
This work is fully as important as
that which is done in the factories
and stores and workshops-more i'm
portant. perhaps, for upon it depends
in a direct degree the health and
well-being and efficiency of the
Nation.
1t has been suggested that women
should return to the fashion of. an
earlier day, and do their own house
work. But, as life is lived at pres
ent. that is impracticable. The aver
age woman wants to do much of the
work in her own house; many of them
under existing conditions have been
compelled to shoulder the full re-