davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05

but if we employ maid she gets the
drudgery every time. There is nothing
in the irksomeness Of the job to attract
or hold really intelligent girl
Those of us who are able to employ
only one or a few servants would better
give up the effort as gracefully as we can
and spend our time and money on ode
vices" and community kitchens and laun-
dries and Mrs. Blank coming for days
work, and if we choose to keep house pay
the piper" by making housekeeping our
business. Oeta II. Gihuly
The following protest was called forth
by the Elene Foster article on house as
sstants that appeared in The Tribune
Institute Of November II, and its sin
cerc and we'll taken points are carefully
covered by the answering letter from
Mrs. Berkeley, the successful pioneer in
the house assistant experiment, on whose
actual experience the article was based
The rights and wrongs, economic and
social, of the servant, and the proposed
attempt to socialize this form of work
by establishing an eight-hour day for
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05
A Barn Dance at the Front

camps was over shell-strewn earth that
literally swan with thick, oozy mud. This
part OF 1t proved too much for one of
the women, great beauty. Her heels
were too high and her complexion too
oeilcate, and an officers car had to be
requisitioned to take her back to Paris
and milk bath and proper facial To-
tions. But the other woman went on
with the two men.
At late afternoon they came to great
old barn around which few soldiers
we're gathered-American, French, Brit
ish, Canadian, Australian. These men
had just struggled back from the fight
ing area They were covered with
sweat and blood and they were dog-tircd.
Some were wounded, but they were
slightly wounded and had already re-
ceived first aid.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05

ans figure seated on pile of bags.
Near her was kind of torch that added
to the general suffocation of tobacco
smoke and the strong smell of sweating
human bodies, and all about her, at her
feet and ranging around the sides of the
building, even straddling the rafters,
were men, men, men-grizzled men,
young men, men of Indifferent ages,
some pale and bandaged, men Of diff
ferent Allied nationalties-and all
happy
Their applause died, and way down
in the centre the woman on the bags be-
gan to talk again. The boys nearest her
passed it on; the men repeated it in an
overwhelming wave-and again a wild
roar of laughter went up. The woman
was telling funny stories, but her
voice WAS too far gone to make itself
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05

had once been. 1t was no longer there,
but the opening was hung with gunny-
sacks. The husbands heart was in his
mouth, he said afterward, for that barn
was as silent as the grave as they ap-
preached it.
And then, all at once, as they reached
out to touch the gunny sacks, sound
broke the stiffness. 1t was raucous,
roaring laughter, followed by great
capping of hands.
The men lifted the gunny sacks and
stumbled in. At first they could see
nothing in the smoke-choked interior.
The floor of the barn was gone, and the
cellar of 1t sloped toward a hole in the
centre-not unlike the floor of an amphi-
theatre, really. AS their eyes became
accustomed to the gloom they spied. way
down In the centre Of that floor, q wona-
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05

Some one in authority at this juncture
refused to let the entertainers go further
forward. 1t was too dangerous-"espe
cially for woman"
"rll stay here" cried the actress,
promptly, of you'll take the men! I'm
no kill-joy!"
The men went reluctantly, though they
expected to be back by nightfall.
But they got into shell holes, and were
held up once or twice and had nasty
breakdown 1t was almost morning be
fore they returned to the barn.
When they approached it dawn was
not yet gray in the sky, and the battered
barn lay black and formless against the
horizon. AS soon as the motor car came
to stop in the mud before it the men
sprang out and ran toward the barn
door---or the place where the barn door
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05

screams and went to his assistance She
insisted on the mother taking it to hos
pital, as the little hand was burned almost
to the bone. The mother refused to do
this, saying that she must have her hus-
bands consent before taking so impor-
tant step, and the husband was at
work in a distant part of the city. The
husbands brother, however, was found,
and he gave his consent and the baby
was carried to the hospital The doctor
dressed the hand and the baby suddenly
ceased its crying. The mother looked
at him in amazement, crossed herself
and declared that miracle had been
performed. The healing of the hand
only confirmed her in this belief, and
from that time there has been no diff
ticulty in persuading her to take her
sick children to the hospital News of
the miracle man" spread through the
district and other women obtained the
consent of their lords and masters to
take advantage of his power, and when
the maternity clinic was finally opened
they were not only ready but eager to
take the suggestions of the woman doc
tor.
This Italian centre" is in a most
iourishing condition. There is a week
ly mothers meeting, a cooking class in
which the women are taught to prepare
cereals, stewed fruits and other simple
dishes which are destined to serve as
substitutes for the everlasting spaghetti
in the menu of the Italian babies The
corner grocer will bear witness to the
fact that this teaching has not been
fruitless, for, for the first time in all
his twenty years experience, he has re-
Gently been obliged to order large GUAM
titles of oatmeal, which is speedily
bought up by the Italian mothers.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05

heard at any distance beyond her seat.
God bless you alll' she croaked at
the last. (Her voice was reduced to
real croak) you are the most won
derful things God ever made"
She had literally danced the shoes off
her feet. eve did them ALL" she
laughed afterward. II danced all the
new rags with the youngsters-on that
terrible floor while some one whistled.
Later we got a mouth-organ. Then
waltzed and two-stepped the old STYLE
with men who'd never learned the new
steps. / did an Irish jig and High
land fling; we polkaed and had quad
rifle. / laughed until / almost died.
Then we tried a Sir Roger de Coverly.
and the Trenches and / tried our
darnedest to give them minuet. II
was wonderful wondar2ul."
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05
Domestic Service-The
UnSOlVable Problem

She belonged to the same locality. gos-
siped about the same people, was accus-
toned to the same style Of living. She
was zone of the family" not because she
ate at the same table, or met the guests
of the house as an equal, or had the
LADY of the house" working side by side
with her, but because they had the same
standards and the same interests
1t is futile to argue that we have no
class distinctions in our country, but it
certainly is mighty good to keep them all
boxed up in their own separate houses.
The chintzes and reading lamp which
would appeal to you, dear lady-yes, per
haps even the bathroom-are not the
things Maggie would have in her own
house If her widest dreams came true.
Maggie's standards and yours aren't the
same--she never could be zone Of the
family" Which, by the bye, is one chief
reason why servants are so prone to talk
about their employers and employers so
enjoy detailing the idiosyncrasies of their
servants; having different viewpoints,
they are mutually interesting.
Household Tasks Are Stupid
One Of the most hopeless aspects of the
whole matter is that the work q servant
has to do isn't interesting; if it were we
would do it ourselves. ] don't want too
much censure for that statement; be hon
est about it and you'll admit its truth
Many women may like to cook; chemistry
may appeal to them; their results may be
SO eminently satisfactory that they may
forget all else, but I maintain in the face
of any possible opposition that no woman
living likes to get up after well served,
delicious meal and grapple with it's debris.
We do it, many of us, with varying de
grees OF promptness and amabilty but
only because we recognize the reentless-
ness of fate; we do it because it is the
only way to restore order Why did the
girl Of the fairy tale say "Little table,
away when she finished eating, instead
of doing the work herself? There is
something very unlovely about the re-
mains of meal, just as there is about
the ashes of our stoves, or the unpre-
pared vegetables, or a thousand and one
other matters of housekeeping
No Heart Interest" in Maggie's Work
We may prefer housekeeping to other
work because we love to do it for the
only man in the world" or because we
IKE the results obtained, or because the
thrlftlness of our nature cannot bear to
see Things wasted, destroyed or bungled,
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05

the house assistant ] can't understand
why an Intelligent girl would submit
to such patronage
Nor do I understand how any woman
of good education can afford to work
eight hours a day for six days in week
for the quite inadequate wage of SO.
The doctors wife you speak of is saving
about $25 month on her house assist
ants. 1t would surely cost her that to
feed them, SO | don't wonder she's
pleased with her plan Of shifting that
expense on the girls themselves. It real
~ is quite simple.
I would hate to feel that any such one
sided plan as this could be the solution
of the servant problem. | haven't
doubt that there are girls who would be
happier at domestic work than in the
work they are doing, but not under those
conditions. Servants or "house assist
ants" will be scarcer than ever unless
they are offered wage which will make
the independence you speak of possible.
Winifred Malone
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05
The Proof of the Pudding
200 Applications
New York City, Dec. 9, 1918.
irector, Tribune Institute:

New York City, Dec. 9, 1918.
Director, Tribune Institute:
In reply to your letter with Enclosure
letter of Winifred Malonel, in which
you ask me about the financial side of
Home Assistants versus Servants, / am
sending you some advertisements from
the columns of Help Wanted-Female"
that l cut out of one of the morning
newspapers after reading your letter
There were twenty-three advertisements
in the paper quoting wages for begin
ners, and ] have classified them as fol
lows: Two offer 81 to beginners; five
offer So; eight offer SO; six offer $40 to
beginners with some training; one offers
5000, and one $1,000
When we'll known business firms such
as Park e. Tilford, the Ansonia Clock
Company, the New York Telephone Com
pany and others give So and SO a week
to beginners it seems to me that the
housewife who adopts business prnci-
pies and an eight-hour day in the man
agement of her house is fully justified
in beginning with the same wage.
Time Element Big Item
The letter you forwarded to me en-
tlrely overlooks The most important
item, from a business point Of view, in
the comparison Of wages for servants
and home assistants Miss Malone writes
that can ordinary servant gets $40 a
month, her board and lodging" and that
she does not understand how any wom-
an of good education can afford TO work
eight hours day for six days q week
for the quite inadequate wage of SO a
week" She forgets to state that IAN
ordinary servant" is on duty not onlys
eight hours q day, but usually from
fourteen to sixteen hours a day, and
even then her services may be required
at night, while a home assistant is on
duty eight hours day only.
Therefore the housewife who employs
assistants instead of servants does not
save money on wages, for if she wants
some one on duty for a sixteen hour day
she pays $18 a week-S936 per annum
for beginners" But the housewife does
save money on all her household ex-
penses under the new system, and she
also saves time in not being obliged to
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05

NNE Of the best stories heard
Z about the Wharf.-The late war. as
we shall soon be saying--was told
me by Y. M. c. A. worker from
France, about one Of a quartet Of we'll
known theatrical folk who went up near
the front On tour Of entertainment for
all the Allied armies.
The four--two men and two women
started cut in motor car one su1try
spring day TO give a series of recitals
much nearer the fighting line than en-
tertainers we're usually permitted to CO.
1hey had passports and escorts and were
Keyed up TO smile at all hardships and
dangers they might encounter. Their
hrst two performances were given in the
morning In rest camps behind the lines,
put well within sound OF the big gums,
ana the way on foot from tho ear to the
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05
Household ASSiStants-A
Solution Offered

have meals cooked three times day for
staff of resident servants.
You ask me, "Do house assistants live
at home, and would that make an unfair
comparison with the usual adult ser
vant?"
/ think the majority of women who
apply for the position Of assistant in
private family do live at home, but, even
if they are boarding, they neither
expect nor wish to sleep and eat in their
employers home, due to the fact, l i'm
agine, that they belong to the same so
cial class as business girls.
Raising Homework to Business Level
Statistics prove that there are fewer
women each year willing to place their
neck under the domestic yoke, and my
solution of the Servant problem" is not
Il plan to convert the few remaining ser
wants into "home assistants ut would
be easier to make water run uphill
but plan to raise homework to the
level Of all other manual work in which
women are engaged by placing it on
business basis.
This plan, which ! have practised for
years III my own home, appeals to the
intelligent, educated, modern working
girl, and to show you to what an extent
it appeals I am sending you with this
letter between two and three hundred
written applications for the position of
'home assistant" which were received
in response to an advertisement inserted
once only on three different occasions i'll
New York daily. On January II,
1917, 101 written applications; on April
10, 1917, 1O8 written applications, and
on January 20, 1913, 70 answers.
Trouble With Conditions, Not With
Nature of Work
must not forget to tell you that the
advertisement stated on each occasion
that the work was limited to eight
hours day and six days week, and
that in 1917 So week was offered and
in 1918 SO week. In consequence each
applicant knew what wages to expect in
answering the advertisement.
These letters prove better than any
words of mine that women are quite
willing to do homework, but they ars
not willing to become a domestic ser
vant-serous donaesticus meaning liter
ally the slave of the house-and who can
blame them?
c. Helene Berkeley.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05

Of her experience she said: "If had
a daughter fifteen years old should
send her to work in France and Elan
ders. And / would not worry if she
were the only girl or woman for miles
II the men who came to the place were
Allied soldiers I'd know she was per-
fectly safe; that civilizations chivalry
to any woman is the finest, sweetest,
most sacred thought in the lives and
minds of every man who was out there
fighting for US!
And that's Why" she added, "they
could not have gone into Germany and
repaid the Germans in kind for their
own horrible brutalities to women and
children. Their loathing Of the Hunsp
work has spiritualised, think. even the
lowest Of the men who went TO wax On
shs Allied sidss Nay BesuaM
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05
The Armenian Centre
Has q Native CANCEL"

In tenement on the lower floor of
house in East Twenty-fifth Street the
international Institute has established
its most pretentious centre" for the
benefit Of the Armenian women in the
neighborhood. Thanks to the warm in
terest which the wealthy Armenians
have taken in the enterprise the rooms
are nicely furnished with a piano, a
couch, easy chairs tables and some very
good pictures painted by young Ar
menian artist, all Of which were gifts
to the "club," for this "centre" is more
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05
"What's In a Name"
At SO a Week?
BROOKLYN. N. Y.

Brooklyn, N. Y, Nov. II, 1913.
Director, Tribune Institute:
1t seems to me that these intelligent
young women you speak Of pay a rather
dear price for the glory of being called
house assistants" An ordinary SER
want gets $40 month, her board and
lodging. Yet you consider "house as
sistant" we'll paid at 50 week, which,
of course, makes no allowance for either
board or lodging In other words, ser
want has her $40 about clear, while the
house assistant must actually feed and
clothe herself on SO week.
The plan is splendid for the mistress,
and can readily believe she can save a
great deal, but she can't get beyond the
fact that she is saving at the expense of
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05
Miracles Of the Clinic
Free for All

The Italian woman who presides over
the centre" in East Forty-hfth Street
has already accomplished wonders in
neighborhood where the women are espe-
cially ignorant and extremely suspicious
of strangers. The browning glory of
her work is the establishment of a
weekly clinic for mothers and those who
are soon to become mothers, with a
woman doctor and a nurse in attend
ance. This is a great innovation for
the people of this district, who come, by
the way from the little town of Mario
in Southern Italy, and had never before
employed the services of a physician,
even in childbirth.
1t was very long time, the worker
told me, before she could persuade any
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05

worker, are manifold and varied. She
acts as interpreter to all the women
in the district, accompanying them TO
hospitals or the courts; she conducts
an employment bureau for those in
search of work and tenement registry
for the homeless: she writes letters for
the mothers of men in the service whose
allotments are delayed; she presides at
the weekly maternity clinic which is
held in the club rooms and on certain
evenings of the week she gathers to-
gether all the women that she can crowd
into the rooms and teaches them to play
what she calls SILLY games" to drive
away the melancholy to which they are
apt to give way, for the sorrows of their
beloved country are ever present in the
minds of these long-suffering people.
'What Is Reading?"
Asks Russia
The Russian and Polish centres which
the Institute has established are way
down on the lower East Side. The
Polish women, we are told, are by far
the, more intelligent and "get-at~able."
The Russian worker will tell you that
the Russian women are the most stolid,
ignorant and superstitious of all the for
eign-born women and consequently the
most difficult to help. She told me of
man who had come to her with the
request that she explain to his wife the
meaning of reading and writing. He
said that every evening when he sat
down to read his newspaper his wife
stood by, doubled up with laughter, call
ing him all kinds of a fool for sitting
and staring so long at piece of paper
with black spots on it. He had tried
his best to make her understand the
meaning of it, but with no success. The
worker rather doubted her ability to do
any BETTER and when you consider the
question, just how would you go about
it? And it is the like of this poor. igno-
rant creature that we are trying to
make over into good American citizens
It's pretty long, dark road to travel.
but the international Institute is blaz-
ing the trail.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05

that other centres" are to be opened
in the near future.
The plan is this: An educated woman
of the same nationality as the people of
the district in which she is to work
rents a tenement in the heart of that
district, which she has thoroughly
cleaned, repainted and furnished SIM
ply and neatly after the fashion Of those
around it. This usually consists of
sitting room, bedroom and tiny kitch
en-. If she does not actually live in the
tenement she at least spends the greater
part of her time there. She soon be-
comes acquainted with the other peo-
pie in the house and because she is one
Of them and speaks their language, she
very soon gains their friendship and
confidence, and little by little she can
suggest new ideas in housekeeping or
caring for the sick. Being of the same
race she understands the temperament
and characteristics Of her people much
better than a native-born American
could ever understand them, which is
an enormous advantage.
After little she invites her neigh
bors to her tenement, where there are
bright curtains and yellow walls and
comfortable rocking chairs, and she gives
them a cup of cocoa or bit of fruit
and they feel quite at home When the
time is ripe she produces cooking dishes
and shows them how to prepare
strange grain called oatmeal for the
babies breakfast. It is long, slow
pull, but with patience and perseverance
4 great deal can be accomplished.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05
Foreign Born Women

on the order of woman's club. It is
in charge of beautiful young Armenian
woman, college graduate who came to
this country, like so many others of
her race, to escape from the tyranny of
the Turks
The Armenian women are among the
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05
By ELENE FOSTER

one in the neighborhood to consult a
physician, but one day the baby in the
tenement above burnt his hand fright
fully by putting it into a kettle of hot
soup and the mother, having tried all the
remedies which she knew of, was in de-
SPAR. The worker heard the baby's
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05

domestic service and giving it the recog-
milton it deserves are so treated as to
furnish CLEAN Of hope in spite of Miss
Malones protest that only the mistress
is the gamer.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05
The Americanization of Our For
LII sorts Of plans have been de-

A Ill sorts Of plans have been de-
IN vised for the education and Amer
4 IA termination Of our foreign-born
women, many OF which have failed la
mentally and mostly all for one reason
namely, the lack of cooperation Of the
women themselves. For in nine cases
ont of ten the foreign-born woman does
not want to be Americanized. She is
perfectly content to live on in complete
ignorance of America and everything
American, preparing her food in the
same old unwholesome way, conducting
her household and tending her sick by
the same old-fashioned methods that
were used by her grandmother and
rreat-grandmother in the old homeland
across the seas.
Therefore, the person who tries to help
these women to more enlightened man
ner of living finds himself in much the
same predicament as the physician who
struggles to save patient who has no
desire to live. And just as it Is "up''
to the physician to devise a way Of ad-
ministering the necessary medicine to
the patient so that he will not realize
that it is medicine, so is it ''up'' to those
who are striving to Americanize these
women of foreign birth to evolve plan
for accomplishing this without allowing
the victims" to discover that they are
being educated. After all is said and
done, there are tricks in all trades
The International Institute
Speaks All Languages
1t would seem that the International
Institute has found real solution Of
the problem. The International Insti-
tqte is branch of the Y. W. C. A.
which devotes itself to helping girls and
women of foreign birth. 1t occupies it's
own building in East Thirtieth Street
and carries on it's work quite independ-
ent of the mother association, under the
very efficient leadership of it's president,
Miss Jardine.
During the past year it has estab