Wanted: a Young Woman to Do Housework | Page 6

and yet this is just what the housewife has been doing
for years with her household employees under the firm impression that
she was protecting them as well as herself.
Present statistics, however, upon the morality and immorality of
women who belong to what is at present termed the "servant class,"
prove only too clearly that the "protection" provided by the employer's
home does not protect. The shelter thus given serves too often to
encourage a life of deception, especially as in reality the housewife

knows but little of what takes place "below stairs."
The "servants' quarters" are, as a rule, far enough away from the other
rooms of the house for much to transpire there without the knowledge
of the "mistress of the house," but who has not heard her complain of
the misconduct of her employees? Startling discoveries have been made
at the most unexpected times and from the most unexpected quarters.
One lady found her maid was in the habit of going out at night after the
family had retired, and leaving the front door unlocked in order to
regain admittance in the early morning without arousing the family.
Another housewife discovered one day that her cook's husband, whose
existence until then was unknown, had been coming for several months
to her house for his dinner. Every householder finds that in the late
evening her "servants" entertain their numerous "cousins" and friends
at her expense. Moreover, they do not hesitate to use the best china,
glass, and silver for special parties and draw upon the household
supplies for the choicest meats and wines. And because they cannot go
out in the day time, it is not unusual to find some friend or relative
comes to spend the entire day with them, and in consequence the
housewife not only feeds her "help" but a string of hangers-on as well.
Why should she be surprised that she does not get an adequate return
for the amount of money she spends? And these things take place, not
only during the temporary absence of the employer, but even while she
is sitting peacefully in the library and listening to a parlor lecture on the
relations of capital and labor.
Women say tearfully or bravely on such occasions: "What can be done
to make servants better? They are getting worse every day." And the
housewife (one might almost call her by Samuel Pepys's pleasing
phrase, "the poor wretch") then pours out to any sympathetic ear
endless recitals of aggravating, worrying, nerve-racking experiences.
Instead of putting an end to such a regrettable state of affairs that would
never be tolerated by any business employer, she seems content to
bewail her fate and clings still more steadfastly to obsolete methods.
Why does she not adopt the methods of the business man in dealing
with his employees? The advisability of having household employees

live outside their place of employment is so apparent that it ought to
appeal to every one. There would be no longer the necessity of putting
aside and of furnishing certain rooms of the house for their
accommodation: a practice which in the majority of families is quite a
serious inconvenience and always an expense. In small homes where
only one maid is kept, it may not make much difference to give up one
room to her, but where several employees are needed, it means very
often that many rooms must be used as sleeping apartments for them,
frequently too a sitting room or a special dining room is given them.
This is not all, for the rooms must be furnished and kept clean and
warm, and supplied with an unlimited amount of gas and electricity. In
many families the boarding and lodging of household employees cause
as much anxiety and expense to the housewife as to provide for her
own family.
And why does she do it? Why does she consent to take upon herself so
much extra trouble for nothing? For, although she offers good food and
a bed besides excellent wages to all who work for her, she is the most
poorly served of all employers to-day.
In the great feudal castles of the Middle Ages it was not deemed safe
for women to venture forth alone, even in the daytime, and so those
engaged in housework were naturally compelled to live under their
Master's roof, eating at his table and sitting "below the salt." But the
Master and the Serf of feudal times disappeared long ago, only the
Mistress and her "servants" remain.
To-day, however, "servants" no longer sit at their employer's table; they
remain in the kitchen, where as a rule they are given to eat what is left
from the family meals. Some housewives, from motives of kindness
and consideration for the welfare of those in their employ,