Chapter XVII: Domestic Service in Europe (2)

[145] “A warr with the Narraganset is verie considerable to this plantation, ffor I doubt whither yt be not synne in vs, hauing power in our hands, to suffer them to maynteyne the worship of the devill which theire paw wawes often doe; 2lie, If vpon a Just warre the Lord should deliuer them into our hands, wee might easily haue men woemen and children enough to exchange for Moores, which wilbe more gaynefull pilladge for vs than wee conceive, for I doe not see how wee can thrive vntill wee gett into a stock of slaves sufficient to doe all our buisines, for our children’s children will hardly see this great Continent filled with people, soe that our servants will still desire freedome to plant for them selues, and not stay but for verie great wages. And I suppose you know verie well how wee shall maynteyne 20 Moores cheaper than one Englishe servant.”—Emanuel Downing to John Winthrop, 1645. _Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._, Fourth Series, vol. VI., p. 65.

[146] _Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._, Fourth Series, vol. VI., p. 101.

James Russell Lowell commenting on this letter says, “Let any housewife of our day, who does not find the Keltic element in domestic life so refreshing as to Mr. Arnold in literature, imagine a household with one wild Pequot woman, communicated with by signs, for its maid of all work, and take courage. Those were serious times indeed, when your cook might give warning by taking your scalp, or _chignon_, as the case might be, and making off with it into the woods.”—“New England Two Centuries Ago,” in _Among My Books_, I., 263.

[147] Teele, _History of Milton, Massachusetts, 1640-1887_, Journal of Rev. Peter Thatcher, Appendix B, pp. 641-642.

[148] _The Report of a French Protestant Refugee in Boston, 1687_, evidently submitted to guide friends in France thinking of coming to America, says: “You may also own negroes and negresses; there is not a house in Boston, however small may be its means, that has not one or two. There are those that have five or six, and all make a good living.”—Pp. 19-20.

The New England papers, even in the first part of the eighteenth century, are full of advertisements like the following: “A Negro Wench with a Girl Four Years old both born in the Country, used to all Family work on a Farm, to be sold on reasonable Terms.”—_Boston News Letter_, October 5, 1719.

“A very likely young Negro Wench that can do any Household Work to be sold, inquire of Mr. Samuel Sewall.”—_Ibid._, April 9, 1716.

“Lately arrived from Jamaica several Negro boys and girls, to be sold by Mr. John Charnock & Co.”—_Ibid._, May 11, 1719.

Most of the advertisements describe those offered for sale as “very likely,” and add the specially desirable qualification that he or she “speaks good English.” Judge Sewall, in 1700, gives this account of his first protest against negro slavery: “Having been long and much dissatisfied with the Trade of fetching Negros from Guinea; at last I had a strong Inclination to Write something about it; but it wore off. At last reading Bayne, Ephes. about servants, who mentions Blackmoors; I began to be uneasy that I had so long neglected doing anything.”—_Diary_, II., 16.

[149] But it is of interest in passing to note two contemporaneous judgments on the effect of slavery. Elkanah Watson, writing of his journey through the South in 1778, says: “The influence of slavery upon southern habits is peculiarly exhibited in the prevailing indolence of the people. It would seem as if the poor white man had almost rather starve than work, because the negro works.”—_Men and Times_, p. 72.

Thomas Anburey writes, “Most of the planters consign the care of their plantations and negroes to an overseer, even the man whose house we rent, has his overseer, though he could with ease superintend it himself; but if they possess a few negroes, they think it beneath their dignity, added to which, they are so abominably lazy.”—_Travels_, II., 328.

[150] A New England woman writes: “In several instances our ‘help’ was married from our parlor with my sisters for bridesmaids. I correspond with a woman doctor in Florida whose sister was our cook when I was a child, and who shared her sister’s room at our home while she earned her education, alternating work in the cotton mills and going to school.” This is but one illustration of hundreds that have doubtless come within the experience of most persons living in New England fifty years ago.

[151] A visit to many New England burying grounds will illustrate this statement. It was doubtless a survival of the English custom. A curious and interesting collection of epitaphs of servants has been made by Arthur J. Munby.

[152] “... Help, for I love our Yankee word, teaching, as it does, the true relation, and its being equally binding on master and servant.”—J. R. Lowell, _Letters_, I., 105.

[153] Even Americans commented on it. John Watson writes: “One of the remarkable incidents of our republican principles of equality is the hirelings, who in times before the war of Independence were accustomed to accept the names of servants and to be drest according to their condition, will now no longer suffer the former appellation; and all affect the dress and the air, when abroad, of genteeler people than their business warrants. Those, therefore, who from affluence have many dependents, find it a constant subject of perplexity to manage their pride and assumption.”—_Annals_, p. 165.

[154] _Autobiography_, I., 331.

[155] _Society in America_, II., 248.

[156] _Society in America_, II., 245.

[157] _Ibid._, II., 254-255.

It is of interest to contrast this picture of service in America by an Englishwoman with one given a little earlier of service in England by an American. Elkanah Watson writes from London in 1782: “The servants attending upon my friend’s table were neatly dressed, and extremely active and adroit in performing their offices, and glided about the room silent and attentive. Their silence was in striking contrast with the volubility of the French attendants, who, to my utter astonishment, I have often observed in France, intermingling in the conversation of the table. Here, the servant, however cherished, is held at an awful distance. The English servant is generally an ignorant and servile being, who has no aspiration beyond his present condition.”—_Men and Times of the Revolution_, p. 169.

[158] _Democracy in America_, II., 194.

[159] _The Americans in their Moral, Social, and Political Relations_, pp. 236-237.

Thomas Grattan also says, “The native Americans are the best servants in the country.”—_Civilized America_, I., 260.

[160] _A Year’s Residence in the United States_, p. 201.

Charles Mackay also says that “service is called ‘help,’ to avoid wounding the susceptibility of free citizens.”—_Life and Liberty in America_, I., 42.

[161] _Domestic Manners of the Americans_, I., 73.

[162] _Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States_, p. 284.

[163] He adds the interesting facts that cooks usually received $1.50 per week; chambermaids, $1.25; gardeners, $11 per month, and waiters $10 per month.—_Recollections_, pp. 299-300.

[164] _The Englishwoman in America_, pp. 43, 214.

[165] _Civilized America_, I., 256-258.

[166] _Ibid._, I., 259.

[167] _Civilized America_, I., 264.

[168] _Ibid._, I., 269.

[169] _Views of Society and Manners in America_, p. 338.

[170] _Views of Society and Manners in America_, pp. 338-342.

[171] _Arrivals of Alien Passengers and Immigrants in the United States from 1820 to 1890_, pp. 16, 23.

By the _Census of Massachusetts_ for 1885 it is seen that forty-nine per cent of all women in that state of foreign birth are Irish. I., 574-575.

[172] _Ante_, p. 11.

[173] Lowell says of the Irish immigration, “It is really we who have been paying the rents over there [in Ireland], for we have to pay higher wages for domestic service to meet the drain.”—_Letters_, II., 336.

A racy discussion of the influence of the Irish cook in the American household is given by Mr. E. L. Godkin under the title “The Morals and Manners of the Kitchen,” in _Reflections and Comments_, p. 56.

[174] _Arrivals of Alien Passengers and Immigrants in the United States from 1820 to 1890_, pp. 15, 22.

[175] Women constituted 41.8 per cent of the total number of German immigrants arriving here during the twenty-two years ending June 30, 1890; the Irish forming 48.5 per cent.—_Ibid_., p. 11.

[176] The United States Census for 1890 gives the number of domestic servants born in Ireland as 168,993; the number born in Germany was 95,007.

[177] The number of Chinese in domestic service in 1890 was 16,439.

[178] Walker, _Wages_, pp. 376-377.

[179] An illustration of these various changes is seen in the case of one employee, who was born in Ireland, engaged in service in New York, and afterwards drifted to Minnesota, where the report was made.

[180] This is indicated by the various definitions given in early dictionaries. It is a curious fact that _The New World of Words or General English Dictionary_, large quarto, third edition, London, 1671, does not contain the word “servant.” Phillips’ _Universal English Dictionary_, London, 1720, has “_servant_, a man or woman who serves another.” Bailey’s _Dictionary_, London, 1721, 1737, and 1770, defines servant as “one who serves another.” _The Royal Standard English Dictionary_, first American edition, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1788, “being the first work of the kind printed in America,” defines _servant_ as “one who serves.” The second edition, Brookfield, 1804, has “_servant_, one who serves for wages.”

Some interesting illustrations of this early use of the word are found in colonial literature. Thus Thomas Morton in his _New English Canaan_, p. 179, says, “In the month of June Anno Salutis, 1622, it was my chance to arrive in the parts of New England with thirty servants and provisions of all sorts fit for a plantation.”

Governor Bradford in his _History of Plymouth_, pp. 235-236, speaks of “Captaine Wolastone and with him 3. or 4. more of some eminencie, who brought with them a great many servants, with provisions & other implments fit for to begine a plantation.”

A “Narrative concerning the settlement of New England,” 1630, says,

“This yeare there went hence 6 shippes with 1000 people in them to the Massachusetts having sent two yeares before betweene 3 & 400 servants to provide howses and Corne against theire coming, to the charge of (at least) 10,000_l._, these Servants through Idlenes & ill Government neglected both theire building & plantinge of Corne, soe that if those 6 Shippes had not arived the plantation had ben broke & dissolved.”—_Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, 1860-1862, pp. 130-131.

The same use of the word is found a number of times in the list of the Mayflower passengers.

[181] J. F. D. Smyth says, London, 1784, “However, although I now call this man (a backwoodsman of the Alleghanies) my servant, yet he himself never would have submitted to such an appellation, although he most readily performed every menial office, and indeed every service I could desire.”—_Tour in the United States_, I., 356.

[182] Fanny Kemble writes, “They have no idea, of course, of a white person performing any of the offices of a servant;” then follows an amusing account of her white maid’s being taken for the master’s wife, and her almost unavailing efforts to correct the mistake.—_Journal of a Residence in Georgia_, pp. 44-46.

[183] An illustration of this change is seen in the different definitions given to the word. In the _Royal Standard English Dictionary_, 1813, a servant is “one who attends and obeys another, one in a state of subjection.”

Johnson’s _Dictionary_, London, 1818, gives: “(1) One who attends another and acts at his command; the correlative of master. Used of man or woman. (2) One in a state of subjection.”

Richardson’s _New Dictionary of the English Language_, London, 1838, defines _servant_ as the correlative of _master_.

The American usage was practically the same. The first edition of Webster, 1828, gives: “(1) Servant, a person, male or female, that attends another for the purpose of performing menial offices for him, or who is employed by another for such offices, or for other labor, and is subject to his command. _Servant_ differs from _slave_, as the servant’s subjection to a master is voluntary, the slave’s is not. Every slave is a servant, but every servant is not a slave.”

Worcester, 1860, says of _servant_: “(1) One who serves, whether male or female; correlative of _master_, _mistress_, or _employer_. (2) One in a state of subjection; a menial; a domestic; a drudge; a slave.”

These various definitions all suggest the class association of the terms “servant” and “slave.”

[184] A curious illustration of the social position of servants in Europe is seen in their lack of political privileges.

The French Constitution of 1791 was preceded by a bill of rights declaring the equality and brotherhood of men, but a disqualification for the right of suffrage, indeed, the only one, was “to be in a menial capacity, _viz._, that of a servant receiving wages.” Title III., chap. 1, sec. 2. The Constitution of 1795, after a similar preamble, states that the citizenship is suspended “by being a domestic on wages, attending on the person or serving the house.” Title II., 13, 3. The Constitution of 1799 has a similar disqualification. Title I., art. 5. It is probable that these provisions were intended to punish men who would consent to serve the nobility or the wealthy classes when it was expected that all persons would be democratic enough to serve themselves, not to cast discredit on domestic service _per se_.—Tripier, pp. 20, 105, 168.

During the revolutionary movement in Austria, the Hungarian Diet at its session, in 1847-1848, passed an act providing that the qualification for electors should be “to have attained the age of twenty years; Hungarians by birth or naturalized; not under guardianship, nor in domestic service, nor convicted of fraud, theft, murder, etc.” Act 5, sec. 2.—Stiles, II., 376.

The qualifications for suffrage in England also excluded domestic servants, but there was no discrimination against them as a class.

The Declaration of Independence, declaring all men free and equal in the presence of African slavery, thus has its counterpart in these free constitutions disfranchising domestic servants.

[185] Some of the figures given in this chapter have been taken from advance sheets kindly furnished by the Census Bureau, and hence it is impossible to give in every case page references.

[186] Preface, p. 1, and Appendix I.

[187] The percentage of foreign born as given here differs slightly from that given on page 80, as it includes a small number of Chinese and Japanese.

[188] Arizona, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island.

[189] Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

[190] Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia.

[191] Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia.

[192] _Eleventh Census_, Population, Part I., p. lxxxiii.

[193] _Census of Massachusetts_, 1885, Part II., p. 38.

[194] Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming.

[195] Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont.

[196] New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.

[197] Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin.

[198] Delaware, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia.

[199] Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas.

This classification is made with reference to conditions apparently similar as regards domestic service.

[200] _Eleventh Census_, Occupations, p. 20. It is interesting to note the increasing proportion of women of foreign birth who go into domestic service. The Tenth Census shows that, in 1880, 49.31 per cent of all women of foreign birth employed for pay were engaged in domestic service; thus in ten years an increase of 10.06 per cent was made.

[201] _Census of Massachusetts_, 1885, Part II., pp. xxxvi, xxxviii. In this statement only the number of women engaged in domestic service for remuneration is considered.

[202] _Eleventh Census_, Population, Part I., p. lxxxix.

[203] _Eleventh Census_, Wealth, Debt, and Taxation, Part II., p. 16, Chart.

[204] _Ibid._, p. 59.

[205] _Eleventh Census_, Wealth, Debt, and Taxation, Part II., pp. 376-403.

[206] Brooklyn, Buffalo, Camden, Fall River, Jersey City, Lowell, Newark, Paterson, Rochester, Trenton, Troy.

[207] P. 68.

[208] _Report of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1885_, pp. 196-312.

[209] In the classification in these two tables the employees in several large boarding houses were omitted. All of those included under the term “nurses” are nurse-maids, with the exception of the few receiving the highest wages.

[210] _Post_, p. 136.

[211] The figures are taken from the annual reports of city superintendents. The attempt was made to find the average salaries in the fifty largest cities, but many cities do not publish in detail the salaries paid. The reports used were those for the year ending in 1889,—the year for which reports were made through the schedules,—with the exception of Paterson, where the report for 1890 was used. Half-day teachers are omitted as far as known. In cities having separate schools for colored and for white children, the teachers in colored schools are included where the salaries paid are the same as those paid in white schools of the same grade,—otherwise they are omitted.

[212] _Fourth Annual Report_, pp. 520-529.

[213] _Ibid._, p. 625.

[214] _Post_, p. 132.

[215] _Report of the Bureau, 1887_, pp. 216-219, 225.

[216] _United States Bureau of Labor, 1887_, pp. 794-797.

[217] More definitely, it numbered 4.85 persons.

[218] Forty-six per cent had kept house longer than this, averaging nearly thirty years; while forty-four per cent had kept house for a shorter period, averaging about eight years and a half. Seventeen reports came from housekeepers of fifty years or more experience.

[219] Seventy per cent reported that they had boarded since marriage; about one third of these had boarded less than the average time, and one half had boarded from one to five years.

[220] This estimate is based on the supposition that a cook is employed at $3.80 per week, a second girl at $3.04, and a man half a week at the rate of 87 cents a day.

[221] Table II, p. 76.

[222] The place of birth of the employees represented by the schedules included the following countries: Australia, Austria, the Azores, Canada, China, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, New Brunswick, Norway, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Poland, Prince Edward’s Island, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Wales, the West Indies.

[223] _Eleventh Census_, Occupations, p. 122.

[224] An employer in a large city where there is much complaint of the inferior character of the foreign population writes: “A general impression prevails in most foreign families that any girl, no matter how stupid, dishonest, or untidy, can apply for and rightfully accept a position as general servant or housemaid at current prices.” A similar complaint comes from many other employers.

[225] _Tenth Census_, I., 708.

[226] “I went into housework because I was not educated enough for other work.”

“I haven’t education enough to do anything else.”

“I would change my occupation if I knew enough to do anything else.”

[227] This is illustrated by the experience of one housekeeper who frequently does her own work. At these times her ordinary kitchen expenses come within $50 per month. This sum is exclusive of fuel, rent, and water. When employing a servant, the same expenses amount to $80 per month, while if fuel, light, and water were included (rent not being affected) the difference would be still greater.

[228] Yet so great is the demand for help that this is apparently sometimes done. In Milwaukee it is a common thing to see affixed to houses, or standing upright in the dooryard, well-painted signs looking as if ready for frequent use, reading “Girl wanted.”

[229] _Behaviour of Servants_, p. 298.

[230] A lady recently went to an employment bureau, and in answer to her application for “a good cook,” received the reply, “Madam, good cooks are an extinct race.”

One large bureau in Philadelphia reports that the demand for good servants is twenty per cent greater than the supply.

[231] The character of some of the intelligence offices in another city is described by F. Hunt, in _The American Kitchen Magazine_, November, 1895.

[232] An excellent blank is used by the employment bureau connected with the Boston Young Women’s Christian Association. Seven questions are asked the persons to whom the employee has referred:

“(1) How long have you known her?

(2) Is she temperate, honest, and respectable?

(3) Is she neat in her person, and about her work?

(4) Is she of good disposition?

(5) Is she faithful to her work, and is she trustworthy?

(6) In what capacity did she serve you, and how long?

(7) Was she capable and efficient in that capacity?”

The bureau states its aim to be “the recommendation of worthy persons only.” The detailed form of the questions asked is more successful in preventing an evasion of disqualifications, than is the personal recommendation of a general character, which often tells the truth, but not the whole truth.

One large bureau states that it formerly used blank forms, which it sent out with each employee. Employers were asked to fill out these blanks and return them at the end of service, and these were kept on file as recommendations. It was soon found that employers grew lax and would not take the pains to fill them out, and the practice was abandoned.

[233] DeFoe says, “To be a good Master is to be a Master that will do his Servant Justice, and that will make his Servant do him Justice; he may be kind to a Servant, that will let him sleep when he shou’d work, but then he is not just to himself, or a good Governour to his Family.”—_Behaviour of Servants_, p. 293.

[234] Repeated statements like the following are made by employers: “A few wealthy families keep a large number of servants at high wages, which wholly unfits them for general service and moderate wages, and establishes customs and rates which cannot be met by the mass of people with moderate incomes.”

[235] An employer recently engaged a cook at high wages with sufficient recommendations it was supposed. The first dinner (an hour delayed) showed her incapacity, and when questioned more closely it was found that the only domestic work she had ever done was preparing vegetables in a boarding house. When asked why she had engaged as a cook, the reply was, “They told me I could get higher wages if I called myself a cook.” The experience does not seem to be exceptional.

[236] An employer writes: “I find no place on the schedule for stating that my cook and coachman have to-day each given notice of leaving unless the other is discharged.”

[237] “When I began housekeeping in 1870 I had one ‘general housework girl’ who stayed with me nine years. Now I consider myself fortunate to retain a cook or a second girl as many weeks.”

“Thirty years ago I had no difficulty whatever. I do not think my character has changed meantime, or my method of treating servants, or our style of living, yet now it is almost impossible to secure servants.”

“The question is very different now from what it was forty years ago.”

“The problem in this place grows more perplexing every year.”

“Many housekeepers here are between the Scylla and Charybdis of trying to tolerate wretched, inefficient servants, and the impossibility of getting along with them.”

[238] “In advertising recently for a general housework girl twelve answered the advertisement. Advertising the same week for my former servant, twenty-two ladies applied personally and twelve others wrote that a girl was wanted. Although I told each of the twenty-two that if the girl were even fair I would keep her myself, only two hesitated on that account to try to secure her.”

The report of a large employment bureau for the year 1889 is as follows:

Number of employers registered 1,512
Number of employees registered 1,541
Number of employers supplied with servants 1,366
Number of employees supplied with situations 1,375

The number of employees registered exceeds the number of employers, but many register who are incompetent to fill the position they seek, and therefore many employers are without servants. The bureau regrets “its inability at times to supply with competent help the large number of patrons.”

Another bureau reports 2,659 applications from employers, only 2,099 of which could be filled.

Still another bureau filling about three thousand positions annually reports that at times it has had six hundred applications from employers in excess of the number that could be filled with competent applicants for work.

The domestic employment bureau connected with the Boston Young Women’s Christian Association reports for the year ending 1890:

Orders registered 2,120
Orders filled 1,753

[239] “Our committee have been greatly puzzled to know how to supply the constantly increasing demand for good and efficient workers in small households, where fair compensation is offered for moderate requirements. This demand is great in the city, but more so in the suburbs and country. It is very difficult to find a woman willing to take service in a family living out of sight of Boston Common. It is still more difficult to find any one who will go twenty miles into the country.”—_Report of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union_, Boston, 1888, p. 29.

One employer in an inland city of twenty-five thousand inhabitants, who has a family of eight, and employs sixteen servants, writes: “It is impossible here to secure competent servants.”

Another employer, employing thirteen servants, in a city of twelve thousand, writes: “It is very difficult to secure servants, since women here prefer to work in the factories.”

One employer with seven servants and a family of two, in a large manufacturing city, says: “It is impossible to find well-trained employees.”

[240] “This is the first time this question has been put to me directly, and I frankly answer, Yes—to-morrow, if an opportunity were offered me. For years it has been my wish to find employment of some kind which would keep me from being a servant. Mrs. X has been very kind to me, and tried to find me other work; but, of course, a girl who has been in a kitchen for so long (thirteen years) is inexperienced in different work. Nevertheless, I have met girls who had no better education than I, and now hold high and respectable positions and make a fair living.”

A colored man, who has been a cook for forty years, replies with some caution: “I don’t know, unless the other work was in sight. Can’t say, unless somebody had done offered me another job, and I could look into it.”

[241] See articles by Mrs. Ellen W. Darwin, _The Nineteenth Century_, August, 1890; Miss Amy Bulley, _Westminster Review_, February, 1891; Miss Emily Faithful, _North American Review_, July, 1891; C. J. Rowe, _Westminster Review_, November, 1890, on the question in the Australian colonies.

“If things go on much longer in the present state, we shall have to introduce the American fashion, and live in huge human menageries.”—_M. E. Braddon._

An admirable scientific presentation of the subject of domestic service in London is given by Charles Booth and Jesse Argyle in _Life and Labour of the People in London_, Vol. VIII.

[242] It is of interest to notice some of these occupations. The list includes apparently nearly every form of work in every kind of mill and factory, farm work, cigar-making, sewing, dressmaking, millinery, tailoring, crocheting, lace-making, carpet-making, copying; places as cash girls, saleswomen, nurses, post-office clerks, compositors, office attendants; six have been teachers; others, ladies’ companions, governesses, and matrons. It is of interest, also, to note that the per cent of native born who have been engaged in other occupations is slightly higher than the per cent of foreign born (thirty-one to twenty-five).

[243] One employee writes, “I wanted to see for myself what it was to be a hired girl.”

[244] An employee in Colorado, who receives $35 a month, writes: “I choose housework in preference to any other, principally because for that I receive better pay. The average pay for store and factory girls is eight and nine dollars a week. After paying board and room rent, washing, etc., very little is left, and what is left must be spent for dress—nothing saved.”

“It pays better than other kinds of work.”

“My expenses are less than in any other kind of work.”

“I can make more. I have put $100 in the savings bank in a year and a half. I had first $10 a month, but now I have $12.”

“I can save more.”

“I can earn more without constant change.”

“I can earn more than in anything else ($15 a month), but do not save anything as I support my mother.”

“Any one that is industrious and saving can save a great deal by working at housework.”

“I began to live out when I was thirteen years old, and I am now twenty-seven. I have saved $1600 in that time. At first I had $.50 a week; now I have $3.00. One summer I earned $3.00 a day in the hop-picking season.”

[245] “We are not as closely confined as girls who work in stores, and are usually more healthy.”

“I chose it because I thought it was healthy work.”

“There is no healthier work for women.”

“It is healthier than most other kinds of work I could do.”

“You can have better-cooked food and a better room than most shop-girls.”

[246] “I came to a strange city and chose housework, because it afforded me a home.”

“I am well treated by the family I am with, feel at home and under their protection.”

“Housework fell to my lot and I have followed it up because it has secured me a home.”

“Housework gives me a better home than I could make for myself in any other way.”

“I have more comforts than in other work.”

“I like a quiet home in a good family better than work in a public place, like a shop.”

“When I came to ⸺ and saw the looks of the girls in the large stores and the familiarity of the young men, I preferred to go into a respectable family where I could have a home.”

[247] _The New York Evening Post_, January 11, 1896, cites from _London Truth_ an account of a bill under consideration in the New Zealand Parliament providing that every domestic servant in the colony is to have a half-holiday every Wednesday, and that the employer is to be fined £5 if the domestic is deprived of this privilege. The “half-holiday” practically means that the servant will be entitled to leave of absence from two until ten. Inspectors are to be appointed to enforce the provisions of this measure, if it becomes a law.

[248] “I choose housework as my regular employment for the simple reason that young women look forward to the time when they will have housework of their own to do. I consider that I or any one in domestic employment will make a better housekeeper than any young woman who works in a factory.”

“I think you can learn more in doing housework.”

“It requires both care and study and so keeps our mind in constant thought and care, and ought to be respected.”

[249] “At home I was my mother’s help even when we had a girl of our own, and from childhood had always loved to cook, and learned to do all kinds.”

“My mother was a housekeeper and did most of her own work and taught me how to help her. When my father and mother died, and it became necessary for me to earn my own living, the question was, ‘What can I do?’ The answer was plain—housework.”

“I have a natural love for cooking, and would rather do it than anything else in the world.”

“I like it best, was used to it at home, and it seems more natural-like.”

“I enjoy housework more than anything else.”

“I was a dressmaker several years because my mother thought dressmaking more respectable than going out to work. But I always liked housework better, and when my health broke down I was glad to get a place as parlor maid.”

[250] A successful teacher says: “I have never liked teaching particularly, and would much rather be a good cook.”

A sewing woman says: “I should prefer to do housework, but do not wish to leave my home.”

A teacher says: “I am fond of children, and should like nothing better than to be a nurse-girl, but I will not wear livery.”

[251] _Law of the Domestic Relations_, p. 599.

[252] _Commentaries_, II., 258.

[253] Kent, II., 260-261.

[254] Story, _On Contracts_, II., §§ 1297-1298.

[255] Starkie, _On Slander and Libel_, p. 19.

[256] Story, _On Contracts_, II., § 1304.

[257] Daly, IV., 401.

A good discussion of “The Legal Status of Servant Girls” is given by Oliver E. Lyman, _Popular Science Monthly_, XXII., 803.

[258] An article on the last point is found in the _Boston Herald_, November 23, 1890.

[259] “Housework soon unfits one for any other kind of work. I did not realize what I was doing until too late.”

“I should prefer to housework a clerkship in a store or a place like that of sewing-girl in a tailor-shop, because there would be a possibility of learning the trade and then going into business for myself, or at least rising to some responsible place under an employer.”

“I would give up housework if I could find another position that would enable me to advance instead of remaining in the same rut day after day.”

[260] _Ante_, p. 113.

[261] “You are mistress of no time of your own; other occupations have well-defined hours, after which one can do as she pleases without asking any one.”

[262] “Women want the free use of their time evenings and Sundays.”

“If I could bear the confinement I would go into a mill where I could have evenings and Sundays.”

“Sunday in a private family is usually anything but a day of rest to the domestic, for on that day there are usually guests to dinner or tea or both, which means extra work.”

“I wouldn’t mind working Sundays if it wasn’t for the extra work.”

“I suppose the reason why more women choose other work is, they would rather work all day and be done with it, and have evenings for themselves.”

“Some families have dinner at three o’clock Sundays and lunch at eight or nine, and that makes it very hard for girls.”

[263] “A great many very ignorant girls can get housework to do, and a girl who has been used to neatness and the refinement of a good home does not like to room with a girl who has just come from Ireland and does not know what neatness means.”

“In ⸺ they have much colored help and do not have white help, so the white girls think any other work is better than housework.”

“In California self-respecting girls do not like to work with Chinamen—they do not know how to treat women.”

“Before the introduction of Chinese labor a young girl never lost social caste by doing housework; but since this element came, household service as an occupation has fallen in the social scale.”—_Employer._

“When a native American girl goes out to housework she loses caste at once, and can hardly find pleasure in the foreign immigrants that form the majority of servants, and who make most of the trouble from their ignorance and preconceived notions of America.”—_Employer._

[264] “The reason for dislike of housework is the want of liberty, and the submission which girls have to submit to when they have to comply with whatever rules a mistress may deem necessary. Therefore many girls go into mechanical pursuits, that some of their life may be their own.”

“Girls in housework are bossed too much.”

“There are too many mistresses in the house when the mother and grown-up daughters are all at home.”

“Most of us would like a little more independence, and to do our work as we please.”

“In housework you receive orders from half a dozen persons, in a shop or factory from but one.”

“A man doesn’t let his wife and daughters and sons interfere in the management of his mill or factory—why does a housekeeper let everybody in the house boss?”

[265] A description of domestic service in Japan is of value on this point. “From the steward of your household, to your _jinrikisha_ man or groom, every servant in your establishment does what is right in his own eyes, and after the manner he thinks best. Mere blind obedience to orders is not regarded as a virtue in a Japanese servant; he must do his own thinking, and, if he cannot grasp the reason for your order, that order will not be carried out.” “Even in the treaty ports [Japanese attendants] have not resigned their right of private judgment, but, if faithful and honest, seek the best good of their employer, even if his best good involves disobedience of his orders.”—Alice M. Bacon, _Japanese Girls and Women_, pp. 299, 301.

F. R. Feudge, in _How I Kept House by Proxy_, quotes from her Chinese cook, who said that he could boast of forty years “of study and practice in his profession.” “I am always willing to be told _what_ to do, but never _how_ to execute the order—especially when in that department I happen to know far more than my teachers.”—_Scribner’s Monthly_, September, 1881.

[266] A shrewd young colored woman gives her version, verbally, of the servant question. She lays great stress on her own “bringin’ up,” as “she wa’n’t brung up by trash,” and thinks the average colored girl “only a nigger.” She prefers to live “at service,” but insists upon “high-toned” employers, and “can’t abide common folks.”

[267] “In some families no acquaintance can call on the servant; she may have one or two friends, but the number is always limited, because, says the lady of the house, not without truth, ‘Who wants a dozen strange girls running in and out of one’s back door?’”

[268] “There are reasons why I sometimes feel dissatisfied with doing housework for other people. I would prefer to do work where people would say, supposing they were to give a company, ‘There is Miss So and So, let us invite her.’” This is from an unusually intelligent employee who says she does housework because she likes to do it best, and because a domestic can have better-cooked food and a better-ventilated room than most shop-girls, and who also writes, “Intelligence, brains, and good judgment are essential in getting up a dinner for six or eight.”

[269] One illustration of this social barrier was found in a small manufacturing city. The factory employees, all men and skilled workmen, arranged one winter a series of evening entertainments. Invitations were sent to the self-supporting women in the city, the list including dressmakers, milliners, stenographers, saleswomen, and others, but the social line was drawn at cooks.

[270] A lady was recently about to complete the engagement of a cook, a German girl, when the head of the employment bureau said: “I fear after all that A B will not suit you. You live in a flat, and as she wishes to take violin lessons her practising might annoy you.” The incident was narrated to a company of friends, and created much amusement, until one said, “This shows how unregenerate we are; why should she not take violin lessons?” It is not easy to find an answer.

A gentleman, whose family includes only himself and his wife, writes: “Our maid-of-all-work is a young Swedish girl of eighteen, who recently came to America. Three months ago she said, ‘If I had a musical instrument and a place to practise, I would get a music teacher and stay with you always.’ A few days later my married daughter sent us an organ of sweet tone, which was placed in a small room little used. We gave our maid permission to use it, and she at once secured a teacher. This morning she said: ‘My father writes me if I am on the street much. I write him, No, I enjoy myself better—I practise my music.’ We seem to have solved the domestic question—at least for a time.”

[271] “I should like work where I could come in contact with more people who would be of help to me.”

“A young woman doing housework is shut out from all society, nor can she make any plans for pleasure or study, for her time is not her own.”

“No one seems to think a girl who works out good enough to associate with, except those who are in domestic service themselves.”

“Domestics never have a chance to go to school or study.”

A domestic employee recently went to a public library for a book. The attendant was about to give it to her, thinking from her manner and appearance that she was a teacher in a neighboring school; but when the question was asked and the answer given, “not a teacher, but a housemaid,” the book was withheld, as servants were required to bring recommendations.

[272] “Domestics are not admitted into any society, and are often for want of a little pleasure driven to seek it in company that is often coarse and vulgar.”

“It is very hard for a young, refined woman to give up a pleasant home, and live constantly with ignorant and ill-bred people, as is very often the case where more than one servant is kept.”

[273] “I fairly hate the word ‘servant.’”

“I don’t like to be called a ‘menial.’”

“The girls in shops call us ‘livers-out.’”

“No woman likes to be called a ‘hired girl.’”

“American girls don’t like the name ‘servants.’”

“I know many nice girls who would do housework, but they prefer doing almost anything else rather than be called ‘servants.’”

“Some people call us ‘kitchen mechanics.’”

“I don’t know why we should be called ‘servants’ any more than other people.”

[274] A woman who had been for years a domestic employee left her place on account of sickness, and ultimately opened a small bakeshop. Her former employer called on her one day, and said, “Well, Sarah, how do you like your work?” She replied, “I never thought of it before, but now that you speak, I think the reason I like it so well is because everybody calls me ‘Miss Clark.’”

An employer invited her Sunday-school class to her home to spend an evening. One of the members went into the kitchen to render some assistance, and found there the housemaid, an unusually attractive young woman. The employer said, “Miss M, this is Kate.” The maid, who never before had showed the slightest consciousness of occupying an inferior position, said, under her breath, “I am Miss, too.”

[275] That this jest has a basis of fact in England is evident from the testimony of the footman of the Earl of Northbrook, who some time since stated under oath, in a court of law, that although his regular wages amounted to but $300 annually, yet he received from $2,000 to $2,500 more each year in the shape of tips from the Earl’s guests. “Her Majesty’s Servants,” in the _New York Tribune_, August 23, 1896.

[276] Mr. W. D. Howells has an excellent discussion of the feeing system in _Harper’s Weekly_, May 16, 1896; also, Julia R. Tutwiler in the _American Kitchen Magazine_, April, 1896; still a third is found in the _Outlook_, August 8, 1896.

[277] One illustration of the fact that domestic service is never judged by the same social canons as are other occupations, is seen in the unwillingness shown by a young woman to enter the service of a family having a questionable reputation. Her “squeamishness,” as it was called, excited only laughter in a circle of women, no one of whom would have exchanged calls with the family in question.

[278] _First Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Connecticut_, 1885, p. 12.

[279] An employer writes: “I recently advertised for a young woman to help me with the children, and be received as one of the family. The forty answers received formed the most pathetic reading I have ever seen. My selection was the daughter of a poor clergyman, and this was the class from which the majority of the answers came. All desired domestic service if unaccompanied with social degradation.”

How conscious many are of this inferior position is seen from a single illustration. An employer recently invited her housemaid to take a boat-ride with her. The maid replied, “I should love to go if you wouldn’t be ashamed to be seen with me.”

[280] This is especially true in the matter of wages where wages and annual earnings are confused, the element of time lost never being considered. The fact is also often overlooked that when a young woman lives at home without paying her board, her family in effect pay a part of her wages and thus enable the employer to pay her low wages, though nominally more than paid in housework. Thus one employee writes: “If girls have homes where their board is given them, they can earn more money on other kinds of work than in housework.”

[281] Domestic service, as seen by the employee, cannot be dismissed without suggesting the fact that as many tragedies in life are found here as elsewhere. One employee had planned to be a teacher, but sudden deafness prevented, and domestic service was all she could do. Another hoped to become a physician, but loss of property prevented her from completing her education. A similar reason prevented another from becoming a trained nurse. One had hoped to be a dressmaker, but it became necessary to earn money at once without serving an apprenticeship. Could the struggles and disappointments in thousands of such lives be known, the household employee would cease to be the butt of jest and ridicule that she sometimes is.

[282] An employer in South Carolina writes: “The difficulty here can only be removed by the importation of competent servants.”

[283] The following table will indicate the preference:

=================+==========+============+============+==========
CITY OR STATE | NUMBER | NO | WHITE HELP | NEGROES
| EXAMINED | PREFERENCE | PREFERRED | PREFERRED
-----------------+----------+------------+------------+----------
Charleston | 259 | 143 | 65 | 51
Louisville | 200 | 104 | 80 | 16
New Orleans | 145 | 103 | 35 | 7
Savannah | 106 | 66 | 26 | 14
Texas | 67 | 31 | 35 | 1
Washington, D.C. | 135 | 61 | 54 | 20
+----------+------------+------------+----------
Total | 912 | 508 | 295 | 109
=================+==========+============+============+==========

The Charleston Employment Bureau advertises, “White help especially in demand.” In Texas the proportion of the foreign born population is larger than in any other of the Southern states, and advertisements from all the leading cities in the state show a decided preference for German or Swedish domestics. One from the _Fort Worth Gazette_ reads, “Wanted—A white woman (German or Swede preferred) as cook in a private family.” This illustrates a large number of “wants.” An employer writes from Austin, “In Texas cities domestic service is furnished by Germans and Swedes to a large extent, and the tendency to employ them is growing.”

[284] “The older generation of negroes who were trained for service have nearly all died, and the survivors are too old to be efficient. The younger negroes are too lazy to be of much use.”—_Brenham, Texas._

“Old colored servants that were trained before the war are now inefficient; the younger ones will not submit to training.”—_Austin, Texas._

“Old trained colored servants are no longer to be had,—younger ones are not well trained, and consequently cannot do first class work. White servants are better trained, but scarce, and therefore independent.”—_Austin, Texas._

“We have 80,000 colored people in the city. The old trained servants of slavery times are mostly passed away, and the younger ones have not been properly trained.”—_Washington, D.C._

“The servants who were trained before ‘freedom’ are too old to do good work, and they are not training their children to be efficient.”—_Anderson, South Carolina._

“The majority of those now seeking domestic service are ignorant, uneducated, untrustworthy.”—_Biloxi, Mississippi._

“Servants have no training.”—_Edgefield, South Carolina._

[285] “One difficulty here is the indifference of our colored servants to what the morrow may bring forth. They are capable of living on a very small amount, and they assist each other during the time unoccupied.”—_Charleston, South Carolina._

“The negroes do not know how to render good service as a rule, and they do not understand the term ‘thorough.’”—_Charleston, South Carolina._

“Colored help have to be very patiently and charitably dealt with.”—_Washington, D.C._

“The difficulty here is the general shiftlessness and liking for changed conditions that is characteristic of the colored race.”—_Austin, Texas._

“There is special difficulty here during the cotton-picking season.”—_Austin, Texas._

“The majority of our servants, who are negroes, are not willing to do steady, faithful work for reasonable wages. Their idea of freedom is to come and go at will, and they expect full wages for light work.”—_Austin, Texas._

“The ease with which subsistence can be obtained in this productive climate and the high wages earned during the cotton-picking season make the labor supply unstable.”—_Austin, Texas._

“The negroes need training, but rarely remain in one place long enough to repay one for the trouble of teaching them.”—_Brenham, Texas._

“The negroes will do well enough if one is willing to overlook carelessness.”—_Johnston, South Carolina._

“The colored servants do not like to be kept at steady employment.”—_Trenton, South Carolina._

“The majority work only as a make-shift, with no idea of remaining.”—_Biloxi, Mississippi._

“The whole colored race is in a transitional period which is full of evils.”—_Marion, Alabama._

“Negroes are very stubborn under harsh treatment, but respond quickly to kind treatment.”—_Crescent City, Florida._

“Most of the negroes are indifferent to improving in any way as long as they have enough to eat, a place to sleep, and clothes to wear.”—_Tallahassee, Florida._

[286] A southern gentleman well known as a student of social science writes in regard to the importation of negroes to the North: “There is nothing to hope from it. I have been reared in the South, and I know the negro well. Speaking as one with no sectional prejudice and with the broadest sympathy for blacks as well as whites, I must tell you that in general negroes will not serve you as well as the Irish, Germans, or Swedes. Personal attachment alone will secure good service from colored people.”

[287] “I must say from my own experience and observation that well-trained Chinese are the very best servants to be had here.”—_San Francisco, California._

“I have grown up with Chinamen in the house, and it seems to me quite revolting and unnatural to have in the heart of the house an alien woman who speaks your language, knows your affairs, is even in a way dependent on your companionship, yet is nothing to you as a friend, and would never be asked even as a guest into the house if it rested on her personal qualities.”—_San Francisco, California._

“Our Chinese cook is an admirable servant, invariably respectful, and does his work beautifully; he has the self-respect to fill every requirement of respectful and obedient behavior that the occasion calls for.”—_San Francisco, California._

“Three Chinese were the most satisfactory servants we ever employed. In a housekeeping experience of nearly fifty years we have employed negro, Norwegian, and Irish servants.”—_San Francisco, California._

[288] “The difficulty can only be removed by repealing the restriction act.”—_Centerville, California_.

“The Chinese have become very independent since the new restriction act.”—_San Francisco, California._

“The restriction act made the Chinese very independent. They thought the stopping of the supply would make those already here able to command higher wages.”—_San Francisco, California._

“One difficulty is the exclusion act.”—_San Francisco, California._

[289] _Co-operative Housekeeping_. The book is now out of print, but the original articles on which it is based can be found in the _Atlantic Monthly_, November, 1868, to March, 1869.

[290] A full account of the plan is given in _Good Housekeeping_, July 19, 1890. It was also described in nearly all of the daily papers during May and June, 1890.

[291] A more complete and possibly more serious account of Mr. Bellamy’s views than that found in _Looking Backward_ is given by him in _Good Housekeeping_, December 21, 1889.

[292] _The New York Tribune_ says of the sewing women in that city: “They are a product of city life; a sort of vitalized machines, fitted only to do a certain mechanical work and disabled for any other industry mainly because they have been fastened to a sewing-machine all their lives.”

[293] “The men of my family would consider it the greatest disgrace if one of the women connected with it were to support herself.”

[294] Mr. Charles Dudley Warner asserts that women teachers have no social position (_Harper’s Monthly_, April, 1895). But his statements can apply only to some of the ultra-fashionable finishing schools in two or three large cities.