WHY WOMEN HATE DOMESTIC SERVICE.

Bruce Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 1753, 28 May 1886, Page 6

WHY WOMEN HATE DOMESTIC SERVICE.

This question was discussed last month at the New Century Guild in Ptuladelpnia by intelligent young

yomen, few of whom, probably, are i ible to save as much money every - ""ear from their pay. as girls can do < n domestic service. The objections i briefly stated were these: — " You can 1 never have any time to yourself, from i getting up in the morning until bed- i time ; it is accounted a sin in many ' families if " the girl " is seen sitting down with unoccupied hands. That is the signal for the mistress to find her something else to do, so that there shall never be a minute when that girl can rest until bed-time or " her day out" comes. The servant's sleepingroom is usually a poor place, ill-fur-nished — especially in bathing comforts; the coldeßt room in winter and the hottest in summer. Yet most mistresses watch with suspicion the few minutes any girl might spend up there unless on her " afternoon out." In a store, or even in going out sewing by the day, our evenings are our own, and our room when we get to it is really home. Girls are not expected to have home feeling in service. The best kind of a place," according to these pungent young critics, " for an American woman who was competent to do house service would be a place where she would be the only servant." Then, with employers who really appreciated intelligent and refined ways, they seemed to think " certain great difficulties would vanish that now keep American girls from entering service." When the mistress of the house learns to organize her work and finds out how much one pair of hands ought to do and can do in a day, there will not be so much confusion. Usually the girl knows she will ■ be kept up to it, no matter how much ] she does." " Washing; day," it was again said " was much in the way of the one-servant plan" (which seemed to have the preference). "One servant could do the washing for a small family, but not for a very large one — and do everything else besides. These were intelligent objections, the underlying idea in the " one-girl " plan being that such a girl is free of disagreeable associates, and did not have to sleep, eat, and be|constantly with unrefined or unpleasant second or third girls.