THE SORROWS OF DOMESTIC SERVICE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 220, 10 June 1908, Page 11

THE SORROWS OF DOMESTIC SERVICE.

Judge.Heydon, who presides ovor-the Industrial Arbitration Court in Sydney (says the " Age" in a leading article on the domestic worker difficult}'), threw some light on the reasons why young women prefer lo bo shop girls rather than domestic servants. A shop girl was under cross-examination, and. counsel inquired; " Why don't you go into domestic service and earn more money?" "Olio of the reasons," the judge interposed, " why .they do not is because they object to people who are not on terms of intimacy calling, them by their Christian-names. We may find, here'somo hint of the solution of the servant difficulty. In : the shop it is always "the young lady who served you?'; but in the family; it is always "Jane" without tho courteous prefix which, suggests

A HOUSE GOWN. Effective receptjon dress of mirror velvet or velveteen, Uvith vest and sleeves of lace, finishings of silk braid.

such a vast difference in the. social scalp. In a recent number of the "Victorian Magazine" Mrs. Mayo, who has specialised en tho subject, meets this objection by proposing to nut the prefix "Sister" to tho Christian namo, but in the following clipping from an English paper what we may suppose to bo the climax is rcachod, which confers on "Jane" the dignity-of Caste, and instead • f remaining all her-life a -Noun-substantive^ f no consequence, raises her to 'a level with her mistress:— The Nov/ton Abbott (Devon) Guardians have been exercised as to whether or not a general servant in their employ was entitled to be described.on the minutes'by the pre-, fix "Miss," and, despito an opinion expressed bv a, member that tho servant girl was being honoured moro than her. station, in life demanded, tho board decided that the servant's namo should bo handed down lo posterity by " Miss." AVe should not caro to take tho responsibility of recommending tho new stylo for importation into colonial households; but in the Middle Ages, when few peoplo kept servant p in the modern sense, and most domestic workers were drawn from the same class as their employors, tho incongruity would not bo noticed, perhaps. In London the tendency, we see, is rather to make life more sociable on the part of employers by relaxing the codo of discipline that debars the maid from access to tho parlour, though thpy are never likely to be on tho free and easy terms which obtain in France, whero a French mistress thinks nothing of being kissed on both cheeks by lior maid on returning ' from' a holiday, or on departures offering to kiss tho master as well.

In the meantime, serious efforts are being made in various quarters to mitigate tho abuses which render domestic servico unpopular, and to discover a modus vivendi which shall satisfy both tho kitchen and tho parlour. In ono English county town a largo co-operative organisation has been formed, in which educated womon aro ento do the domestic work, the condition beinff that a reasonable wage is paid, riot more than an average of nino hours a day is worked, no uniform is expectcd to be worn, and tho status of the helpers is that of equality with the rest of the households. A less ambitions project, which-would eventuate in dispensing with domestics altogether, is what is known as the Travelling Kitchen, from which families may be supplied with meals to suit tlioir purses and ta&tes, and so havo plenty of time on their hauds to.dischargo the less onerous duties of tho housohold from within the family circle