DOMESTIC SERVICE

Evening Star, Issue 19272, 10 June 1926, Page 1

DOMESTIC SERVICE

THE REACTION EXPLAINED “ There are many patient wives and mothers whose lives are tormented and tortured by the insoluble problem of_ domestic service. There are many private hells in our complicated civilisation, but there are few more pitiable than the hell of the helpless home,” writes Air James Douglas, in the ‘ Sunday Express.’ “ 'Die work to be clone day after day- is far too much for ono tired head and one pair of weary bands. AVhon sickness doubles or trebles the task of the despondent mother her plight ; s tragic. She struggles bravely to carry the additional load. Her heart aches, her head aches, and her limbs ache. “ There is no rest during the long and laborious day, and there i.s little ease during the long and fretful night. She lies down weary and gets up weary. Some of these silent and uncomplaining slaves die of overwork and overworn-.

“ It is strange that general servants should be so scarce in spite of the fact that so many women arc unemployed. But domestic service no longer attracts the girl of the period. She is educated". She reads. Sho thinks.

“ She is an imaginative being, with her own dreams and her own ideals. Sho cherishes her independence and clings to her freedom. Sho would rather earn loss in liberty than bo fettered in the prison house of domestic service.

“The prejudice against the cap and apron is hitler and implacable, because in the old days domestic service was slavery and domestic servants were slaves, indeed, employers actually invented a dreadful .slang name for the general servant. They called her the ‘slavey.’

“ In the old days the servant was the butt of the comedian and the caricaturist. AVo are paying dearly for all the old jokes and jests. ‘‘ Wo arc slowly adjusting our vision to the new aspect of domestic service. AVo are trying to undo tho past and to wash away its sins of selfishness, indifference, and snobbery. “But tho new maids are suspicions and on their guard against our repentance. They do not respond to our belated overtures. Formerly wo compelled them to keep their distance. To-day they compel us to keep ours. AVe used to bo heartless. It i.s now their turn to bo heartless. For an a'ge we were hard on thorn. They aro now hard on us.

“ There is hardly any homo which is not harassed and embarrassed by the estrangements and alienations which permeate the relationship between the mistress and her servants.

“There is a spiritual friction which prevents tho interchange of confidences. The gulf between the two sets of human beings in the home is hard to bridge. The servants lead a mysterious life of their own. They wear a mask which baffles the kindliest scrutiny and the most sincere interest.

“They are strangers who come and go without revealing their secret sorrows. Even their names are forgotten. Sometimes they are hardly ever known!

“The full blast of the reaction against domestic service has struck the genteel one-maid home and wrecked it. ' The mindless mother is the chief victim of the storm. Sho cooks, washes, darns, mends, scrubs, polishes, and nurses without help even when her health fails and her nerves crash. Her life at host is a drudgery, but in a crisis it is a purgatory,' with a nervous breakdown the only hope of rest.”