A FIELD FOR WOMAN.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1588, 6 May 1887, Page 4

A FIELD FOR WOMAN.

DOMESTIC SERVICE IN THE FAR EAST. There are thousands of women who who suffer for lack of domestic help in another way as much as any poor sewing-woman can. The most pathetic letters I ever read came to me from a young woman in "Wisconsin, a farmer's wife. The harvest season was coming. Her husband had ridden for days looking in vain for help at a time of the year when every man was wanted in the fields. The woman was already overburdened with the work which she had done, unrelieved, fo* several years. She had, besides her own family, all the " hands" on the farm to cook and work for. Two or three little children had come in the meantime to warm her heart, but to be an added burden on her hands. She wrote to me:—"lt seems as though I should go wild. I must be up early to get breakfast for the men. I must sit up late to put away the supper and do the dishes. My mending basket piles up higher and higher, and I have not time to take a stitch ; my children cry and I cannot comfort them nor teach them, nor do a mother's duty to them, and not a woman anywhere to help me." She had borne up under it till failing strength and health compell°d the farmer to lease his farm or lose his wife. Here would have been a home for some woman, with abundant food and good wages that could have been saved in the bank. All over the farms at the wesflfcre multitudes of just such cases.

In the western towns it is hardly better. In a small country town in Nebraska I saw the wife of the hotelkeeper doing all the work for 18 men, as well as for transient guests. Till night she had not a moment's rest. Two little children wandered around unmothered, because she had no time to care for them. No other woman was near. When it came dinner-time she put the dinner she had cooked on the table and then shut the children out of doors while she waited on these 18 hungry men. One little boy turned his grieved lips up as the door closed on him, but she had to wait on the table, and the child must be out of the way. While the first course was being eaten I saw her pass the window outside with the little one in her arms, covering its face with kisses. In a moment she was back again at her post. Dinner over she was washing up the pots and kettles. The door being open between, I heard the eldest child, himself almost a baby, say to his mother of the other little one," Do keep this baby in ; I am afraid the horses will step on bim." She called him " Mother's little man," and with a pot in one hand she swung the child by one arm with the other into the now deserted dining-room and shut the door. It was her only way to keep him safe. She had a fine face and figure, and was dignified in manner. It was easy to see she was not a mere drudge. On the wall hung a photographed group of faces, her own among the number. In answer to my inquiring look she said," Those are photographs of the clas3 I graduated with." Here was an educated woman, now strong and well, but sure to break down before many years under such a load.

These instances illustrate what is really a great want. Now, instead of offering charity, would it not be far better to put these half-starved sewingwomen who need food and homes and better wages in communication with women east and west who are perishing for lack of such help as these women can give ? Advertisements for such places should be made over the names of a reliable committee, and references given and received. Railroad fares should be paid, and the workers enabled to go where there work is needed, and where it would be in constant demand. Some sewing-women have no knowledge of housework. Very we'll. Let them work for their board while they learn. Tbey woulu have plenty of food and a good home. They would be better oft" than they are now, when their Ss 50c. or S3 or $4 a week has to pay for their scanty food and fuel and and wretched rooms, and nothing is left. Good housewives would willingly teach one accustomed to work if she would remain for wages after she could earn them. What would not the two women I have instanced gladly have done in the way of teaching, if at first only washing dishes, making beds, and sweeping could have been done for them, evea if it had been done badly ? It seems to me this is the solution of the question for women who barely make a living at sewing. They must be put in communication with those who so bitterly need domestic help. Many of them would no doubt take kindly to housework. They would feel the sense of comfort and permanence and warmth of family life. They would save tho larger part of their wages, and in time have a small but real independence. If underpaid sewing-women will take well-paid domestic service they will not need charity.—Lucy Stone, in the Boston Herald.