A FOUL ASPERSION.

NZ Truth, Issue 88, 23 February 1907, Page 5

A FOUL ASPERSION.

MOTHER GRUNDY'S FILTHY MIND. Shameful Suggestion that Servants are Sluttish Sexualists.

I The so-called goody-goody females |of - Christchurch are beginning : j make a fuss abput one of the rules of the newly formed Domestic Ser*ants' Union. This organisation i£ j pretty well bound to grow m power, and mistresses, many of whom used to ,be ; "slaveys" themselves, will speediiiy.be apprised by that' furious fact, for every woman who employs a maid or a cook is to be circularised and informed of the demands of the Union. . And it is fairly evident that these will have to be complied -with, or else there iwUl be much fuss and feathers, and wildly swaying gamps and disarrariged hairpins, and other luxuries. The,, demands may m a measure be cbiisiderably modified, but m the, mean* time the churchy class of femminity, or some of it,. speak m solemn aha awed tones of the proposal to giVft servants liberty from household duties from 7 .30 p.m. until 10 p.m. 6'V evenings (except Wednesdays) and until midnight .oh Thursdays. .It is said that they will roam the streets at ••'' all hours, arid that , -they,. Will i 'fkll-i* gceal . wwLn-imity , arid that the Maternity Homes will be filled With, ."lost" petticoats and squalling, nameless brats, and. further, that the community will be ah-* solutely scandalised, and be shocked and _.- FILLED WITH HORROR. , > Why such a suggestion ■ should be introduced into the questioft of giv/ing household drudges more liberty— well deserved liberty—arid more sc^eW', and better dress, ahd better living conditions cannot be imagined. It ia a suggestion that the majority *>f girls m the lower classes Of society (riot to say anything of "lady.help^'') are immoral m tendency, and that they meet men instead of going to Visit their families, and that they are 1 liable to .get into trouble as soon ad they are tempted. It is 1 A HORRIBLE LIBEL on the chastity of our domestics to say that they belong to an unchaste 'class, and that they can't be trusted out 1 at night, or that they entertaiii impure thoughts. It is also pr6tty solidly rough on pur mankind to Sri-* fer that they would <■ "take" doWn" every poor girl that came under their notice. Yet that is what is implied by the observations of some of the; unscrupulous 'Mothers Grundy's of Christchurch. These will' hate to grant their domestics more privileges than they at '- present possess ; that is quite natural, but that is no reason why it should be CHUCKED IN THEIR FAQES> that they .are likely to fill the_ fta* terni ( ty Homes if they were let loose at/night. Of course the mistresses never go. off at a tangent. .when .the/ ramble out after dark, or even, m their > own homes when their, gentle^ men friends call when husbands are at work— they are quite incapable • of being guilty of such outrageous con-> duct. All this discussion happened most appropriately on the opening of the Salvatmy.'s new Maternity Home, when Minister. of Eddcktion Fowlds said that of all the girls who passed through these institutions there were* few second cases, as once a girl waS bitten she was /twice shy, -and that, they went to domestic service "re--formed.'' Whioh may or may not be correct, but to aver that becarise •they have taken on domestic service that* they should have THEIR LIBERTY RESTRICTED and that all other girls should be treated ' similarly is absolute bunkum. All evening amusements would pierforce '-be tabooed, and the riiistresses would soon.be m a position Worse than they are m now, for the girls ' Wouldn't tolerate! -'an impossible t condition of things p, they love their freer dom as much as anybody else, and. mean to have it anyhow. "It is simply ! monstrous to say that if domestic i servants were allowed out ,after dark? instead of m the afternboh •that.they Would go to the devil. But nothing, is too bad for Mother Grundy to utter when it suits her purpose. This, however, is the limit. It is a vile suggestion that domestic helps,; a class from which are largely jdrawnr the wives of our artisans, to be[coffle the mothers of our future proletarians*—aye, and even of our [future Premiers and leaders ..in the I arts and sciences, for no class is j healthier or better-developed as a rule— are sex-maniacs only lacking oppbf tunity to seek the gratification, of their desires, and that to free them from the shackles of slavery Would mean to send them straight irito a saturnalia of sexual sin, Hellish doctrine !''■■■