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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



March, 1908 



Monthly Comment 



HERE is no help for it. Definite hours for 

 domestic service is now announced as the 

 real solution of the problem of domestic 

 servants. Fixed hours for domestic service, 

 cries the latest reformer in this very difficult 

 field, and all your troubles will disappear. 

 This means, of course, relays of servants; 

 else how other are the affairs of daily life to be ministered 

 to? That this will add immeasurably to the cost of living is 

 a mere detail : the main thing is to free the servants, elevate 

 them to a position of personal freedom, give dignity to their 

 work, and ennoble their calling. It is a delightful proposal, 

 and the only really comfortable idea in it is the unavoidable 

 conclusion that it must be at least several years before this 

 happy state of affairs is brought about. Meanwhile we may 

 be able to get along on the old system and do the best we can 

 with inferior material. 



It is barely possible that the last phrase discloses one of 

 the chief difficulties in the whole question. Domestic service 

 is not viewed with favor by any self-respecting native Amer- 

 ican, and many imported ones take the same position. And 

 why should they do otherwise? Is not this the land of the 

 free and the brave? Are not all men equal, and is not per- 

 sonal service, domestic service, more or less degrading? 

 This would seem to be the basic fact in the case, leaving noth- 

 ing more to be said. There is, however, still another ele- 

 ment in the problem, and that is that when domestic service 

 is undertaken it i? chiefly engaged in by persons of inferior 

 accomplishments, many of whom know no other way to earn 

 a livelihood, and are actually independent of individual ways 

 of supporting themselves. Hence to enter domestic service 

 means to enter a calling in which, in a sense, only an inferior 

 sort ol people are engaged. The young man or woman look- 

 ing around for work naturally avoids a calling that is not well 

 thought of, anil in which a great many undesirable people are 

 permanently associated. 



Meanwhile the poor employer of such labor has no show 

 at all. Domestics of all classes, we are told, are kept in a 

 "state of absolute servitude." And it is to free these people 

 from this horrid condition that the whole modern campaign is 

 conducted. If President Lincoln did not stop to count the 

 terrific cost of freeing the negro slaves of America, why 

 should any independent householder hesitate at the cost of 

 freeing his own domestics from an abominated condition quite 

 as bad? The argument would seem to be that this frightful 

 person has lorded it so long over his domestic dependents 

 that he might easily stand the cost of modern systems, with 

 their definite hours, theh- regular comings and goings, their 

 change daily, their systematized, unionized labor. No doubt 

 that is it; unionize the domestic servants, make them familiar 

 with their mighty power, give them their "rights," and the 

 whole vast problem will work itself out in the most approved 

 manner. Meanwhile, if you have anything to say on this 

 subject, send your photograph to the paper, and help along 

 the noble cause as best you can. 



There is one real element of terror in the modern servant 

 question that has not received the attention it deserves, and 

 that is the composition and publication of biographical studies 

 by servants real and imaginary. An imaginary servant is a 

 person who engages in a life of domestic servitude with the 

 purpose of writing an account of his adventures while so oc- 

 cupied, and showing up the true evils of the household of 



which he becomes a part. Real servants include all other 

 kinds. The imaginary writing servant is of all domestic 

 servitors the most atrocious and contemptible. His life is a 

 lie, because he purports to be what he is not. He is a spy 

 and a sneak, because he is all the time prying into matters 

 with which he is not concerned. His very conclusions and 

 fulminations are false and misleading, because it is impossible 

 for him, with his supposedly superior mental equipment, to 

 put himself in the place of the man or woman who engages 

 in domestic work because it happens to be his occupation at 

 the time. No matter what he does, he is always himself, 

 always able to withdraw from his position at any time with- 

 out any difficulty of after support, and always is able to say 

 the most unpleasant things about those who, after all, may 

 have had only friendly feelings toward him. Yet these 

 atrocious scribblers are more or less in vogue. Publishing 

 houses have been known to put forth their wares upon a 

 foolish world, and magazine editors have encouraged their 

 doings by paying fat prices for their stuff. So far from doing 

 any good, the presence of these people in your household, or 

 their possible presence, is quite justifiable cause for arbitrary 

 treatment by employers. 



It could hardly be expected that so important a matter as 

 the home could, in these days of paternal lawmaking and 

 constant appeal to authority, remain without the scope of 

 law-betterment. It is, however, a bit startling to find that 

 the Legislature of Massachusetts should have been petitioned 

 to enact a law providing for an investigation of the home 

 and the establishment of a State department to regulate and 

 elevate home life. As a preliminary step in the accomplish- 

 ment of this purpose a commission has solemnly been pro- 

 posed to consist of a wife and mother, who must be a non- 

 sectarian and "humanitarian" — whatever that may be — a 

 physician, a trained nurse, and a representative of the police! 

 Could anything be more perfect? It is true the mere man 

 is omitted, the father, and perhaps the money-earner; but 

 surely a small boy and a very young girl should have been 

 included, while a butler, a housemaid or two, and, above all, 

 a cook, could, if we are to believe the servant-prophets, give 

 valuable aid. Why the real estate agent is omitted it is hard 

 to see, and a plumber would seem to have been an imperative 

 necessity. With all these valuable authorities omitted it is 

 easy to foretell the speedy collapse of this extraordinary 

 enterprise. 



There was once a city of vast and generous size. More 

 than a million people found homes and lodgment within its 

 borders. And on every Monday morning the women folk 

 of this great community, without an exception, fell upon the 

 stores and warehouses, and spent as much of the money 

 earned by their husbands in the previous week as they could 

 cajole out of them or extract from their wallets in the peace 

 of night. On that day, at least, the streets of the city pre- 

 sented a gay appearance, with these countless women busily 

 and happily intent on their errands of joy. The stores 

 were crowded, and bargains of the most alluring sort were 

 displayed on all hands. If they were not real bargains, they 

 were labeled so, and thus were just as good. Very remark- 

 able indeed was this outpouring of a city's entire woman pop- 

 ulation. But the city no longer exists as an independent 

 community; not because the women folk spent all the money, 

 arduous as their labors were in that direction, but because it 

 was swallowed up and engulfed in another, larger community. 

 The name of this once-city is Brooklyn. 



