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TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS CONVENTION. 



would be to find homes for them. These girls would grow into our 

 ways, and under good influences would make good wives and mothers. 



In the East there are schools to teach girls to do housework; but 

 from what I can learn, they only take up a special line of work; there- 

 fore, in order to get the whole house taken care of one must hire a cook, 

 a laundress, a chambermaid, a parlor maid, a woman to do the scrub- 

 bing, and a lady to open the door, consequently the housekeeper with 

 moderate means is as bad off as ever. 



Our family received a letter from a relative in Indiana lately, in 

 which she says: "I am compelled to sell the farm, as I can not get 

 help in the house, and I am not able to do the work. The girls here 

 are above work." I wonder what the next generation will do? All 

 board, I suppose. But who on earth are they going to get to run the 

 boarding-houses ? 



One would naturally ask. Where are all our girls? The question, I 

 think, is easily answered. The system of education in America is so 

 complete and knowledge is so easily acquired that when a girl leaves 

 the high school, if she is obliged to earn her living her ambition takes 

 her above the kitchen. Most girls dislike to be called "the servant," 

 or " the hired girl " — although, for that matter, we are all servants. 

 The maid in the kitchen serves her mistress; the President of the 

 United States serves his country, and are we not all servants of God? 

 It is true that the girl in the kitchen is looked upon as a menial, but 

 it does not follow that she has always to stay there. " Servant to-day, 

 mistress to-morrow." It is brains, not blue blood, that counts in America. 

 But no matter in what capacity you serve, it is an honor to be a good 

 servant. How well the old negro understood the true value of honor- 

 able service when he said to his grandson: ''Julius, yo' can't neber be 

 der President ob de United States, honey, but if yo's a good boy yo' 

 can black his boots, an' dat's an honor, I tole yo*.'' 



But if the girls dislike the appellation it is their privilege to reject it. 

 American girls are somewhat independent, and they can afford to be in 

 California, where they get so well paid for tlieir work; and especially 

 in Fresno County, where a girl can earn enough in one season cutting 

 fruit and packing raisins to take her through the business college. 



Can any one blame them for wanting to better their condition ? 

 Certainly not; it is what we are all trying to do. So, if we can not 

 have our own girls, let us welcome the foreign girls, and give them a 

 chance. 



Now, it does not follow, because we object to being burdened with the 

 cast-off of other nations, that we do not want foreigners. America 

 holds out a welcome and protecting hand to all thrifty and intelligent 

 people who are willing to help build up the land of their adoption, not 

 drag it down. 



