OUR DOMESTIC SERVICE. 
260 
exist. In the ^4 Eastern States 
we should expect^^Oj^iind communities 
employing domestic servants" somewhat in 
proportion to the extent and success of their 
manufactures and commerce, the presence 
of a considerable city being almost inevita- 
bly indicated by an increase in this form of 
expenditure. 
The facts revealed by the Census corre- 
spond in general with great exactness to the 
reason of the case as we have sought to rep- 
resent it. Beginning at the extreme East, we 
have Maine, a State chiefly agricultural, and 
having no large city to bring up its average, 
with 11.57 families to one servant. New 
Hampshire, approaching in its southern 
parts the industrial conditions of Massachu- 
setts, has but 9.64. Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, and Vermont have, respectively, 
7.61, 7.44, and 7.35. If, however, we 
exclude New Haven and Providence, Con- 
necticut goes up to 8.08, and Rhode Island 
to 9.33. Massachusetts, with a population 
two-thirds that of the other New England 
States combined, has one servant to every 
6.67 families. If, however, we exclude 
the cities of Boston and Worcester, we have 
for the remainder of the State but one to 
8.24. 
Of the States known in the geogi'aphies of 
our school days as the Middle States, New 
York has but 5.79 families to one servant; 
New Jersey, 6.97, and Pennsylvania, 8.01. 
If we exclude the seven principal cities of 
New York, the remainder of the State shows 
7.31 families to a servant. If we exclude 
Philadelphia, Allegheny and Pittsburgh, the 
remainder of Pennsylvania shows 9.86. 
Proceeding westward to Ohio and Michi- 
gan, we find, as we should expect, a smaller 
number of domestic servants in these States, 
the ratios being but one to 9.73 and to 9.74, 
respectively, or, if we exclude Cincinnati 
and Cleveland in Ohio, and Detroit in 
Michigan, but one to 10.92 and 10.31, re- 
spectively. Ohio and Michigan are, how- 
ever, much older States than Illinois, which 
shows but one to 10.57, or, excluding Chi- 
cago, but one to 12.72. Indiana, a State of 
equal age, but of a more exclusively agri- 
cultural population, shows but one to 14.02 
families. This is nearly the ratio of Iowa 
(one to 14.14). Wisconsin, with larger man- 
ufacturing interests, has one to 10.46, or, 
excluding Milwaukee, one to 11.26. 
The six States remaining may be passed 
over with brief mention. California, with 
its great body of “ Chinese cheap labor,” 
naturally shows a large proportion of do- 
mestic service, having one servant to 8.37 
families, though, if we exclude San Fran- 
cisco, the remainder of the State has but one 
to 11.32 families, which is very close to the 
ratio for Nevada (one to 11.13), where, also, 
the Chinese element largely enters. Three 
of the other four States show the condition 
proper to pioneer communities, where luxu- 
ries are not expected, and labor is scarce 
and high. Nebraska has but one servant 
to 16.92 families; Kansas, one to 16.18; 
Oregon, one to 22.29. Minnesota, how- 
ever, forms a distinct exception, and one not 
easily explained. The ratio of domestic ser- 
vice here (one to 9.64 families) is precisely 
that of New Hampshire, and exceeds by a 
trifle that of Ohio. Unless the cause of 
this be found in the proportion of Swedes 
and Norwegians within the State, it must be 
left to some social investigator on the spot, 
to account for this indulgence of the far Min- 
nesotians in the luxury of domestic service so 
much beyond the customs of their neighbors. 
Heretofore we have had under consider- 
ation the domestic servants in the several 
States, and in certain important cities, in 
their aggregate number only.* But it may 
not be without interest to follow this general 
class into the details of its nationality, and 
inquire what races and countries contribute, 
and in what measure severally, to this total 
of 951,334 persons, big and little, male and 
female, white, black and yellow, who min- 
ister in the households of our people. 
At sight the statements of the Census in 
this respect appear scarcely credible. Thus, 
at the outset, we meet the assertion that 
704,780 of the 951,334 were born within 
the United States. To one who has been 
accustomed to think of pretty much the 
whole body of domestic servants as of for- 
eign birth, the first feeling must be that of 
incredulity. What, can it be true that all the 
Irish, Germans, Swedes, Canadians and Chi- 
nese, who make so much of a figure in our 
daily lives, and in the literature of the time, 
constitute little more than one-fourth of the 
entire number of servants ? 
In the first place, of the persons employed 
* Another popular delusion, which is exploded by 
the Census, is that Joseph Smith introduced polyg- 
amy into his religious system merely as an indirect 
solution of the problem of domestic service; a 
shrewd device, at once to keep his handmaidens 
under discipline, and to defraud them of their right- 
ful wages. The Census shows that, while Utah has 
fewer servants to population than the Territories of 
Arizona, New Mexico, Washington and Wyoming, 
it has more than Colorado, Dakota, Idaho and 
Montana. 
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