HOUSEWORK ON THE FARM. 
H0U8ICWIVE8 TKLL OF THEIB TBOUBLK8 WITH HIBKD HELP. 
Who Will Solve the Problem P 
THE QUESTIONS. 
1. Do the housekeeper! In ronr nelKhhorhood have any trouble In 
securinK good, reliable help 7 If lo, what seemi to be the dlfflcnltr 7 
2. What would you suggeat ai a remedy 7 
8. Prom what source does the help come moatly 7 
4. What Is the standing In the homes of the employers, and In the 
society of the neighborhood, of girls who do housework 7 
6. Have you had any experience with foreigners asdomestles7 What 
nationalities 7 Were they entirely satisfactory 7 What objections If 
any 7 
6. How do the wages paid for housework compare with those paid to 
teachers In the public schools, and to girls In other vocations 7 
Little Trouble Here. 
1. Housekeepers here do not have much trouble 
in securing help—not always reliable of course, yet 
as a general thing very good. 2. [No suggestions.— 
Ed.] 3. The help comes mostly from farmers’ daugh¬ 
ters. 4. The girls are received and treated as one of 
the family by their employers and society. 5. There 
has never been any foreign help employed in this 
neighborhood to my knowledge. 6. For housework, 
girls are paid $1.25 to $2 a week, teachers $20 to $35 a 
month, a seamstress 50 to 75 cents a day. 
Beverly, Ill. mbs. w. b 
Like One of the Family. 
1. There is a scarcity. The help is reliable when it 
can be obtained. The supply is not equal to the 
demand. 2. [No suggestions.— Ed.] 3. From the sur¬ 
rounding farms and homes in the vicinity. 4. 
They stand on an equal footing with the family 
in nearly all respects. They come to the table 
with the family, unless they are needed to serve, 
and a daughter would do the same. In society, 
they stand on their own merits, as their employers 
do; they are not looked down upon because they are 
servants. 5. No ; there is but very little foreign help 
in this vicinity. 6. A girl receives in this vicinity $3 
per week for ordinary housework, and from $4 to $5 
during the season of summer boarders. Teachers in 
our public schools receive from $20 to $30 per month, 
and board themselves, which brings the wages to 
about the same as those received for housework. A 
good seamstress receives $1 per day. I think the 
housework girl stands as high as either and is on an 
equality with the rest of the community. b. b. o. 
Sutton, N. H. 
Too Much Hard Work. 
1. One of the greatest objections to country life is 
having to perform so much labor. To the usual 
household duties are added the butter-making, care of 
young poultry, gathering fruit for the table, and can¬ 
ning an abundant supply for future use ; selecting 
fresh vegetables from the garden rows, and destroy¬ 
ing a few weeds meanwhile ; taking a few strokes at 
the pump when the troughs for the poultry and pigs 
run dry ; and giving a few stolen moments to the rose 
bushes and flower borders. For every housekeeper 
who can secure good, reliable help, there are many 
not 80 fortunate. Girls who work out prefer to go to 
the city where they can have more fun. 2. There is 
no remedy. 3. From the families of renters, who are 
better supplied with daughters than with dollars to 
clothe them. 4. They sit at table with the family; 
are treated kindly, but associate mainly with one 
another and the renters of the neighborhood. 5. The 
best domestics are mature girls who come from Den¬ 
mark with relatives or acquaintances, and work in 
American families to learn our ways and language. 
The greatest objection to such is that they soon go to 
homes of their own. 6. The wages paid for house¬ 
work are from $2.50 to $3 per week. School teachers 
h re in the country get $40 per month. Board and 
washing cost from $4 to $4 50 per week. The school 
year is nine months, and teachers are expected to at¬ 
tend the Normal Institute three weeks each summer. 
Oood dressmakers and sewing girls are paid excep¬ 
tionally well, but typewriters and shop girls, in near¬ 
by towns, still share the homes of their parents, or 
they could not exist. mbs. a. j n. p. 
Capron, Iowa. 
Girls Are Unwilling to Do Housework. 
r. It is utterly impossible for one housekeeper in 
20 to find “ good, reliable help,” or any help when 
needed. The reason is that not many girls are willing 
to do housework. Those with any vim prefer to be 
teachers, dressmakers or milliners. 2. In the cities 
are many young girls who have never seen a farm and 
would be only too glad to exchange their wretched 
abodes for the olttimes pleasant country homes, and I 
have sometimes wondered if the city missionaries could 
not help them and us in the same way that the “fresh 
air ” committees are helping the little street Arabs. Of 
course, we don’t want vile or vicious girls, but I fancy 
there are many who may live in utter destitution who 
are yet above reproach. Such would find pleasant 
homes in most cases, and, though they might be igno¬ 
rant of our ways of doing work, I am sure it would 
not be any harder to teach them than it is the girls 
who come from foreign lands. Their wages should 
correspond with the work performed. They should 
not expect to receive full pay while they were taking 
lessons, often making sad havoc of dishes and victuals. 
3 Mostly from the poor farmers, the ne’er-do-wells. 
As a consequence, the girls do nothing well, and, when 
reproved, are homesick and must go home. 4. Their 
standing depends very largely upon their own merits. 
They are usually treated as equals by the farmer’s 
family, if worthy, and often become daughters-in-law. 
5. I have had no personal experience with foreigners ; 
neither do I know of a single farmer’s wife who has, 
and my acquaintance extends over a wide expanse of 
country. The foreign element takes to the city or vil¬ 
lage as a fish does to water. 6. Girls who do house¬ 
work in farm houses receive from $1.50 to $2 per week; 
of course, board is included. Seamstresses receive 
from $4 50 to $6 and board. Teachers get from $25 to 
$40 per month of 20 days of six hours each, and pay 
from $2 to $2.50 per week for board. Consequently 
the country is flcoded with teachers very many of them 
as unfit for their vocation as any Bridget for the situ- 
tion she seeks. may maple. 
Manistee County, Mich. 
Rather Work Outdoors 3 
Girls in this vicinity who choose to do housework as 
a means of earning money—and they are very few— 
leave this place for the city, where the wages are more 
than double the amount paid here. Thus it is almost 
impossible to get help, either good, bad, or indifferent. 
On several occasions, when talking with young mothers 
in poor health, burdened with the care of little ones 
and pressing farm-house duties, I have suggested a 
remedy : “ Let us raise up some ‘ hired girls.’ ” With¬ 
out exception, the answer has always been emphati¬ 
cally, “ No, I don’t want my girls ever to hire out to 
work in some one’s kitchen,” a feeling which I myself 
entertain. We depend almost entirely on neighboring 
families for our help, and, of course, when fortunate 
enough to get a girl to work for us, she is treated as 
one of the family. Should a stranger come here to do 
housework, she would be rated, socially, about as she 
deserved ; if she were a lady, she would be treated as 
such ; though I will admit that there is a shade of dif¬ 
ference in favor of those engaged in other pursuits. 
One of the German girls who has worked for me on 
several occasions is as near parfection as can be ; but 
she never goes out to help any one but me. I have at 
one time and another employed six other German girls, 
strong, active and capable. I could not keep them 
long, for they prefer outdoor pursuits. Said one to 
me, “I would rather work outdoors for $2 a week than 
in the house for $5.” This in harvest time I Girls who 
do housework are paid from $1.25 to $2 per week. A 
girl can be hired to wash one day for 50 cents. Those 
who sew from house to house receive 50 cents a day. 
Teacheis are paid from $18 to $24 per month, and must 
board themselves. I know of one girl packing shingles 
in a mill 16 miles from here who makes $4 per week. 
Friendship, Wis. mbs. levi h. nilks. 
Knock the Conceit Out of Society. 
1. Yes, they do. Scarcity of good, reliable help ; 
false pride, causing good, poor girls to seek any sort of 
breadwinning rather than housework. 2. A lopping 
off of the conceit of society, so as to make it capable 
of recognizing good qualities in girls of this needed 
American vocation. 3. From the worthless class of 
the blacks mostly. 4. One of our model farmers has 
an invalid wife (she is unable to walk on account of 
rheumatism) who has to make, to a great extent, a com¬ 
panion as well as helper of a housemaid, and they say 
they had to give up the idea of such help. She has 
now a small black girl to wait on her, and they are 
well suited, I think. Another farmer's wife wanted 
a steady helper during the summer. Her sister came 
to her when her “ family ” left for the East, but would 
hardly stay until it was time for her to get the town 
house in readiness, although her sister paid her $12 per 
month, the same as her city mistress. The girl said 
that the country had no charm for her, as she had less 
and easier work in the city. 5. Not in the country, 
bub I had in the city. I got along with an Irish girl 
for two years by giving strict supervision. I found her 
pleasant to the family, good to the children and a will¬ 
ing worker, but devoid of nicety. One Americanized 
German bordering on perfection filled.her place and 
kept it until an offer of $15 per month for cooking 
only, parted us as friends. She was getting $10 per 
month for general housework. I think in cities good 
girls can find satisfactory homes, and vice versa; but 
country girls will go into city kitchens where they 
are unknown, rather than take pay for service given a 
neighbor. 6. Housemaids’ wages are lower, few 
houses paying $12 per month. Teachers get from $40 
up, some as high as $100, and can get good board for 
from $12 to $15, not including washing. B. b. g. 
Bridgeton, Mo. 
A Vexed and Unsettled Question. 
1 and 2. The inquiries open up a most fruitful source 
of anxiety and perplexity—a vital question that, like 
Banquo’s ghost, will not down ; a complex question, 
and not of easy solution. Indeed, we are all at sea, 
with no prospect of a satisfactory solution. 3. From 
the colored element. 4. Worthy girls are treated ex¬ 
ceptionally well, both by employers and neighbors. 
5. My experience has been limited and generally con¬ 
fined to the Irish element, who are required to attend 
church three times per day, which is impracticable in 
the country. 6. Wages are controlled by qualifications 
and good behavior, from $1.50 to $4 per week, and 
numerous indulgences, gifts, etc. We have investi¬ 
gated the Swiss settlement in our State, employment 
agencies in New York City, Cincinnati and Louisvillej 
The 15th Amendment is extant in our midst; the 
elder have mostly acquired homes of their own ; the 
second generation is intoxicated with a sense of free¬ 
dom and are, as a rule, presuming, idle, thriftless, in¬ 
solent—indeed, vicious. A little learning has proved 
a dangerous thing. The vocabulary of adjectives ex¬ 
hausted would fail to do justice to the subject. We 
have nothing but trouble, exceptions rare, and are 
liable at the most inauspicious time to be disturbed 
and our contracts annulled. The above intimation, 
to give an idea of our unsatisfactory, uncertain—in¬ 
deed, desperately demoralized condition of domestic 
service. mbs. w. b. b. 
Bourbon County, Ky. 
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