MORE ABOUT INDOOR HELP. 
STILL NO BEAL KEMKDY ! 
Happy the Woman Who Helps Herself. 
In this locality, it is usually very difficult to procure 
competent help, or, in fact, any help at all. I am 
writing in reference to the farm, as in the city I think 
there is less difficulty. This is owing in large part to 
the gregarious tendencies of the material which mostly 
supplies the market for domestic help. The greater 
part of this comes from Sweden, and, although justly 
considered as preeminetly the most honest and re¬ 
liable of any class of immigrants, yet very few of the 
girls are willing to go into the country to live. They 
prefer the towns, so that they can go to church, and 
enjoy the society of each other evenings after the sup¬ 
per dishes are washed. There are many manufactor¬ 
ies of various kinds, which, when in operation, absorb 
a great deal of the help, and girls usually prefer work 
in them to labor in the kitchen, as it brings more 
money, with stated hours to work. In the summer 
time when help is most needed on the farm, the great 
hotels and cottages for summer boarders around Chau¬ 
tauqua Lake claim a large number of those who are 
willing to do housework. 
As far as my knowledge extends, most girls in farm¬ 
ers’ families are treated like one of the family. Of 
course, this depends largely upon the appearance and 
capabilities of the girl herself, and somewhat upon 
the traditional usages of the family in which she lives. 
I think this depends largely upon the remoteness from 
town, for in the towns, domestics are largely a class by 
themselves, and farmers near by naturally take on 
something of those ways, while in districts farther 
away bright girls who do kitchen work, for the most 
part mingle in the neighborhood society of young 
people. 
Wages vary all tlie way from to 53.50 per week, 
according to the age and efficiency of the girl; of 
course, modified somewhat by the amount of labor she 
is expected to perform. Wages are less than those 
usually paid to school teachers, typewriters, book¬ 
keepers, etc., but more, I think, than the averaage 
saleswoman gets. I find that the problem of good 
domestic help is one not easy of solution, and am 
often led to say that there is no other woman so happy 
and independent as she who is able and willing to do 
her own work. mbs. w. o. giffobd. 
Chautauqua County, N. Y. 
Help Must Be Educated. 
” That competent help is hard to procure, especially 
in the farm home, is a fact. The why and wherefore 
is not evident.” In a lohg experience with out and in 
door help, the results are : 1. The new help does not 
know your way and probably not very well any way. 
2. Then to have them perform your way they must be 
educated (led) by example and patience. Scolding 
and suggesting ignorance do not get and keep good 
help. 3. Get the help a few weeks before you just 
need them and so be in position to educate them ; line 
upon line and trial after trial, given with loving 
patience will rarely fail. It may be that these sug¬ 
gestions do not suit in many respects. But remember, 
the beginners generally think they are capable. Do 
not express a doubt of it, only really manope to impress 
on them your desire to have them do your way as it 
will be best for you, and without condemnation of 
others' ways. 
II ow many of us realize how far from perfect have 
been our methods and how long we were in knowing 
and doing ? Few, very few, perhaps. Consider how 
you would do and like to do if you were to assist 
another, and often that other not perfectly informed 
in all the good ways. How often we hear, “ I do not 
see how Brown gets along with his help when they 
are so poor and saucy, and good for nothing.” But 
does Brown appear to suffer ? Oh, no ! They all 
work as if it were their pleasure. And it is. G. c. m. 
Male Cooks Must Hire Women Assistants. 
As we often read and hear comparisons between the 
cooking of men and that of women, it is well to look 
into the conditions and surroundings of each. Any 
person that can afford to pay a large salary for cook¬ 
ing, hires a man. Then there are others hired to wait 
on the chef, as he is called, and he has positively noth¬ 
ing to do but to cook, unless he choose to do a part of 
the marketing. He uses as many dishes as he pleases ; 
others wash them. His salary is large enough so that 
he is not obliged to do any outside work, or any 
home work, and nobody expects him to, because he is 
a man. He weighs and measures everything, and tests 
the oven every time. Everything is just the same 
eveiy time it comes on the table, but unless some 
woman execute his orders, the food lacks that homey 
fiavor that we all relish. 
A woman receives a lower salary and is expected to 
do various kinds of work that the same employer 
would never ask a man to do. If she be allowed to 
sleep at home, she feels obliged to do the cooking for 
a large family there when she ought to sleep. Every 
spare moment is spent in sewing for herself or depend¬ 
ents. Her employer is usually close about providing 
material, and suspicious with regard to her carrying 
it away; but in spite of all difficulties, if she has been 
born with a faculty for her work, she prepares daintier 
dishes than a man can. Every man says, “My mother 
was the best cook I ever saw.” b. 
Household Help in Washington State. 
Some of the housekeepers of my acquaintance have 
found good help with but little trouble ; others have 
not been able to do so. Not because the housekeepers 
were not admirable women, but because intelligent, 
nice girls would not do that kinfi of work. As a 
remedy, I would suggest that girls who do housework 
be treated as though they were respectable as long as 
they are so. I think that where a girl is intelligent 
and good, she is worthy of as much respect when she 
works in the kitchen as when she is in the school 
room. If that were the case, many nice girls would 
rather do housework, while, as it is, they would 
rather do most anything else or starve. Let the girls 
be taught that housework is as ennobling as other 
kinds of work and they will not feel that they are 
degraded. The help here mostly comes from among 
the foreigners or the poor, uneducated families. I 
have had no help, personally, from any source though 
there are a great many Chinamen hired in and around 
Olympia. Some like them very well in some ways, 
still I think there would be but few of them employed 
if the housekeepers could get good, reliable, indus¬ 
trious girls. There is a vast difference in different 
classes in the way the help is treated. In the higher 
(?) classes the “servant” is no better than a Chinaman, 
and a lady is insulted if one of them comes into the 
room. Some in town and most families in the coun¬ 
try treat the girls as they deserve and have had but 
little diffiaulty in getting good help when they wished 
it. Girls doing housework receive from $16 to $20 per 
month. Teachers in the country schools receive from 
$35 to $50 per month and pay from $10 to $16 per 
month for board. m. w. h. 
Olympia, Wash. 
Men Cooks: Bare Floors. 
If it be true that men are better cooks than women, 
it must be because they give their whole time and at¬ 
tention to it. As far as I ever heard, the men who 
cook don’t do anything else, not even wash the dishes 
they use. As a rule, the woman who does the family 
cooking has all the other proverbial “thousand and 
one” things incident to housekeeping to attend to. 
Who can compute the number of wonders and worries 
she mixes into the piecrust and stirs into the cake! If 
the men cooks had washing, scrubbing, making and 
mending and so on ad infinitum, mingled with their 
cookery, perhaps they’d have a failure on hand now 
and then! Perhaps some one will tell us next that 
the Lord never intended women to be mothers! It’s 
a pity that Danish gentleman didn’t give some “solid” 
reason for his statement. 
I wonder if it isn’t just possible that there is some 
other reason for ill health than carpeted fioors. I 
have in mind a family where no carpets were used, 
and the mother and father both died with consump¬ 
tion, and their children are going the same way. In 
another family, the fioors are carpeted, and with 
three young children in the family they have had no 
occasion to call a doctor in seven years. There is no 
question that a dirty carpet is unhealthful, but there 
is no need of letting it get so. There are many bonny, 
rosy, romping children of my acquaintance, who are 
reared on carpets, who are tough and hardy as young 
hickory trees. I say amen heartily to the pure air, 
sunshine and cleanliness part, also to plain living and 
warm clothing. _ l. w. m. 
POOR UNCLE SAM. 
A woman’s way out of it. 
HE picture on page 98 reminds me of what Mrs. 
Beale told us at the Woodstown, (N. J.) Insti¬ 
tute. She said, “ Mr. Chapman has been telling you 
how to grow potatoes and I want to tell you how to 
make a market for them. The money spent for drink 
fills jails and alms houses and deprives many of food. 
In New York City, people buy potatoes by the quart, 
because their ready cash goes into the till of the saloon 
keeper. People are starving in New York while the 
farmer groans because of the lack of market for his 
products, and the saloon is responsible. In New 
Jersey are 8,464 legalized saloons whose gross receipts 
each are not Jess than $5,000, which means a cash 
business of $42,320,000 for the year. The most of it 
hard-earned wages which should have been spent for 
the necessities of life. 
“ The population of New Jersey in 1890 was equal to 
288,986 families, each of five members. We would 
like to use the money spent for liquor in one year in 
New Jersey to help 100,000 of these families who are 
now suffering from want. Let us purchase some of 
the surplus crops of the farmer, for which he has no 
market. Let us increase the demand for potatoes, 
corn and vegetables thus increasing the price. Let us 
put into every home four barrels of potatoes at $2.50 
(New Jersey would not be able to supply the demand); 
three barrels of apples at $3,333^ per barrel; fresh 
vegetables to the amount of $25 ; a firkin of butter, 50 
pounds at 30 cents per pound; a margin for milk, 
eggs, meat, etc., until we have spent $100 for each one 
of these 100,000 families. The result of this would be 
an increased demand for all farm produce. Then we 
will allow $25 for coal, $75 for house rent and $100 for 
clothing to each family. We would like to have every 
one of these families own their own house, so let us 
give each $100 to make the first payment on a lot. 
“After we have done all this, we will have left 
$2,320,000 of the money spent for liquor last year. Do 
you ask what we shall do for revenue ? The money 
received from distilled and fermented liquors in 1890 
as revenue was $1,927,285. From our surplus we will 
pay the State this entire amount and still have $392,- 
726 to be expended in public improvement, and thus 
give the unemployed work. The result of diverting 
this money into these channels is to protect the farmer, 
and produce increased financial prosperity. You farm¬ 
ers complain, justly, of high taxes; but the liquor 
traffic is responsible for 75 per cent of all crime, pau¬ 
perism and insanity that must be taken care of at pub¬ 
lic expense, and you pay your full share. We of the 
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union call upon you 
farmers to assist us in our efforts to close the saloons, 
which are burdening you with taxes. You men are 
working hard to pay for your farms, but you cannot 
keep your boys with you at home. They will go to 
town, and how soon the saloon tries to capture them ; 
and how often there has to be a mortgage on the farm 
to save them.” c. e. c. 
Woman and the Home. —Jennie Buell, in the Michi¬ 
gan Farmer Household, avers that the thought that 
this woman’s movement, as a whole, is crushing out 
the best of woman’s home-loving nature, is startling 
to one whose finest, highest mental picture of a home 
has been tinted and touched in by the deft skill and 
impassioned words of some of these “ advanced” 
women—a picture that has in it, too, all the elements 
of the true home as held by the most stringent de¬ 
votee of the “good old times”.” While some may seek 
notoriety, it is hard to conceive of such women as 
Rev. Anna Shaw and Mary T. Lathrop buttoning their 
ulsters about them, year in and year out, going up 
and down the length and breadth of the land for the 
“ glory” there is in it. Hard won “glory” must that 
be which crowns Clara Barton if that is the paltry 
pittance she labored for ! Or what calls such women 
as Lady Somerset and Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant 
from their English homes of luxury and loved ones ? 
A cream of tartar baking powder. 
Highest of all in leavening strength. 
—Latest United States Government 
Report. 
Royal Baking Powder Co., 
106 Wall Street, New York. 
