Domestic Servants' Question.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 259, 1 December 1903, Page 4

Domestic Servants' Question.

In America, as in New Zealand, there has become a great scarcity of suitable, capable domestic help. Our newspapers are discussing the question. Some attribute the scarcity to harsh treatment of the domestics by their mistresses, and extend their sympathies to the mistresses, and still others would outline a course of better treatment by making her feel at home as one of the family, and ostracise the harsh mistress from society rather than the girl, whose ostracism is pras-.icju'v complete. The great reason for the searcity of hired girls is the inherent distaste of the American man or woman to enter the servant class. The matter of eating with the family is not a burning question with the domestic for any other reason but the tacit admission of equality that goes with a seat at the common board. The girl desires to be considered as good as her mistress. Sometimes she is better. Oftener she is worse, but, good or bad, she craves the recognition of equality. Not a social equality, for there are few girls who lay claim on their employers, or dream of being included included in the invitations the family receive, but the recognition of the old Adamic relation of all humanity to one another. That is what the girl wants most and needs, and the employing woman who is broad enough to recognise this natural sisterhood of the hired woman rarely fails to- secure an abundance of help amd keeps • it, even though the yoke be heavy with children and hard work. Jt is the little, expressed sympathies and interest which binds to the favoured mistress, not gifts of worn garments. Men wide enough apart in social position, but thrown- together in their work strike up very sincere and lasting friendships. The employer and employee, each appreciative of the manliness and capability pf the other, become genuine friends, and the severing of business relations is the cause of real regret. It is not a questioa of wages. It is the appreciation, of one for the other that makes good employees end good employers. The employing- mistress owes more to the girl than money. She must accept responsibility for the hired girl when Bho admits her into her home. The girl has a right to her mistress's interest and watchfulness. Too many domestics, lacking friendliness- and interest in the home, and wi'thput acquaintances or friends, seek companionships on the street, which usually have but one end. That the girl is ignorant and touched with the silly romanticism of the cheap wovel fails to remove the responsibility. The Christian debt and duty of one woman to another is not defined by differences in wealth, culture, and educatio». If mistresses were more kind, girls would be more faithful, and domestic service, with its promise of good homes and respectable wages, would attract rather thft» repel the woman of spirit.