Show I MISTRESS AND M i m a Salt Lake Woman Discusses Servant Ser-vant Girl Problem I HAS BECOIrlE SERIOUS I PERPLEXED HOUSEWIVES DRIVEN DRIV-EN TO DESPERATION Talk of Importing a Carload of Eastern East-ern GirlsOpposition to Japanese HelpSome Women Who Have No Trouble With ServantsHigh Wages Paid + When charming Mrs Ilelen Campbell addresses the women of the city on the woman and chld labor question a few weeks ago she said one or two things that were calculated amuse a Salt Lake audience cxcccdngl The gifted speaker had been gong ocr the many needed reforms among women and children wageearners I when she suddenly remembered that in a town of the size and location of Salt Lake City the problems that are so harassing to the philanthropist of an eastern city art comparatively an un lUJoJ1 quantity You probably do not even have a serantglrl question to deal with said Mrs Campbell The amusement caused by the innocent inno-cent remark among the roomful of housekeepers who were present made It necessary for the lecturer to pause In her remarks From a recent Inquiry into the matter mat-ter it appears that not only has the servantgirl questioI always been with the Salt Lake housekeeper but that or late it has grown to such uncomfortable uncomforta-ble proportions that homemaking for many people has gotten to be an utter I impossibility Various means of solving the difficulty I diffi-culty have been suggested Everything from importing a quantity of Japanese help from the west to placing a boycott on native domestics and sending east for a carload of girls trained on New England farms Is being discussed That some radical measures to remedy rem-edy the difficulties Into which the employers em-ployers of domestic help have been thrown wm be necessary Is asserted by Salt Lake women all over the city i rd I A wellknown employment agent said last week that he could place at least fifty servants in private families If he could get them Afraid of Jananese The question of importing Japanese help has been talked of from time to I time but the employment agents are I unwilling to make any move in this I direction They feel that it would be I more or less of an experiment and in i tIle eu t of Its being an entire failure fail-ure they ould be in disfavor with the native help and would perhaps find I themselves without an occupation I If any effort is made toward bringing bring-ing in the Jnp it will have to come from the women who employ servants said an agent when asked about the I mn tter i Some of the experIences related by I Salt Lake women who are utterly dependent i de-pendent on hired help are mol amusing A charming southern woman whose kindness of heart is wen known lost a valuable servant through illness Before Be-fore she succeeded In filling her place she suffered terrible tortures from six Incompetents the last of whom she entertained hopes ofat least for a time She was a colored woman an excellent excel-lent cook and kitchen servant but she absolutely declined to extend her field of operations beyond the sacred precincts pre-cincts This idiosyncrasy was overlooked over-looked because of the Narcfssa excellent ex-cellent culinary attainments and all went well until an illness attacked every useful member of the family It became necessary to ask the queen of the kitchen to dD a Itttle sweeping and dusting and she very firmly declined I The master of the house remonstrated with her very mildly Do you think you are acting like a Christian he Inquired I profess to be a follower of the Lord and I would not treat you so if you were ill and In trouble Throwing her head back in the all and raising her hands to her hips after the manner of Billingsgate flshwomen the cook exclaimed Theres more as I professes than is I that possesses The head of this establishment a typical mHdmannerer southern gentleman was too completely squelched to doan do-an thln but turnover an extra weeks salary and try again Girls Getting Married Many of the women whose difficulties durIng the past few months have been overwhelming attribute their troubles to the fact that at the conference last fan George Q Cannon advised the young women to get married and work for themselves Instead of expending their energies in the homes of other people At any rate In the past few months the woes of many housekeepers housekeep-ers have reached a climax and as a result re-sult the boardinghouses of the city are filled to overflowing This simplifies the matter somewhat but the average woman who has once had a home wilt not long be satisfied to do this It was suggested by Mrs T B Beat ty that the servant girl question was a twosided one and that much depended de-pended upon the mistress I I seldom make changes said Mrs Beatty and when I do tt is on account I ac-count of sickness or because the girls get married Asked in regard to the native servant I question Mrs Beatty said 1 have aIays had Mormon girls and my experience ex-perience has been that the servant who Is a good church member makes the best domestIc The Swedes are usually usual-ly devout church members and I prefer pre-fer them to all others that are to be had here I would not have a Jap In I my house I dont consider that they are adapted to small households and where only one servant Is kept I I Mrs Biter Opposes Japs I Mrs W W Biter expressed about I the same sentiments in regard to the I matter A Jap she would not have about her h use and she feels that mistresses are to a great extent responsible respon-sible for the disturbances that we hear of every day I I We do not treat our servants as human I man beings and consider that they I feel much as we dD about things said Mrs Biter I an make a good maid out of a very poor one and while I dont believe in making my servant one of my family I do believe In treating treat-Ing her as though she were somethIng more than a drudge s Irs J lL Dart tells of an experience that again opens the discussion of why girls who nre fitted for domestic service serv-Ice prefer any other kind of work even when It Is less remunerative She had a servant to whom she paid M a week She was not very strong and complained com-plained that she could not stand the work because she was on her feet too much Being a good seamstress she determined to earn her living in this i way She left this comfortable home and Is now employed In a laundry at 525 a week She stands for eight hours every day and irons by handOut hand-Out of this small advance in wages sho pays room rent and furnishes her own Aboard I and besides her eight hours a day she prepares her own meals This I If less comfortable seems to be the average domestics Idea of independence Independ-ence and many stories arc told of their i leaving good homes to do even more grinding work But said Mrs Dart I do not see that we have greater difficulties to contend with than do the women of the east Th distress 1s aU over the Hind and the problem is ambst difficult diffi-cult one of solution Wages Are High It is true however that wages arD higher here than In eastern cities Many girls here have 5 a week a few have more and thoe are lIt the mt norlty and are extremely incapable who have less than 3 Several women were found who are running very much smaller establishments establish-ments than they had maintaIned before coming here They do this and are measurably Independent of servants If the have a poor one they dismiss I her and get along without The dltlleult cannot be disposed of In an offhand manner any more than the question of disposing of our newly acquired possessions can be settled by I a school debating society The majority ma-jority of rlghtthlnldng women feel a grave responsibility In the matter and realize that the matter concerns the I I mistress as clearly as it does the maid I But said several broadminded women wo-men who are dealing with the question ques-tion every day things wm never be any better until domestic service is regarded re-garded as a profession and a knowledge knowl-edge of the correct method of baking a potato and broIlIng a Tbone as essential es-sential to the properly equipped servant serv-ant as a lawyers books are to the successful suc-cessful practice of his law |