Now, what is the matter with domestic service? One would think, on the
face of it, that a calling which gives a settled home, a comfortable
room, rent-free, with fire and lights, good board and lodging, and
steady, well-paid wages, would certainly offer more attractions than
the making of shirts for tenpence, with all the risks of providing
one's own sustenance and shelter.
Is it not mainly from the want of a definite idea of the true position
of a servant under our democratic institutions that domestic service
is so shunned and avoided in America, and that it is the very last
thing which an intelligent young woman will look to for a living? It
is more the want of personal respect toward, those in that position
than the labor incident to it which repels our people from it. Many
would be willing to perform these labors, but they are not willing to
place themselves in a situation where their self-respect is hourly
wounded by the implication of a degree of inferiority, _which does
not follow any kind of labor or service in this country but that of
the family_.
There exists in the minds of employers an unsuspected spirit of
superiority, which is stimulated into an active form by the resistance
which democracy inspires in the working-class.
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