n from all
household employees.

There are many housewives who will state that this last condition is
impossible, that it is asking too much from one employee; and since it
is hard to-day to find a good cook, it will be still harder to find one
who understands other household work as well. But those who jump to
these conclusions have never tried the experiment. It is not only
possible but practicable.

Judging from the ordinary intelligence displayed by the average cook and
housemaid in the majority of private homes to-day, it ought not to seem
incredible that the duties of both could be easily mastered by young
women of ordinary ability. A woman who knows how to prepare and cook a
meal, may easily learn the correct way of serving it, and the possession
of this knowledge ought not to prevent her from being capable of
sweeping a room, or making a bed, or taking care of children.

It is above all in families where only a few employees are kept, that
the housewife will quickly realize how much it is to her immediate
advantage to employ women who know how to do all kinds of housework,
instead of having those who make a specialty of one particular branch.

The specialization of work in private houses has been carried to
such an extreme that it has become one of the greatest drawbacks
to successful housekeeping in small families. Under this system of
specialization, a household employee is not capable in emergency of
taking up satisfactorily the work of another. Even if she be able to do
it, she often professes ignorance for fear it may prolong her own hours
of labor, or because, as she sometimes frankly admits, she does not
consider it "her place." The chambermaid does not know how to cook, the
cook does not know how to do the chamberwork, the waitress, in her turn,
can do neither cooking nor chamberwork, and the annoyance to the whole
family caused by the temporary absence of one of its regular employees
is enough to spoil for the time being all the traditional comforts of
home.

In hotels and public institutions, and in large private establishments,
where the work demands a numerous staff of employees, the specialization
of the work is the only means for its successful accomplishment, but in
the average home requiring from one to four or five employees no system
could be worse from an economic point of view, nor less conducive to the
comfort of the family.

Specialization produces another bad effect, for it prevents