servants. They are generally contented, almost always
cheerful and good tempered, and have little of that irritating pertness
and 'independence' so characteristic of the Irish domestic.

That branch of the present subject which relates to the going out to
service of American women has been publicly discussed somewhat more
extensively than any of the others, particularly of late, it having
entered largely into the question of woman's labor, which has been
attracting considerable attention. It is truly a deplorable thing that
household service is so generally regarded as a menial employment, not
fit for an American woman to engage in. Our countrywomen will do almost
anything rather than go out to service. They will work ten or twelve
hours a day in close, unwholesome shops, surrounded by all the unsexing
and contaminating influences attending the customary free and easy
commingling of male and female employes in such places. They will accept
avocations from which the native delicacy and neatness of an American
girl must revolt. They will put up with wages which will barely keep
body and soul together, wear the meanest clothes, submit to the vilest
tyranny and extortion, rather than enter a position where they will have
but the natural, wholesome labor of woman to perform, that of domestic
life; accompanied by all the pure influences and comforts of a home. I
would be rejoiced if anything I could say would be useful in removing
this absurd and injurious prejudice among American women toward domestic
service. There is surely nothing menial in the work they would have to
do. It is woman's work all over the world, far more so than a hundred
other occupations they now eagerly seek. Their repugnance to the
position itself is the sticking point. This repugnance is based upon a
chimera. They are, in any position in which they labor for wages,
'servants' in as complete a sense as if they labored for wages in
household employments. Far be it from me to say a word to lower that
just and honorable pride which is the birthright of the American girl.
But in declining domestic service for that of the shops, the American
girl declines an honest, reputable, healthful, and every way elevating
employment, for, in many cases, a dwarfing, degrading, wretched slavery;
she turns from her natural and proper sphere to enter a walk of harsh
and degrading experiences, in which it is not possible she can pass her
life. A word on this latter point: A