tion for the untrained girl which requires her to
live in the home of her employer, thus curtailing her independence,
rendering her hours of work long and uncertain, and cutting off the
natural social environment possible if she returned to her own home at
the end of the day's work. The social position of girls in domestic
service, especially in the towns and cities, is peculiarly hard for a
self-respecting girl to bear. It is in large part a reflection upon
her sacrifice of independence. The derisive slang term "slavey"
expresses the generally prevalent public contempt. It is small wonder
that a girl fears to brave such a sentiment and as a result avoids
what is perhaps in itself congenial work in pleasanter surroundings
than most noisy, ill-smelling factories.

Almost all the conditions surrounding the domestic worker are such
that it is practically impossible to say except of each place
considered by itself whether or not it is a suitable and desirable
place for a girl, or whether work and wages are fair. Practically no
progress has been made in standardizing household work. The factory
girl knows what she is to do and when she is to do it and how long her
day is to be. The housework girl seldom knows any of these things with
any degree of certainty. Any plan which will make it possible to
regulate these matters according to some recognized standard, and
which will enable domestic workers to live at home, going to and from
their work at regular hours as shop, factory, and office employees do,
will help very materially to solve the problem of opening another
desirable vocation to the untrained girl.

The untrained girl who is willing to accept a difficult and trying
position in a private kitchen with the idea of making her work serve
her as a training school for better work in the future may make a
success of her life after all. Such a girl will have good observing
powers and ability to follow directions and gauge the success of
results. She will have adaptability, patience, and a very definite
ambition. For domestic service may be a stepping stone.

For the high-school girl a better opening may sometimes be found as a
mother's helper. Many women who find the ordinary household helper
unsatisfactory give employment to girls of refinement and high-school
training who are capable of assisting either with household tasks or
with the care of children. Girls in such positions are usually made
"one of the family," and ar