[282] An employer in South Carolina writes: “The difficulty here can only be removed by the importation of competent servants.”
[283] The following table will indicate the preference:
| City or State | Number examined | No preference | White help preferred | Negroes preferred |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charleston | 259 | 143 | 65 | 51 |
| Louisville | 200 | 104 | 80 | 16 |
| New Orleans | 145 | 103 | 35 | 7 |
| Savannah | 106 | 66 | 26 | 14 |
| Texas | 67 | 31 | 35 | 1 |
| Washington, D.C. | 135 | 61 | 54 | 20 |
| Total | 912 | 508 | 295 | 109 |
The Charleston Employment Bureau advertises, “White help especially in demand.” In Texas the proportion of the foreign born population is larger than in any other of the Southern states, and advertisements from all the leading cities in the state show a decided preference for German or Swedish domestics. One from the Fort Worth Gazette reads, “Wanted—A white woman (German or Swede preferred) as cook in a private family.” This illustrates a large number of “wants.” An employer writes from Austin, “In Texas cities domestic service is furnished by Germans and Swedes to a large extent, and the tendency to employ them is growing.”
[284] “The older generation of negroes who were trained for service have nearly all died, and the survivors are too old to be efficient. The younger negroes are too lazy to be of much use.”—Brenham, Texas.
“Old colored servants that were trained before the war are now inefficient; the younger ones will not submit to training.”—Austin, Texas.
“Old trained colored servants are no longer to be had,—younger ones are not well trained, and consequently cannot do first class work. White servants are better trained, but scarce, and therefore independent.”—Austin, Texas.
“We have 80,000 colored people in the city. The old trained servants of slavery times are mostly passed away, and the younger ones have not been properly trained.”—Washington, D.C.
“The servants who were trained before ‘freedom’ are too old to do good work, and they are not training their children to be efficient.”—Anderson, South Carolina.
“The majority of those now seeking domestic service are ignorant, uneducated, untrustworthy.”—Biloxi, Mississippi.