One employer writes, “I think a central office in this city at which competent waitresses could be hired by the hour would be largely patronized.”
The Syracuse, New York, Household Economic Club publishes a Household Register, giving the names and addresses of all persons in the city who do by the piece, hour, or day all forms of household work. Thirty-five different classes of work are enumerated.
[309] See also article on the “Revival of Hand Spinning and Weaving in Westmoreland,” by Albert Fleming, Century Magazine, February, 1889.
[310] One writes, “I find it much better to employ one servant and to hire work by the piece, and to purchase from the Exchange, rather than to employ an extra servant.”
Another housekeeper writes: “I began housekeeping twelve years ago with three servants and had more than enough work for all. I now have two and have not enough work for them, although my family is larger than at first. The change has come from putting work out of the house and hiring much done by the piece.”
A business man writes: “Our family is happier than it ever dared hope to be under the sway of Green Erin. We purchase all baked articles and all cooked meats as far as possible. A caterer is employed on special occasions, and work that cannot be done by the parents, three children, and two aunts, who compose the family, is hired by the hour. Since we signed our Declaration of Independence in 1886, peace has reigned.”
Still another says: “I used to employ a laundress in the house at $4 per week and board. I was also at expense in furnishing soap, starch, bluing, and paid a large additional water tax. Now my laundress lives at home, and does my laundry there for $4 per week, and we are both better satisfied.”
Several small families who do “light housekeeping,” have found that they have in this way been able to live near the business of the men of the family, and thus have kept the family united and intact, as they could not have done had it been necessary to employ servants.
One employee writes, “If more housework were done by the day so that more women could be with their families in the evening, I think it would help matters.”
[311] Seventeenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, p. 157.