[20] Typical Examples of Inefficiency among Washington, D. C., Domestic Applicants
(1) A day worker—laundress—not knowing how to cut off the current and unscrew the wringer on an electric washing machine, when a garment wrapped around the cogs, ruined the cogs by trying to cut the garment from between them.
(2) A day worker—one of the best laundresses—hurrying to finish her work placed her hands on a revolving electric machine tub, both arms were carried beneath the tub and had not the current been speedily cut, her arms would have been crushed. As it was the tubs had to be cut in order to extricate her arms. After that she was afraid to use an electric washing machine.
(3) To ask at the office in a group of from 200 to 250 women for a first class laundress—one who knew how to fold the clothes just so after they were ironed as well as wash them out according to rule—and not find one who felt that she could do the work properly was a common occurrence.
(4) A young woman sent out to do general housework and cooking cut the bone out of a 3½ pound sirloin steak which she fried up into such bits that it was not recognized by her employer. When she was questioned about it, she said "that is every bit of that steak. You did not expect me to cook bone and all, did you?"
(5) A young girl sent out to do general housework and cooking when questioned by her employer about the kinds of dessert she could make, said she sure could make jello but was not so good at making other desserts.
(6) The rank and file of general houseworkers looked upon making salad dressing and salads as an art belonging to fine cooks. Many said they had never tried to make bread of any kind.
(7) An elderly cook who had been at the business for 50 years wished cooking and cooking only. Her price was $75 per month. That's what she "ingenally" got. When she was asked if she could read or write she said she could not. She had never been to school a day in her life, but she realized that cooking is tedious work. "Everything I does, I does by my head; its all brain work, you see I has a good 'eal to remember," said she. However, she felt confident that she could cook anything that was put before her to cook.
(8) A young woman sent out to do cleaning left the print of her hand greasy with furniture oil in a freshly papered wall.
[21] Salmon, Lucy M., op. cit., p. 123.