APOLOGIA
In 1897 the author of these sketches published a book entitled “Domestic Service.” It was an attempt to consider certain historical and economic aspects of a common occupation and its aim was to induce others to investigate by scientific processes a neglected field of inquiry. It distinctly disclaimed any and all attempts to square the circle by proposing a plan to do away with all difficulties in the present condition of household service.
The book was not one of “the six best sellers” of the season, it was never duplicated by a public library, and it never secured a lodgment at the Tabard Inn. A modest second edition, not yet exhausted, represents its present rating in the authors’ “Bradstreet’s.” The book was a disappointment to many housewives who had notedits appearance because they had hoped to find in it a sovereign remedy for all domestic ills. Instead of that they found only rather repellant footnotes, statistical tables, appendices, and bibliographies. “What connection,” they probably asked, “exists between the far-away fact that there is one domestic employee to every one hundred and fifty-six inhabitants in Oklahoma and the near-at-hand fact that there is a dearth of good cooks in Pantopia?” But Moses Coit Tyler,beatissima memoria, once instructed a class of college seniors about to begin the study of certain works in English literature that the initial step in all literary criticism was to find the author’s object and to judge him by his success in attaining that object; that an artist who intends to paint a landscape must be judged by his success in landscape painting, and not criticised because the landscape is not a figure piece. To the charge therefore that a book of three hundred odd pages contained no panacea with virtues attested by hundredsof housekeepers whose domestic ills had been cured by its application, the apologetic answer might be made that the writer professed to be only a seeker after facts, not a domestic physician,—she therefore craved judgment on the facts collected, not on the cure-all unsought and therefore unexploited.
But the author had secretly craved a hearing from the economists, although conscious that she was not one of the guild and therefore might be open to the charge of trespassing on the domain of others. She had also secretly hoped for a hearing from her fellow-workers in the field of history, although conscious that the proportion of history to economics in the book was in inverse ratio. Gaining admission to the salon, however, does not prevent the work of an amateur from being “skyed,” and “Domestic Service” was hung above the line. To the economists whose attention may have been called to the book, it doubtless seemed unreasonable that one whohad apparently always been connected with work in history should meddle with economics; to the historians, it probably seemed apostasy to wander, even for a moment, from the path of history.Ergo mea apologia.
In September, 1887, I became associated with Vassar College with the understanding that I was to give instruction in history and economics. The work in history proved unexpectedly heavy and it was therefore necessary for me to defer taking up the work in economics until the following year. The same conditions existed for three successive years and I then definitely abandoned all thought of undertaking regular work in economics. But although unable to carry out all that had been expected, it seemed possible to make some compensation and therefore at the end of the first year an investigation of domestic service was planned. A series of schedules was drawn up and these were distributed to the members of two successive classesgraduating from Vassar College. The publication of the results of the investigation was delayed in order to incorporate with them certain returns of the United States Census of 1890 and these were not available until late in the year, 1896.
A second explanation may be needed concerning the choice of the subject. A residence in several communities differing somewhat widely in geographical location and in industrial conditions had disclosed the fact that in every place the demand for capable household employees was greatly in excess of the supply, largely, it was commonly believed, because in each place the conditions were “peculiar.” These unusual and peculiar conditions were the competition of factories, the competition of shops, the loneliness of farm life, the loneliness of a great city, the inaccessibility of suburbs, the heat of the Western prairies, the dampness of the sea-shore, the life of a college town, and numerous variants of these general principles. All of the conditionsthat most attract to a place other residents and all the conditions most favorable to other occupations seemed to be always attended with fatality in the case of domestic employees. But as the union of the seven colors of the rainbow forms white light, was it possible that all these peculiar conditions could be reduced to a single fundamental cause that should explain the discrepancy between demand and supply?
Another consideration in favor of selecting domestic service as a reasonable subject for investigation lay in the accessibility of the material. Every household, whether with or without domestic employees, could add its contribution to the inquiry. Moreover, in an age that collects everything from baggage tags and cigar ribbons to old china and old masters, could not a zeal for collecting be turned in the direction of collecting the hitherto untabulated experiences of different households?
But it is true that while the material wasaccessible, it was not on that account necessarily procurable, and the investigation was undertaken with some realization of the difficulties to be encountered. Yet if, deferring to the example of the British “Who’s Who,” carpentry, cabinet-making, mountaineering, gardening, spectroscopy, and animal chemistry are by some considered as recreations while to others they would imply tasks difficult of achievement, could not, for college women, this collection of material be classed as recreation, although to others it might seem a burdensome task?
It is possible that another element may more or less consciously have been a factor in determining the choice. College education is not even yet universally accepted as necessary and desirable for women. If Society should in a sense expect an apology from college women for having removed themselves from general society and passed four years in college halls, could not that apology take the form of making somesmall contribution to a domestic question even though those who rendered the quasi-apology did not altogether recognize its necessity?
Another consideration akin to this lies in the frequent assumption by Society that all women marry. Cold, enduring statistical tables, as well as observation, go to show that there is an error in this assumption, and when this fact is pointed out, Society, forgetting that there are some who would but cannot, and others who can but will not, attributes the discrepancy between theory and reality to college education for women. If a few college women could add something to our knowledge of how household affairs are conducted, would that contribution serve to atone for both voluntary and involuntary neglect of matrimony?
But an apology implies not only an explanation of the past but a promise for the future,—the erring one must err no more if absolution is to be given. Theeconomist may pardon the poacher, but he must poach no more. The historian may forgive the one who has wandered from the fold, but the wanderer must in future remain within the pale. Yet how shall the collector of experiences be diverted from his diversion of collecting? The collector of old mahogany depletes his bank account and turns his modest dwelling into a veritable second-hand shop, but still his pony chaise is tied before every farmhouse that has advertised an auction sale of household effects. The lawyer whose country estate produces green peas that yearly cost him five dollars a peck, cheerfully proclaims that it pays to be a gentleman farmer. The New York merchant hunts in Montana and charges up to profit and loss the expressage on the game secured. The luxuries of one are the necessities of another, the recreations of one are laborious occupations for his neighbor, a habit once formed holds its victim in an ever-tightening grasp. If then, inspite of apology and all that it implies, the collector of experiences still accumulates much that to others may be of little practical benefit, if she still indulges in what her friends deem an extravagant luxury, if she still finds her recreation in what others may consider an onerous pursuit, if the habit once formed of connecting with the present the facts and experiences of the past cannot apparently be broken off, if at times she still poaches and still wanders, she will once more claim indulgence if perchance there be any to grant it. It has been in anticipation of this indulgence that these sketches are reprinted. If they seem slight, it is hoped that behind the shadow will be found the substance of a great, and still unsettled problem. The hope that lies still beyond is that the household may in time to come be recognized as a legitimate field for scientific investigation.