t. There are
a number of households where the woman in charge will be glad to accept
service during half the day, but here also the house worker must be first
class. The trained domestic worker of high qualifications, able to do her
work to perfection, and to consider intelligently how the work of the
household can be organized, will add greatly to the standing of this
employment.

The house worker should have a fairly good general education. The better
her general education, the more successful she is likely to be. She should
be intelligent, obliging, and adaptable. She should have a strong sense of
honour, for she is largely on her own responsibility, and the welfare of
the home is often trusted in her hands. The ideal household employee should
have some of the qualities of the artist. The work of a fine cook is
artistic, and the perfect care of a house requires both the eye and the
hand of an artist. No woman can be a success as a paid house worker who is
not kind. She often has some part of the care of children, and it is wrong
to have an ill-tempered or unkind person in charge of, or in company with,
children. Besides this, the care of a house, the cooking of food,
cleanliness, and the work of adapting oneself to the wants of others cannot
be carried out well and cheerfully unless the worker responsible for this
work is kind.

Wages are unusually good in domestic work as compared with other
employments for women. Some girls, however, are underpaid. A girl may
receive, for instance, twelve dollars a month. No girl with initiative or
knowledge of housework needs to remain in such a position. Wages vary from
twenty, twenty-two, to twenty-five, thirty, and thirty-five dollars,
according to the locality, the nature of the work, and the skill of the
worker. A first-class cook commands high wages. So also does a first-class
managing housekeeper. A general servant of ability and character, who
undertakes most of the work of a household, with the exception of the
washing, will receive twenty, twenty-five or thirty dollars. In some parts
of the country her wages may be higher. If trained workers, who have
special gifts for household management and who feel that they can do better
in this employment than any other, would undertake the re-organizing of
house work, this occupation should take its rightful place as one of the
best occupations for the average woman.

From a consideration of domestic service we naturally pass on