The Sunday Oregonian., July 13, 1913, SECTION SIX, Page 3, Image 67

T1112 SUNDAY OREGOSIAN, PORTLAND, JULY 13, 1913.
3
THAT'SfONLY-SOLUTIONof-SENT
-PRQELEMrSAiS-DWOODS-HUTGHINSON.
c um 7A wc it
He Charges That Servants Will Alwavjs Be
Inefficient, Shiftless and Unproductive
O now I am to roar about wo
men. am I?" said Dr. "Woods
Hutchinson, with a cheerful
smile, as he was cornered for an in
terview. "And it all comes of having:
said that the precious tradition of the
Rood housekeeping of our grandmothers
is mostl ytrash."
"Let me see for a minute." he con
tinued, "did I say that in public some
where, or is that one of my private
opinions that has leaked out? Yo, now
I remember. I said it at a luncheon
recently. Well, as a subject, it iBn't
so bad as it might be. Perhaps I can
make shift to talk on it, without of
fending all the women I know.
"At any rate, it is a fact. Our mod
ern systems of domestic economy are
so far in advance of those of 60 years
hi?" that comparison is absurd. The
finest examples we have of economical
and productive housekeeping are fur
nished us by the young college gradu
ates who are, as the phrase goes, 'do
ing their own work."
"Of course, we haven't gone nearly
far enough. The right way to settle
the housekeeping problems is to have
a great central cooking station, where
all the coarser work is done for the
community, and nothing is left, to the
individual housekeeper except the mak
ing of desserts and salads with electri
cal appliances on her own table.
"There is no solution to the servant
problem but to abolish the servants.
They are, and always will be, the most
inefficient, shiftless and unproductive
class of any community.
"Servants occupy a despised posi
tion. They are ill-paid. And they are
unskilled. They do not get enough
wages to reward them for the work
they do, and speaking strictly, they
are not worth as much as they get
becaus they work so badly. As soon
as a woman who belongs to this class
gets any degree of efficiency, she
ceases to belong to it, and follows some
other vocation, and there is nothing for
it but tc recruit constantly from be
neath. "One reason for this is that women
who employ servants employ them not
for domestic work, but for personal
services. Women want a kind of a
personal slave yes. that's what it
comes to to dance attendance all the
time, like the nurse in 'The Poor Little
Rich GlrL' Women who are at the
head of the household want their own
sense of personal importance upheld,
and increased. Their main idea of
how to aggrandize themselves is to
hire another maid.
"This keeps the level of maidser
vants at a minimum of efficiency and
service. They are menials, and are
everlastingly made to feel it. In short,
so long as we have a servant class, we
are Impeded in our march of progress.
This is true for many reasons, over
and above those I have already told.
The retallative instinct In them breeds
a kind of tyranny.
"The servant class in a community is
as enslaving as it is enslaved. I am
an Englishman, and I know the Eng
lish servant class, and, take my word
for it, that is the most tyrannical and
the most paralyzing group of people
In the world.
WHY I QUIT THE STAGE
1HAVE found that, for the girl who
through force of circumstances has
to make her own way In this world,
the business office is so much more de
sirable than the stage that It is hard to
make a comparison.
I was just 22 years old when It be
came necessary for me to begin to
make my own living. In the little Ohio
town where I had lived all my life I
had achieved more than a local reputa
tion as an amateur actress. I had the
talent, was well equipped both physi
cally and mentally, and had the ambi
tion to become a successful actress. My
work in amateur theatricals had at
tracted the attention of professionals
playing in our town, and for two sea
sons I had occasionally played minor
parts in a Summer stock company at a
Summer park.
QaiEECd for the Chorus.
"Go to little old New York: that's the
place for you," said the professionals
I Packed My Suitcase and Went to
New York."
whose acquaintance I had made in this
manner. "You ve got to go to Broad
way if you want to get started.
I did want to get started. I had tSO
in real money. I packed my suitcase,
with my set of Shaw on top of my
skirts, and came to West Forty-eighth
street to begin my start. The manager
of the Summer stock affair had given
me two letters of Introduction to
friends of his along the Rialto. One
was to a musical comedy producer with
a little office on Thirty-ninth street.
"Oh, yes," he said, glancing at my
letter; "you're the one Tom wrote me
about. Ever wear tights?"
No, sir; I don't wish to wear
tights." I said.
But he wasn't such a bad fellow after
ill. He told me that all he had was
a. chance in a chorus, that I was pretty
lucKy to be ottered any kind of a Job,
but that if I didn't want it he'd do
mything he could for me for Tom's
take. Yes. he was better than the rest
the others wanted to do things for me
for my sake. He gave me a letter
to another manager.
"They're putting on a rube comedy
"Tou think the American servant is
pretty bad? Well, so do I, but as com
pared to the English servant, he Is a
model. The American servant girl, for
all her impertinence, and independence,
and her rip-rap ways, is an incalcula
ble improvement upon the English girl.
"She Is less well entrenched in the
social life around her. She is not in
dispensable to her American mistress,
and she knows it. And if a little of
that saving knowledge works an Im
provement in her demeanor, think of
the enormous good that would result
to maid and mistress alike, if each could
become independent of the other.
"It is simple enough. Let women
but get together in the matter, and
make up their minds to forego the
flattery to themselves of having ser
vants and the thing is virtually done.
"Let the cooking be done at a central
station, and delivered to each house
hold on demand. Let there be an in
telligent use made of electrical appara
tus, so that the 'frills' of the bill of
fare can be prepared right on the din
ing room table. Let the use of china
and glass on the table be abolished in
favor of paper dishes, which can be
thrown away at the end of the meal.
Personally, I much prefer to see china
decoratively perched on walls and in
closets, where its ornaments are not
marred, to having to eat my meals
from it.
"Then I would have a neighborhood
group, or 'gang,' If you like, which
would go from house to house and set
it in order at the beginning of each
day. This group would be made up of
trained and efficient cleaners, with all
the modern paraphernalia for doing
their Jobs .quickly and well. Each mem
ber of it would be a specialist.
"And what would be the result? Each
house would be free of servants, and
each householder would have time
a-plenty for the pursuit of individual
ity. The old charge against a commun
istic form o living that it destroys
individuality has always seemed to me
to be a. trifling one. There is no real
gain to individuality in stooping over
your own gas range or bending your
back over the making of your own bed.
Neither is there individuality in having
your own particular servants, who do
it for you."
"But won't this communistic cooking
scheme limit the public dietary consid
erably?" asked the reporter.
"Why should it?" countered Dr.
Hutchinson. "There are only about 20
staple foods, except for certain season
al dishes that can be had for a short
time now and then.
"Have you ever had occasion to com
pare the menus of the big hotels of the
country? No? Well, it so happens that
I have, and I assure you that if ten of
them were put into my hands, selected
at random from one end of this coun
try to the other, I would not be able
to say where a single one of them had
come from. They would be all alike. If
you go through the lists of meats and
vegetables you will find the most as
tonishing lack of variety. There is
nothing more to be had.
"Now, why couldn't these staple
foods be prepared just as well in a big
central cooking station as in a big
hotel? Why couldn't you order them
road company," he said. "I think they'll
last about as far as Rahway. but you
might as well go see 'em."
I took the letter and went to the sec
ond office. At firBt I thoueht that I
had run into a department store where
they were selling J2 near-silk petti
coats for $1.98. Women large and
women small, women old and girls
young, brunettes, blondlnes. handsome,
ugiy, Dejeweled and bedraggled there
must have been a hundred would-be
actresses jammed into that stuffy little
room and all of them fighting to get a
position in front of a little glazed door
marked "Private."
After an hour the door onened and a
ooy came out. "
Nothing doing today," he said.
Instantly there was a babel.
"But Mr. Blank sent for us: he said
we were to be here today sure."
xne Doy grinned.
A week later I trot mv first inter
view with this manager. He was fairly
Desiue nimseir Dy tnis time, as his show
was billed to open in New Haven in a
week and he didn't have his company
completed. He was a good fellow and
a capable producer, but there were too
many hangovers mixed in with the
days on which he worked.
Well, I got a Job. It was excltlncr
For six days and nights we rehearsed
our heads off. My part was to stroll
across stage arm-in-arm with three
other girls whenever the director
thought it ought to be done. For this
I and the other three girls were to
draw f 18 a week.
On the fatal day we went to New
Haven. That night after the perform
ance we packed our bags and sadly
flitted back to New York. The show
wouldn t do," and even the electricians
knew there was no use trying It out
any further.
What a "Friend" Means.
Three weeks later I got my first
regular employment. It was a think
ing part In one of the big Broadway
successes of the year. We played at
one theater 200 times, and during that
time I played the leading woman's part
three times. I resembled her In face
and figure, and had been made her
understudy. I got M0 a week. Let me
say right here that was as high as I
ever got.
In the Sprlnar four companies playing:
tnis success were made up to go on the
roao. i was selected for the company
that was to play the South, and my
hopes rose high, as I felt sure that I
would be given the lead. When the
time for rehearsing came I broached
this idea of mine to the manager, who
was to take out. the Southern company.
Naw," said he. "a friend of
(the owner of the show) Is going to
nave tnat.
"Why?" I asked. "You know the
part is made for me."
"I know' it is," he agreed, "and you
ought to have it. But I ain't heard
no friend of your's putting in a spiel
ior you. The new girl Is 's friend
don't you get me?"
"Do you mean to say that Influence
is all that counts in a case like thlsT"
I asked.
"It counts enough so that you don't
get no boost till you get some pull,'
he said. "You could get it easy, too
you're young and look good to me."
It cost me my Job to tell him what
I thought of him and. the methods of
the owner, but I felt better when tt
was over. Experience No. 2. The road
to quick preference was not one
could follow.
So I determined to make my talent
win me my way. For the next two
months I had a series of experiences
that disgusted me. I sought employ
ment steadily, but It was in the season
when only cheap companies were being
given work, and the two positions of
I V . A ?r " fP
si - A A
v " " sJLi
Just as well from these as from your
butcher? He , is limited enough, as
any housewife knows. For the people
who had not homes there could be
places in the central station for serv
ing foods there alcoves and small dining-rooms.
"Of course, the scheme might have
fered me were so much lower than the
one I had Just left that I could not ac
cept them.
Finally I went on the road with a
light comedy. My part was one that
fitted me excellently, and I made
something that resembled a hit. It
cost me something in pride to do it,
because the leading man was drunk
every night and persisted In pestering
me with his atentlon.
He said he would marry me as soon
as his wife got her divorce. In the
meantime I laughed at him and told him
to take his pleas elsewhere. For the rest
of the tour he did everything he could
to spoil my scenes, but in spite of him
I came to New York with something of
a reputation.
That was all the good It did me.
T3E PRODIGAXi sat downstairs in
the dining-room. The house was
curiously Quiet, though faint
sounds came from the kitchen, where
the evening dishes were being washed
carefully, so as not to disturb the
hush.
After a while his sister came to him.
Her eyes were red and her face was
blotched and swollen. The Prodigal
got up awkwardly and shook hands.
"How are you, Selina?" he asked, re
turning her nerveless clasp.
"Pretty welt" she said formally.
'mihmssm m-.,, ....
its minor disadvantages. But what are
they compared to the drudgery and
misery now endured by the average
housewife?
"Under our present system, we cook
the cook while we are cooking the
roast. And in addition to her discom
fort, consider our own. We have our
TO BECOME A
Managers acknowledged that I was
competent far beyond the ordinary, and
several of them had good parts that
were made for me; but what right had I
to expect one of them? I wasn't a. star.
Who was putting in a word for me?
Where was my pull?
My only qualification was my ability
to play the parts successfully, and that
wasn't enough. This is not saying that
ability has not some small chance of
winning recognition by itself on the
stage. But my . experiences showed me
that they are. so small as to be the
merest kind of a gamble, and that most
opportunities for success are not gained
in this way alone.
The landlady In my rooming-house
on Forty-eighth street put It all in a
few words.
"We didn't know you were back till
yesterday. The last we heard you were
in Montana."
"I was there for a couple of years.
I I Just' heard this morning about
rather. How Is he?"
"Very low," she answered In a hushed
tone. And then she began to cry. noise
lessly, without attempting to wipe away
the tears that rolled down her pale
cheeks. The Prodigal put out his hand
as if to comfort her; then he remem
bered, and drew it back.
He looked strangely out of place In
meals wretchedly prepared, by Ignorant
and careless women.
"We go through the most elaborate
maneuvers to have everything in our
homes clean and sanitary and whole
some, and then casually turn over the
most important single factor, involving
our health, to somebody who is unfit
"You're old-fashioned, dearie, and
that's a handicap in this business."
At the end of three years of being an
actress I sat down and began to figure
up. I was then 26 years old, mature
physically and mentally, and, by the
word of managers, a good actress. Yet
I had never got beyond minor parts at
a small salary; I had suffered actually
suffered in the long periods between
engagements, and so far as I could see
nothing but some unforeseen stroke of
luck could bring me the advancement
necessary for the chance of a successful
career.
All around me were the wrecks of
youth and hope, women who were
hanging on ' because they hoped and
hoped for that stroke of luck to strike
them. Beating them out In all lines of
the ugly respectability of the room.
He knew it all so well: the built-in
corner cupboard, with the glass doors,
and his mother's wedding-cups on
hooks Just inside; the red and green
cover on the square table; the blacK
marble clock on the mantel It was all
the same, except that Just beside him
there was a buffet, new and showy,
with a silver-plated teaset on the top.
He divined that George had bought it.
His sister was not crying now. She
was inspecting him his shabby clothes.
his frayed linen, the gray in bis thin
ning hair. And then something in his
face caught her attention: his chin was
working convulsively, and there were
tears in his sunken eyes. The lines
left by years of dissipation were oblit
erated for the time, and there remained
only grief and a great regret.
"Would you like to go up?" she
asked more kindly. All the small
things resentment, anger, bitterness-
were swallowed up In this trouble that
had come. Then, seeing his hesitation;
"I don't think he will know you," she
said.
The Prodigal creaked up the stairs
after her. Instinctively he avoided the
second step from the top; there had
always been a loose board there.
"George Isn't here," his sister whis
pered, turning. "He has been camping
for a week and he can't get back until
morning. The elders from the church
have been taking turns at sitting up.
Walt until I see if he is sleeping."
The Prodigal stood on the little land,
ing and waited. The house spread out
on three sides of him, smaller than he
had remembered It, but otherwise un
changed. The door was open into the
bare study. There were books every
where how famllitr was that confu
sion of books! but the desk was
strangely orderly.
His Bister did not come back . for
him at once, so he went in and Bat
down. Even the wallpaper was the
same. Over In the corner, behind the
bookcases, would be the pencil marks
which had registered for years his an
nual gain in Inches, only he could not
look. And there was his mother's pic
ture, in its black-walnut frame, and
under It George and himself, in queer
plaid dresses and black shoes with
white buttons. He had been taller than
George in those early days; It was a
long time ago a long time.
His sister came to the doorway.
"He won't know you," she said. "You
can come In."
The dim light of th lamp was kept
to take care of it. It takes training j
and great natural intelligence to be a
good cook."
"Oh, but -how about the celebrated
cooks of the South, who. to put it
mildly, are not brilliant?" asked the
Interviewer. .
"Well, how about them?" replied Dr.
Hutchinson, trying in vain to hide a
derisive grin behind his hand. "Here
and there it is possible to find an ex
ceptional cook. But most of them are
simply awful. No, it isn't because 1
have any deep-rooted horror of hot
breads. It's Just the general rule.
"I grant you that a genius for cook
ing may exist in some Isolated indi
vidual otherwise bereft of mind but
as for the general run of those 'cele
brated cooks' Dr. Hutchinson came
out from behind the hand and gibed
openly.
"Well, then,-assuming that the Uto
pian plan for communistic cooking has
every possiDie advantage will it ever
come about. Dr. Hutchinson?"
"It will," came the confident answer,
"and very soon. It will come Just as
soon as women learn to be co-operative.
I am hoping that this great political
activity in which they are now so en
grossed will put the co-operative spirit
into them.
"One of the finest things about the
suffrage movement is that it lifts women
from their former positions, as units In
the community, and welds them in a
common interest. And one of the big
gest things that can come out of their
success in the suffrage movement will
be the power to concentrate and cen
tralize their efforts to conduct their
houses with a minimum of waste.
"!Do you realize how Isolated women
have always been? They have-been the
heads of their households, and their du
ties have been so onerous that they
were obliged to remain there. Each
household was a thing apart. It is only
recently that light and heat have been
obtainable from a central plant. It
was the duty of every woman to heat
and light her home, prepare its food
stuffs, do her housework and her laun
dry. Whether she actually did It all
herself, or had servants to do it for
her, the same enormous effort was re
quired, and the same ridiculous waste
entailed.
"It took all -her time, and all her
vitality, and all her intelligence. Once
the household work was finished, she
was exhausted. She had not the faint
est conception of what it meant to
make common cause of her reeponsi
blllties with other women. There was
nothing in her life to teach it to her,
and she had no life outside.
"Then along came the feminist move
ment, and the controversy for equal
suffrage, and, with these, the increased
facilities for lightening housework
and now we find women beginning to
comprehend the power of co-operation
Presently we shall have them con
serving their time and their energy
and obtaining a full freedom for the
pursuit of life and happiness."
"But why do you hope that they will
pursue life and happiness, instead of
bridge and turkey-trotting? was
asked.
Dr. Hutchinson tried to conceal
other smile.
"What kind of a creature do you
think the average woman is, that you
should ask me such a question?" he
demanded.
"The ones who have time are usu
STENOGRAPHER
the profession were girls who were
willing to pay any price for preference
and who were paying it. I saw before
me years of continued struggles, of long
waits between engagements when my
savings would be swallowed up, of con
stantly diminishing hope.
Was It worth the struggle? Was it a
sensible way for a girl to spend her
life?
These were the questions I asked
myself, and from my experience there
could be but one answer No!
I began to look around. I had espe
cial ability only In one line, that of
acting. I had tried that, and was
ready to throw It up. As I was making
my own living it was up to me to fit
myself for something else, and here
good luck favored me. A girl with
from the sick man's eyes by a green
shade on one side of the burner. The
Prodigal stopped inside the doorway
awkwardly, while his sister went over
and smoothed the counterpane.
"He doesn't toss around any," she
said. "He Just lies there."
The Prodigal moved over slowly and
looked down at the old minister's face.
The thin white hair was spread a little
over the pillow, like an aureole, mak
ing the placid face, with its closed eyes,
look frail, almost ethereal. As the son
looked down the dying man opened his
eyes.
"George," he said weakly, and held
out his thin white hand. The Prodigal
was embarrassed; he glanced at his
sister for assistance.
"His eyes are bad," she whispered.
"If he thinks George is here, he'll be
happier."
The man stooped and put his hand
over his father's. The thin fingers
gripped his and held them. There was
something in the touch that brought -a
lump into the man's throat. After a
moment, when the fingers did not re
lax, he slipped to his knees beside the
bed. The old man slept again. Except
that he was breathing slowly. It might
have been the sleep of a child.
An hour passed, and still the Prodi
gal knelt beside the bed. Once some
one creaked up the stairs, and after a
consultation with Selina, creaked down
again. She came over and leaned down.
"I told Mr. Simpson you would stay
for a while," she said. "Will you?"
"Til stay until until morning."
What he wanted to say was "until the
end," but with those fingers clutching
him, he could not frame the words.
And without reason he resented her
question. Would he stay for a while
he, the elder son, and his father dying?
"George will be here in the morning,"
she whispered, and tiptoed away.
Only the night was his, then. After
all the years, only a few hours, and
those because his father thought he
was some one else.
The old man stirred a little, and
wakened. His feeble hand was lifted
slowly until it rested on the Prodigal's
bowed head.
"You have been a great joy to me,
George," he said gently "a great Joy.
I shall tell your mother. May God
bless you!" He lay for a few momenta
quite still, his eyes on the yellow roses
of the ceiling paper. The Prodigal
groaned. Oh, to turn up the light, to
stand forth In his true colors for what
he was, to beg forgiveness and a bless,
ing for himself!
"George," the thin voice began
again. "I have been thinking much
about Henry." The Prodigal drew in
his breath sharply. "I seem to see him
in the corners of the room every
where." If he could only say, "I am here!"
But the cowardice that had kept him
away so long held him now.
The old man slept again. The Prodi
gal still knelt, but now he was crying.
sobbing noiselessly, his shabby coat
heaving. Outside, In a chair in the dim
(Concluded on Page a.)
ally in mischief," said the reporter, "so
it looks as If they had better be kept
busier than they are, instead of being
provided with more idleness."
"Why, I never heard such nonsense."
said Dr. Hutchinson. "Of course there
is a certain small group of women who
spend their time at bridge and turkey-
trotting, but they represent a very
small minority. In the first place, it
has beoa approximated, by two of the
leading women's magazines, that only
15 per cent of the women in this coun
try employ servants. inai leaves so
per cent that attend to their own
wants,, and I vow they have no idle
ness to squander.
'In the second place, even of the 15
per cent wno. presumaoiy, commanu.
their own time the wasteiui ones are
in a minority. Look at the large pro
portion of them who go into sociolog
ical and settlement wortc. wno speno.
their time in clubs for the improve
ment of their minds. It may be that
they go into it at first from some faddy
idea that it will be amusing or enter
taining. But we have gone a long
stride in the right direction when
women consider it amusing to do bene
ficial work. And It is inevitable that
some of those who follow a fad into
a settlement house stay there because
they learn its real value.
"They are bound . to get "bitten."
You cannot handle serious, fine things
without getting your interests cap
tured, and your heart involved. They
come to scoff and remain, to pray.
Even lor that innnitesimal minority
that we have still unaccounted for the
signs are all encouraging. There is a
tremendous diminution of wasteful dis
sipation in this country. It has dis
appeared, 60 per cent of it, in the
last 60 years.
There is less gambling, less drink
ing, less of the social evil. Oh, we are
on the mend! And we will continue to
build up and progress.
"Modern good housekeeping willheln
us more than anything else, too. Ev
ery woman, from the lowest level to
the highest, will increase her intelli
gence and put it to good use. And she
will have the time and the vitality to
increase her value, because she will
have put behind her forever the sense
less and cruel drudgery of household,
routine."
American World Competition.
A short description of an extremely
powerful mine hoist, sold to a Ca
nadian concern, appearing in this is
sue of the Journal, is chiefly of inter
est, not for the record size of the
engine, but for the sidelight it throws
on the working of tariff laws. The
periodical wail of our protected manu
facturers now mounting in a full
chorus, brings a feeling of shame to a
good many Americans. We can not
believe that American interests, as a
whole, need the Intervention of a pro
tective tariff to meet foreign compe
tition. If the threatened tariff reduc
tions do nothing else, they will per
form a real service in waking up the
manufacturing industries, cleaning out
the dry rot, tuning up the organiza
tion, and putting America on her met
tle in open competition with the world.
This sale of a large hoist in a foreign
country in spite of the handicap of a
preferential duty favoring England,
shows what may be expected. There
is no tariff that can control the sale
of real ability.
whom I had gone to school back horns
was employed as secretary to a rail
road official in a Cortlandt street of
fice, and in six months she was leav
ing to marry a young doctor employed
by the road. When I told her of my
resolution she said:
"Why don't you try for this Job?
You can study stenography and I'll
help you, and when you are ready I'll
speak to the boss."
That was what I did. At the end of
six months I was a fairly fast stenog
rapher, and I got the Job. The salary
was $20 a week to start with. This
was only half of what I had been get
ting on the stage, but there were no
long spells of idleness between engage
ments. And that there was a chance
for the future is proved by the fact
that now, three years later, I am in
charge of a department of stenogra
phers and drawing $45 a week.
But the fact that struck me most
deeply, and which made me most glad
that I had deserted the paint-stick for
the pencil was the difference in treat-
"I'm la Charge of a Department
Drawing: 945 a Week."
ment accorded me. Why. it was like
going into a different world.
As an actress and simply because I
was an actress men had flattered me
and had pursued me in a way that
nauseates any woman of character. In
the office there is a difference. The
men who pay me attention here do it
in the same way they would wish other
men to pay attention to their sisters.
And the work for the first time I
felt that I had got hold of something
real, something vital to this world,
that I was doing something truly use
ful. I found that there is only one
test in the office "make good." And
a woman can make good fully as well
as a man if she wants to do so hard
enough.
Is the work In the office harder? No.
Because it is regular work, has sane
hours, and in the end is not nearly so
wearing. Is it as interesting as the
work of the stage? To me it is much
more so. It is real, it Is a part of the
big, busy, useful world. And lastly, my
life now has thrown me into contact
with men who, when they begin to
court a woman, have intentions and
hopes of honorable and happy matri
mony. After all, that's what counts
most with any real woman.
p Dp