“I was a dressmaker several years because my mother thought dressmaking more respectable than going out to work. But I always liked housework better, and when my health broke down I was glad to get a place as parlor maid.” [250] A successful teacher says: “I have never liked teaching particularly, and would much rather be a good cook.” A sewing woman says: “I should prefer to do housework, but do not wish to leave my home.” A teacher says: “I am fond of children, and should like nothing better than to be a nurse-girl, but I will not wear livery.” [251] _Law of the Domestic Relations_, p. 599. [252] _Commentaries_, II., 258. [253] Kent, II., 260-261. [254] Story, _On Contracts_, II., §§ 1297-1298. [255] Starkie, _On Slander and Libel_, p. 19. [256] Story, _On Contracts_, II., § 1304. [257] Daly, IV., 401. A good discussion of “The Legal Status of Servant Girls” is given by Oliver E. Lyman, _Popular Science Monthly_, XXII., 803. [258] An article on the last point is found in the _Boston Herald_, November 23, 1890. [259] “Housework soon unfits one for any other kind of work. I did not realize what I was doing until too late.” “I should prefer to housework a clerkship in a store or a place like that of sewing-girl in a tailor-shop, because there would be a possibility of learning the trade and then going into business for myself, or at least rising to some responsible place under an employer.” “I would give up housework if I could find another position that would enable me to advance instead of remaining in the same rut day after day.” [260] _Ante_, p. 113. [261] “You are mistress of no time of your own; other occupations have well-defined hours, after which one can do as she pleases without asking any one.” [262] “Women want the free use of their time evenings and Sundays.” “If I could bear the confinement I would go into a mill where I could have evenings and Sundays.” “Sunday in a private family is usually anything but a day of rest to the domestic, for on that day there are usually guests to dinner or tea or both, which means extra work.” “I wouldn’t mind working Sundays if it wasn’t for the extra work.” “I suppose the reason why more women choose other work is, they would rather work all day and be done with it, and have evenings for themselves.” “Some families have dinner at three o’clock Sundays and lunch at eight or nine, and that makes it very hard for girls.” [263] “A great many very ignorant girls can get housework to do, and a girl who has been used to neatness and the refinement of a good home does not like to room with a girl who has just come from Ireland and does not know what neatness means.” “In ⸺ they have much colored help and do not have white help, so the white girls think any other work is better than housework.” “In California self-respecting girls do not like to work with Chinamen—they do not know how to treat women.”