[268] “There are reasons why I sometimes feel dissatisfied with doing housework for other people. I would prefer to do work where people would say, supposing they were to give a company, ‘There is Miss So and So, let us invite her.’” This is from an unusually intelligent employee who says she does housework because she likes to do it best, and because a domestic can have better-cooked food and a better-ventilated room than most shop-girls, and who also writes, “Intelligence, brains, and good judgment are essential in getting up a dinner for six or eight.” [269] One illustration of this social barrier was found in a small manufacturing city. The factory employees, all men and skilled workmen, arranged one winter a series of evening entertainments. Invitations were sent to the self-supporting women in the city, the list including dressmakers, milliners, stenographers, saleswomen, and others, but the social line was drawn at cooks. [270] A lady was recently about to complete the engagement of a cook, a German girl, when the head of the employment bureau said: “I fear after all that A B will not suit you. You live in a flat, and as she wishes to take violin lessons her practising might annoy you.” The incident was narrated to a company of friends, and created much amusement, until one said, “This shows how unregenerate we are; why should she not take violin lessons?” It is not easy to find an answer. A gentleman, whose family includes only himself and his wife, writes: “Our maid-of-all-work is a young Swedish girl of eighteen, who recently came to America. Three months ago she said, ‘If I had a musical instrument and a place to practise, I would get a music teacher and stay with you always.’ A few days later my married daughter sent us an organ of sweet tone, which was placed in a small room little used. We gave our maid permission to use it, and she at once secured a teacher. This morning she said: ‘My father writes me if I am on the street much. I write him, No, I enjoy myself better—I practise my music.’ We seem to have solved the domestic question—at least for a time.” [271] “I should like work where I could come in contact with more people who would be of help to me.” “A young woman doing housework is shut out from all society, nor can she make any plans for pleasure or study, for her time is not her own.” “No one seems to think a girl who works out good enough to associate with, except those who are in domestic service themselves.” “Domestics never have a chance to go to school or study.” A domestic employee recently went to a public library for a book. The attendant was about to give it to her, thinking from her manner and appearance that she was a teacher in a neighboring school; but when the question was asked and the answer given, “not a teacher, but a housemaid,” the book was withheld, as servants were required to bring recommendations.