The matter of free hours at stated times each week is apparently a simple one—there is at first thought more uniformity here among housekeepers than in regard to any other thing; but while only three per cent of the employers do not give some specified time during the week, there are one hundred and twenty-three classes of combinations which housekeepers have found it possible to make out of the seven afternoons and seven evenings of the week, thus apparently disproving the common belief that the custom is universal of granting Thursday afternoon and Sunday evening. In sixty-eight of these classes one or more afternoons are included and in fifteen others some portion of Sunday. In the case of more than one thousand employees at least one afternoon each week is given, while more than four hundred employers give a part of Sunday.[247] The question in regard to vacation granted during the year was answered with reference to nearly a thousand employees, and in only one case was a vacation not given, the time varying from the legal holidays, which perhaps can hardly be called a vacation, to three months. Sixty-five per cent of employers give a vacation of from one week to three months, twenty per cent one or two weeks, fifteen per cent less than a week, and twenty per cent give a vacation but do not specify the length of time. These facts apply to women employees. In the case of men the conditions are not materially different, the facts given indicating apparently a smaller per cent among women receiving a vacation of more than two weeks and a larger per cent receiving less than a week. In the great majority of cases this vacation is given without loss of wages. Tables XVII and XVIII illustrate these facts. A short vacation granted during the year without loss of wages has in many localities come to be regarded by employees as one of the prerogatives of the occupation, and not, as formerly, a special privilege given. All things considered, it is a matter of surprise that so much rather than that so little time is given. In other occupations a vacation can be granted employees during a dull season without loss to the employer. But the household machinery cannot stop action without disaster. A vacation given household employees means that the employer must perform a double amount of domestic work, or provide for special assistance—often a difficult and even impossible task. TABLE XVII VACATION GRANTED DURING THE YEAR