Hospital Housekeeping by Charlotte A. Aikens

[Sidenote: The Help Question]

When one considers the numbers of boxes of good brass pens, the quarts of ink, and the reams of paper (to say nothing of such cheap things as brains and time and vitality) that have been consumed within the last score of years, in bringing forward "solutions of the servant problem; " when one sees that self-same problem, still to the front, dangling in the air as it were, refusing to settle itself or be settled, it surely ought to be sufficient to deter all but the most audacious from touching it. Instead of being solved, it is growing larger and more difficult to deal with. It is not much wonder that men suggest that women demonstrate their ability to manage their own domestic domain, and get the servant question settled, before seeking to get into politics and take a hand in the government of the state and nation. However, a prominent member of the board of a certain hospital remarked optimistically not long ago, that "since the Irish land question seemed to be getting worked out," she had some hope that somewhere, around some unexpected corner, some bright man or woman would discover a means of really solving "the servant problem. " But up to the present moment that discovery has not been made, and let it be understood here and now, that a solution of that problem is not attempted here. Neither is any special claim made for originality, for the subject has been so thoroughly gone over that it seems there is nothing new to be said. But difficult as the subject may be to deal with, either theoretically or practically, it cannot well be ignored in dealing with hospital housekeeping, since it consumes no small portion of the time and energy of the housekeeper, and is of vital importance to the institution.