VI.

AMUSEMENTS AND RECREATIONS.

There can be little doubt that the monotony of the life of a domestic employee is one of the chief obstacles in the way of many competent workers who, but for this, might enter service as a permanent employment. Although household work is less arduous than many other forms of manual labor, yet it is true of it more than of almost any other occupation that it demands practically the whole of the worker's time. Nearly all of the restaurant waiters interviewed have “only two hours at a time,” and it will readily be understood that with their leisure so broken they find it difficult to employ it to any very great advantage, either in the direction of study or of recreation. The liberty of the “private waiter” (except on his day out) is even less than that of the hotel waiter. Household work is a ceaseless round which, like woman's work, is “never done.” And the private domestic, even when given considerable liberty and free time while within the household, must always hold himself in readiness to answer any call at a moment's notice. All this is a very serious objection in the minds of most young people, who, as has been seen, constitute the greater part of domestic service everywhere. Without doubt it deters many whites as well as blacks, and many rural as well as urban people, from entering household service. Indeed, it is probable that it determines in a very considerable degree the personnel of domestic service in England as well as throughout the United States, and somewhat modifies its character in the matter of permanence, as many English girls prefer factory work, and many girls in our cotton-growing and grape-raising regions, as well as in our factory towns, prefer field and factory work when it is to be had, and only fall back into the ranks of domestic service when the season is passed or factory work slack. Of the restlessness of household servants in England, Mr. Booth says : ¹³ “Many of this class (the middle grade) only go to service when factory work is slack. They almost universally stipulate for one whole day's holiday in every month—indeed, with most of them, this seems to be the one thing which makes the servant's life worth living…The dullness and monotony of a domestic servant's life seems to be the most generally pressing question. The demand is for more Sundays and evenings out and a monthly holiday…Careful mistresses assert that they find that even quite young girls fresh from the country chafe under any restriction as to the manner in which they shall spend their leisure, or as to being out late alone.”

The same tendencies are noticeable throughout American domestic service, both with native whites, foreign whites, and colored domestics. This dissatisfaction is shown by the restless attempts of domestics to enter other occupations. Among American domestic employes the country over, 28 per cent are found to have been engaged in other occupations, such as hop-picking, grape- and cotton-picking and factory work.¹⁴ That these people are now employed in domestic work, Miss Salmon believes, means not so much a preference for service as that it is a sort of dernière ressort to be taken up only when no better paid or more popular work offers. For the other kinds of work named the employes get wages so high as to enable them to live for a considerable time in idleness —hence its popularity among young people in many places.

Among the colored people in the city of Philadelphia, 524 domestics report in regard to other occupations. Of this number 91, or 17.4 per cent, have done, or attempted to get the opportunity to do, other work than domestic service, and it is noticeable that the employment which has occupied this 17.4 per cent of colored domestics has been very different in character from the field and factory work attracting young domestics in general. Among colored city domestics, the work done by the women before entering service has very generally been dressmaking, typewriting or teaching, while the men have worked as porters, or drug clerks, or have practiced trades or even professions. One man was encountered who had graduated from Hampton and from a law school as well, while several stone cutters, brick masons and carpenters were found who had drifted or been forced into the ranks of domestic service.

The chief difference between the case of these Negro domestics in the city and the case of the grape-pickers and factory hands both in England and America who have tried to leave service for other work is indicated by the widely different character of the work sought in each case. The grape- and cotton-pickers and the factory hands leave service only temporarily, lured by the high wages and the “liveliness” of the work, fully expecting all the time to return to service when the harvesting is over and their wages spent; while the colored city employes who attempt to get other work wish to leave domestic service permanently. They wish to do this partly because they consider that service savors of slavery and that they are degraded by it, and, being ambitious of achieving respectability, they attempt to better their social standing by becoming teachers or dressmakers; partly also because they hope for higher wages from teaching and other work than they receive as domestics. The difference between the proportion of servants the country over who have done other work and the proportion of colored domestics in Philadelphia who have done or attempted to do other work is a large one. Twenty-eight per cent of general domestic service as contrasted with 17.4 per cent of colored domestic service shows a difference which is almost in the ratio of five to three. And also it must be remembered—and this accentuates the difference still further—that the colored servants who have tried to get other work and failed have also been counted, since the attempt showed their restlessness in service and their desire to leave it. There must be some reason for this apparent willingness to remain in service on the part of the colored people. In answer to the schedule question, “Have you ever tried to do other work ?” a large number of domestics replied, “I never go any place I'm not sure of—I won't give them a chance to refuse me.” One girl who had taught for four years and who thinks she lost her place at the end of that time from prejudice on the part of the school committee says, without the slightest apparent touch of resentment, “The reason I don't try to teach is because I know I'd have trouble, and I can save as much this way.” Another ex-teacher has now been a chambermaid for several years for the same reason. One Philadelphia carpenter and builder says, “We have five granddaughters—my son's children—from twenty-three years old to fourteen; and what can we do with them ? They can't get teachers'places, though they are good students. Dressmaking is about played out. Service ? They don't want to do that. Typewriting is about the only hope, and the oldest one was refused that the other day.”

One man, now a waiter, was formerly a stock clerk for the Eureka Silk Company, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and held his place there for seven years. At the end of that time he applied by letter for a similar position in Philadelphia, and was told to “come along; everything was satisfactory; his record was good and they would try him.” When he appeared in person they inquired, “Are you Mr.—— —?”…“Well, we have another applicant on file who is coming around to-day. If we don't decide on him we'll let you know.” He left his address and has not heard from the firm since. He says, “Waiting is all we can get to do, and lots will refuse us that. No man as dark as I am could get work at one of the large apartment houses They want a ‘bright skin.’It is the same in many hotels, and families, too.” Another man states that when he applied for office work the clerk to whom he addressed his remarks looked at him and did not answer him at all ; while yet another, a fine looking young man of the type called a “brown skin,” said he had been refused clerk's work with insults, which “it would be impossible for him to repeat before a lady—words he would not soil his lips with.” Fortunately, however, this is becoming less common. When colored domestics are refused it appears tobe generally with the simple statement that white help is preferred. It should be said here that among those who said that they had never attempted anything except domestic employment, fifty-two, or about 10 per cent, have even been refused domestic work when applying for it. Some of these were inclined to charge the refusal to race prejudice; some attribute it to the fact that unintelligent employers class all colored people together; or, to put it in their own words, “If the mistresses has bad luck with one colored girl they wont never have another. They think all colored is alike.” Still others think it is not a race question at all, but merely one of supply and demand. As one man put it, “There isn't work enough or places enough to go round ; that's it.” There are many well-authenticated cases also of “light” colored people who have retained their places from two to fifteen years, under the impression, on the part of the employer, that they were white people ; but on the discovery of the slight tincture of African blood, although it could not be detected, and although the work had been entirely satisfactory, their situations were immediately forfeited. Such instances might be multiplied indefinitely, as they were encountered upon every hand.

In consideration of all this, it appears highly probable that the Negroes are deterred in many cases from attempting to obtain other work, from unwillingness to run the risk of insult or failure. The moral certainty of “having trouble “is probably sufficient to account for the comparatively low percentage of colored domestics who have attempted to leave service, while the well-known fact that so many industries are closed against the race would account in large measure for the scarcity of those who have actually been engaged in other employments. These facts are sufficient to explain the 10.6 per cent difference in the two percentages compared.

Judging by the character of the work sought by the domestics who have left or attempted to leave service, it seems fair to conclude that, while the monotony of service and the low pay, as compared with harvest wages, are the chief things that rural American servants have against it, probably the chief objection of colored city domestics against service is the social stigma which rightly or wrongly attaches to it. It savors to them of the degradation of their slavery days, while they believe that to be a teacher is to achieve immediate social position and become a respected member of the community. Colored city domestics seek other work, therefore, from the desire to escape social degradation first, from the desire for greater personal freedom next, and finally from the hope of higher remuneration.

But while the social stigma is the city Negro's chief objection to domestic service there can be no doubt that from his point of view this dullness of the life is one of its most serious drawbacks—the most serious probably with the exception of the one already named. That the monotony of service is as keenly felt by the colored people as by any other domestics may easily be inferred both from the well-known fact of the natural joyousness and gaiety of the Negro's disposition, and also from the fact, shown in Table XI, that so large a proportion of them, as compared with other domestics, stipulate for the freedom of their evenings. It was found from schedules relating to 564 cases that 75.6 per cent of all the Negro men servants interviewed and 49,3 per cent of all the women servants go home from work. When this is contrasted with the per cent of domestic servants the country over who go home from work, we find a remarkable divergence. In general service¹⁵ 40 per cent of the men and only 2 per cent of the women lodge at home, that is to say, outside the establishment of the employer. This seems to show clearly the greater tendency of the colored domestic to escape from the solitary confinement to which our present system of household management condemns all the servants in “single-handed” places. It should be marked, however, that the per cents relating to Philadelphia colored people here are based on less than 600 schedules, while those relating to general service are based upon over 2500. Also, it is much oftener the case among colored domestics that they work in the same city in which their families and friends live, while many white women domestics have no home nearer than Ireland or Sweden, and so they naturally lodge at their working places, while the colored women as naturally lodge at home when it is possible to do so.

Questions will arise as to the amount of leisure time usually granted to colored domestics and how this leisure is employed.

It would be impossible to tabulate the statements returned in answer to the question, “Number of hours free each month,” but it may be said in general that a very great number of different arrangements obtain even in this one ward of one city. The most of them include one afternoon each week and the evening or the afternoon and evening of alternate Sundays. For the greater number of both men and women domestics report this amount of leisure while some are allowed only one afternoon and every third Sunday or one afternoon and every fourth Sunday. Still a considerable number are given the usual afternoon of a week day and every Sunday afternoon as well. Some have their afternoon and alternate Sundays and one or more evenings, and a considerable number have this arrangement with the freedom of all their evenings. While still others have two afternoons weekly and alternate Sundays. The whole holiday every month which is so dear to the English household servant is not found in American domestic service. No Negro employe in the Philadelphia ward investigated reported such a whole holiday, however liberal might be the leisure granted in the shape of parts of different days; and Miss Salmon's treatment of the subject mentions no whole day of leisure for domestics, but states that “in the case of more than 1000 employees at least one afternoon each week is given, while more than 400 employers give a part of Sunday.”

The question how their leisure is employed was answered by only 257 colored domestics, of whom 206 were women and only 51 were men. It will be seen from the tabulation of these returns that the Negro church is very closely bound up with the problem of the recreations of the Negro people, and in this connection a word of explanation is necessary to acquaint the general reader with the status of the Negro church. To quote from a well-known American scholar and writer who is an authority upon race questions: “Among most people the primitive sociological group was the family or at least the clan. Not so among American Negroes ; such vestiges of primitive organization among the Negro slaves were destroyed by the slaveship. In this country the first distinct voluntary organization of Negroes was the Negro church. The Negro church came before the Negro home ; it ante-dates their social life, and in every respect it stands to-day as the fullest, broadest expression of organized Negro life…We are so familiar with churches, and church work is so near to us, that we have scarce time to view it in perspective and to realize that in origin and functions the Negro church is a broader, deeper and more comprehensive social organism than the churches of white Americans. The Negro church is not simply an organism for the propagation of religion ; it is the centre of social, intellectual and religious life of an organized group of individuals. It provides social intercourse, it provides amusements of various kinds, it serves as a newspaper and intelligence bureau, it supplants the theatre, it directs the picnic and excursion, it furnishes the music, it introduces the stranger to the community, it serves as a lyceum, library and lecture bureau ; it is, in fine, the central organ of the organized life of the American Negro, for amusement, relaxation, instruction and religion. To maintain its pre-eminence the Negro church has been forced to compete with the dance-hall, the theatre and the home as an amusement-giving agency. Aided by color proscription in public amusements, aided by the fact mentioned before—that the church among us is older than the home—the church has been peculiarly successful, so that of the 10,000 Philadelphia Negroes whom I asked, ‘Where do you get your amusements ?’ fully three-quarters could only answer, ‘From the churches.’” ¹⁷

This centralization of amusements about the church shows itself very conspicuously in the following tabulation based on 257 records :

TABLE XV.

LEISURE TIME OF COLORED DOMESTICS—HOW EMPLOYED.

If these figures may be taken as typical nearly 57 per cent of the Negro men and nearly 66 per cent of the Negro women in domestic service look to the churches and the church entertainments for all their recreations except those engaged within the precincts of their own homes, such as home studies, music and social visits. Indeed the number who depend upon the church in this matter should be even greater than these figures indicate, since it is true that many of those reporting that they spend their leisure “at home, resting,” or “at home, sewing and clearing up,” also in most cases report in answer to question twenty-three of the schedule, the church of which they are members and whose regular services they regularly attend. Of the seventeen men reporting that their leisure is spent in “resting up” only two report that they attend no church and of the sixty-one women thus classified only four attend no church. If we count these “at home” domestics then where they really belong, with the church-goers, we shall have 93.2 per cent of the women and 86.3 per cent of the men among domestics who depend on the church for their lectures, libraries, musicales, festivals, etc., as well as for their religious instruction and uplift. This gives a combined average of 91.8 per cent of all colored domestics whose usual entertainment and instruction is of this kind.

A comparison of the per cents of those whose leisure is chiefly devoted to study shows that 19.6 per cent of the men are so classified to 14.1 per cent of the women. Nearly a third of the women so classed are music students; and if these are counted out we shall have only 9.7 per cent of the women domestics devoting their leisure chiefly to study and reading. One young waiter, a West Indian, was devoting his spare time to the study of English and meantime was taking his directions from his employer in French. Another waiter reported that he read “the classics” in his spare hours, and still another confessed to a fondness for “the poets” while at the same time he offered a pleasing contrast to many of the poets he admired, in having his collar and white tie and complete costume quite faultlessly neat and well ordered. The mistress of one household says, “Our waiter has the education of a gentleman,” but on the other hand one employer whose judgments were evidently free from bias says, “Our man may be a good lawyer but he certainly is not a good waiter.” This was however the only adverse criticism offered in regard to any of the domestics who were students and readers. It appears that educated domestics are generally no worse workers than others, if they are no better. In at least two cases it appeared that the educated domestic did better household work than others. These were a cook and maid whose employer said both her girls read a great deal and apparently spent their time upon good literature; her cook was then reading “Hyperion,” she said. The question naturally followed, “Is shea good cook ?”“Yes, I have never had a more efficient girl” was the ready reply, “and I have employed both white and colored. These are two of the cleanest girls I have ever had in the house.”

Several of the women servants reported their leisure devoted chiefly to “literaries,” all of which, so far as the investigator was able to learn, were connected with the churches. These students and readers among domestic servants doubtless are the more ambitious ones who are anxious to improve every opportunity with the hope of finally working their way out of service. This high per cent of readers among colored domestics, 20 per cent of the men and 10 per cent of the women, ought not to be surprising, however, when we remember that 10 per cent of these people have had some training higher than the common school and might therefore be expected to have literary taste.

In regard to the home-keeping domestics, if the first and last classes in Table XV be combined, we find 41.2 per cent of home-keeping women domestics who are either at home or at their churches during their leisure time. At the Pennsylvania Hospital the investigator was informed by one of the officials in charge that more late passes were given to the white than to the colored servants, and there are about equal numbers of each race employed.

The church affiliation of colored domestic servants in Philadelphia may be given in this connection. Reports from 548 persons were received on this point, 400 women and 148 men. The following table shows the various denominations by number and per cent:

TABLE XVI.

CHURCH AFFILIATION OF COLORED DOMESTICS IN THE SEVENTH WARD OF PHILADELPHIA.

These per cents are united into combined averages and represented in graphic form in the following diagram :

DIAGRAM SHOWING CHURCH AFFILIATION OF THE COLORED DOMESTIC SERVANTS OF THE SEVENTH WARD OF PHILADELPHIA.

13 Charles Booth, vol. 8, chapter on Household Service.

14 L. M. Salmon, “Domestic Service,” p. no.

15 L,. M. Salmon, “Domestic Service,” p. 92. Based on 2545 cases.

17 Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, in the “College Settlement News,” Philadelphia, July, 1897. See also page 197 etseq., in this volume.