I have read with interest the articles concerning "schoolma'ms," "domestics," etc., but I find the opinions about us domestics are rather poor, as we are not even regarded as proper candidates for matrimony. We are told always to remember that we are stamped with ignorance and therefore must hang our heads and remain in the background to let the more available and desirable schoolma'ms pass by and be elected first; then we may take whoever will stoop so low as to recognize the poor girls that play with pots and pans and live and dwell in darkness. Schoolma'ms, I envy you. My sister schoolma'ms, where are you? Do you read about the schoolma'ms? If so, do you not feel sorry for your servant girl sister who is liable to remain unclaimed and become a cranky old maid? You poor servants, beware!

So we domestics and dishwashers--for I am such a one--are not capable of grand ideas or lofty ideals? We cannot be noble and true, and our womanhood is as nothing compared with the schoolma'ms and other high intellectuals. Our thoughts are supposed to be with the dishes; they lie dormant 2and inactive and cannot climb and reach the standard of an ideal wife.

Mr. Thompson, I do not agree with you. Don't be too hard on us! Have we not misery enough soiling our hands with greasy dishes without being told that we are not wanted in the field of matrimony? After all, I can understand it. Who wants a rough-handed worker for a wife, when there are many soft-handed, soft-voiced damsels on the market? But I do think there are many good and true girls among domestics, and many a dishwasher with a good sound mind that thirsts for knowledge. She has a strong desire to learn and achieve something better than the dreary work she has. She would rather sit in a schoolroom and sip the cup of knowledge and grasp it eagerly for it is her heart's sole desire. But she is bound with chains and circumstances hard and cruel. She must trample upon her desire that is consuming her, the desire for knowledge, and give her bright young life as a sacrifice for the ones that need her scanty earnings for which she toils early and late. There are many so placed. Are they not doing a good and noble deed? And if they are capable of good deeds they must also have a good lovable heart, a heart that would make any man happy.

No, don't be afraid, boys; you will find many an ideal wife among us poor domestics that will make you as happy as a schoolma'm. Let the line not be drawn between us, Mr. Thompson, but place us in a better light than you have up to now.