Page:The Woman Socialist - Snowden - 1907.djvu/84

 necessary accommodation for the washing of household linen and clothing. For a small sum of money the pain and trouble of stooping, wringing, scrubbing, starching, and ironing are saved to some unfortunate woman, and the clothes are collected, taken through all the processes mainly by machinery, and delivered in snowy piles to their respective owners. Window-cleaning is now done on the same principle in many towns and districts. One window-cleaner will, for a few coppers from each householder, clean the windows of an entire street. This is a tremendous blessing to the domestic person, who sometimes falls out of the window, seriously injuring or killing herself, or she hurts herself internally with the stretching and straining involved in the discharge of this particular duty.

Developments in this direction have, doubtless, been precipitated by what, in common parlance, is spoken of as "the servant problem." The difficulty of getting capable and suitable servants has long been felt. The conversation of the average middle-class or aristocratic lady reveals the fact that her life is being made miserable through her inability to surmount it.