Let each housekeeper, in dismissing a servant, write out without
prejudice for or against the late employée, her claims to the confidence
of the next employer, and her faults,--in short, a veritable
"character." Let her pledge herself to her sister-housekeepers and to
her conscience, not to receive into her family one who cannot produce
satisfactory testimonials of her fitness for the place she seeks.

In England, a mistress who engages a maid without such credentials is
regarded as recreant to her order. In England, too, the former
mistress is held partly responsible for the mischief done, if she turn
loose upon other households a woman like Katherine Brady.

The proposed remedy for a crying and a growing evil is so simple that
some may doubt its practical efficacy. Yet the most casual thinker
must see the strength as well as the simplicity of a plan which would
make skill and fidelity in service the only road to success.
Self-interest, if nothing else, would stimulate our Katies and
Bridgets, our Dinahs and our Gretchens, to keep a place, if it were
not so wickedly easy to "make a change." Our kitchens are overrun and
ravaged by Arabs that become, every year, more despotic.

"Who would be free, herself must strike the blow." General liberty
from this bondage can only be achieved by determined and united
effort. The establishment in every community of a simple organization
under the name of The Housekeepers' Protective Union, that should have
but one article in its constitution, and that one be the pledge I have
indicated, would cover the whole ground, and effect within a year,
permanent reform. Shall not this appeal be the Alexander to cut the
Gordian knot which has, thus far, defied the dexterity and strength of
all who have wrestled with the problem?