CHINESE SERVANTS. 



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are unknown ; and what would appear to be repugnant to our own sense of delicacy, there are 

 even some English and American families without female domestics, although ladies form part 

 of the household. The reason assigned is the difficulty of obtaining trusty maid servants. 



Chinese Girl, Showing Female Head Dress. 



It was, however, observed, that in all the families containing children, either maid servants 

 or women of Macao, called Amahs or Ayahs, were employed. 



The wages of the latter at Macao are four dollars a month, but if taken to Canton or Hong 

 Kong they demand additional compensation. Many of the women sjieak a little of the lingua 

 called Chinese English, or in tlie cant phrase, pigeon, which sounds very ludicrous to those first 

 hearing it, but one soon finds himself drawn necessarily into this manner of making himself 

 understood. The Macao women possessing this elegant accomplishment demand higher wages. 



There is certainly some excuse for employing male attendants about tlie bed chamber and 

 dressing rooms, when it is known that the Chinese lords of creation are the only tailors, dress- 

 makers, washers, ironers and doers up of fine linen. In Canton, however, there are some women 

 hired by the tailors to do plain sewing, for which they receive nearly as little as our needle 

 workers, and those poor creatures in Great Britain, over whose misery and living death Hood 

 sang his dirge. Their pay is from five to seven cents a day. The male tailors are somewhat 

 better paid, and will go to any house and work for twelve hours at the rate of twenty-five cents 

 a day, they finding their own food, or, as they call it, their "cJiow-rhmv." It is not uncommon 

 to see a dirty small-footed female sitting at some corner in the street, with a supply of sewing 

 materials and a few rags, ready to stitch up a rent or put a patch upon the garments of any passer 



