THE GROOM 125 



clays — yes ! the servants are the gentlemen of England ; they 

 live like tighten cocks, and j'et you hear them infarnal rascals, 

 the radicals, callin these indulgent masters tyrants, endeavourin 

 to make these happy critturs hate the hand that feeds them, 

 telling these pamper'd gentlemen they are robbed of their 

 rights, and how happy they'd all be if they lost their places, 

 and only had vote by ballot and universal suffrage." 



Sam is a true observer — many an over-fed fellow is talked 

 into imaginary grievances that would never occur to him of 

 his own accord, or if he was out of place. " Idleness," as the 

 copy heads well say, " is the parent of all mischief," and 

 it is much to be regretted that the system of great houses 

 encourages idleness as it does in servants. Not only is it 

 prejudicial to the servants themselves, but most injurious to 

 those who may happen to be thrown in their way. People 

 indeed of all sorts are so apt to think of what others have that 

 they are without, rather than what they have that others are 

 without. In place, a servant perhaps sees that servants in 

 other places do not do what he is required to perform, and 

 instead of recollecting how many hundreds there are out of 

 place who would jump at his situation with all its imperfec- 

 tions, he tries by every device and shifty excuse to rid himself 

 of what he is pleased to denominate " not his work." The 

 moment a servant begins to talk in this strain, it is time to get 

 rid of him. They never do any good after. Man}-, otherwise 

 well-meaning lads, we believe, are laughed and talked into this 

 kind of thing ; others again adopt it naturally, from a sluggish, 

 inert disposition. To the former we would saj', " Reflect on 

 what you may have to do if you fall out of place." 



Until all masters' fortunes and ideas are alike, it is im- 

 possible to suppose that servants' places can be alike, or even 

 that the place of one master can regulate or guide the place of 

 another. "Every herring must hang by its own head," as 

 the saying is, and servants must take each place upon its 



