FEBRUARY 185 



or, what is still more common with a young girl, under 

 a drunken cook, whom the mistress still believes in ; or 

 under a foreign man-cook whose manners are disagree- 

 able to her, but who gets very angry at her insisting on 

 leaving when he wants to keep her. He then abuses her 

 to the mistress, who is angry and put out at her wishing 

 to go, and refuses to give her a character or pass on the 

 one she received with her. All these and many similar 

 cases are very hard on servants, who as a rule cannot 

 afford to bring the case before the County Court Judge, 

 and who would probably have little to adduce as proof, even 

 if they could ask for help and protection. We all suffer 

 from the well-known faults of servants, but we are apt 

 often to forget how much there is to be said on the other 

 side. With us it is a case more or less of expense and 

 inconvenience ; with them it is their actual livelihood. 



I shall, I believe, be accused of seeing the question 

 too much from the servants' point of view. But have we 

 not all from our youth up heard of the selfishness, the 

 ingratitude, the wastefulness, the idleness of servants? 

 And each generation pronounces them to be worse than 

 they ever were before. I can remember the time when 

 servants were first expected to be clean, but baths were 

 not provided ; and to use the bath-room, which was done 

 on the sly, was thought as great an impertinence as if 

 they had asked for dessert every day after dinner. 



Customs change, but the big fact always remains the 

 same that the relation between master and servant is, 

 and must always be, one of self-interest. Within limits, 

 each tries to get the best of the bargain. One pays to 

 command; the other receives to obey. The most self- 

 denying Christian principles are of no avail. Carried to 

 a logical conclusion, these principles would lead to the 

 Christian mistress doing the work and the idle maid 

 going to bed ; or the humble Christian servant declaring 



