KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



135 



DOMESTIC TOPICS. 



MISTRESSES AND SERVANTS. 



If you suffer people to be ill-educated, and their manners 

 to be" corrupted from their infancy ; and then punish them 

 for those crimes to which their first education exposes 

 them —what else is to be concluded from this, but that you 

 make thieves and then punish them?— Sir Thomas Moke. 



We know not, neither is it a matter of 

 the slightest consequence, how many treatises 

 have been written on the subject to which we 

 have addressed ourselves. It is quite true, in 

 spite of all that has been said, that things 

 not only remain as bad as they ever were, 

 but they continue to get worse. Every mas- 

 ter and every mistress of a house, however 

 small, will not gainsay this. Servants have 

 become " enlightened: 1 ' — 



" A little learning is a dangerous thing." 



We have no hope whatever of being able 

 to cure the evil we would lay bare. We de- 

 clare the thing as it is ; and leave the Public 

 to provide their own remedy. Educated as 

 people are now, and necessitated as they are 

 to " keep up appearances," a servant of some 

 sort they must have. On the entrance of that 

 servant, happiness at once begins to totter. 

 The moment she takes possession of your 

 house, you are at her mercy. It is hardly 

 needful to explain what we mean — we all feel 

 the epidemic so forcibly ! 



It would be idle in us to write a long essay 

 on the subject of servants, or domestic 

 plagues. We rather wish to point out to all 

 sufferers, how best they may escape scyne of 

 the evils which they scatter in their train. 

 It has been said by a great authority, that 

 " lawyers, doctors, and servants are necessary 

 evils ;" and that " we cannot do without 

 them." It is quite true; and therefore we 

 must do the best we can — " under circum- 

 stances." 



To analyse the hereditary practices of our 

 domestic plagues, would be an endless task. 

 The whole body corporate hang together like 

 bees during a swarm. They have masonic 

 signals among them, which defy the most 

 cunning of us to detect. Everything that 

 passes in one family, is speedily known in 

 another. Family secrets (fondly imagined to 

 be such !) are freely canvassed at home and 

 abroad, by members of the lower house. 

 Not a minute circumstance that transpires at 

 home, but it travels at electric speed along 

 " the domestic menial chain ! " and so is mis- 

 chief spread — nobody knows how,from family 

 to family. Tf we want to learn what is doing 

 at home, we must pay visits abroad. 



What airs, too, do these good people give 

 themselves ! Ladies 1 - maids, now- a- days, 

 stipulate to receive all their mistresses 1 and 

 their young mistresses' left-off wardrobes. 

 They do not ask for them ; they demand them, 



or they quit their situations ! They have 

 their own way, and get the wardrobes — of 

 course. It is a rule amongst their order ! 

 Gentlemen's servants do just the same thing 

 Avith their masters, and stipulate for all the 

 left-off clothes of themselves and their sons. 

 If crossed in this, their dignity is offended, 

 and their resignation follows ; else would they 

 lose caste. 



In the middle ranks, things may be some- 

 what better managed, we admit ; still, " per- 

 quisites " of some kind are looked for ; and, if 

 not given, they are taken. Servants, too, 

 will have their " followers." Tf of the male 

 sex, they are (to a man) invariably " Cousins ;" 

 and have a i emarkable penchant, when they 

 hear footsteps, for stepping into the coal 

 cellar. If they be female followers, they 

 are sisters, nieces, or aunts ; and have "just 

 arrived from the country." What is trans- 

 acted at these meetings, it is not our business 

 too closely to inquire — yet does "thought" 

 travel fast. Tea, sugar, and other such silly 

 trifles, if not properly looked after, certainly 

 do shrink mysteriously, when cousins, sisters, 

 nieces, and aunts, happen to make " a friendly 

 call." It is natural ; nay, it appears to be 

 one of "nature's laws ! " 



It is now that tuum melts, like a disrolving 

 view, into meum — now, that two several 

 interests become one. " What is yours, is 

 mine ; what is mine's my own." It would be 

 wrong to object to it — very ! 



It may be regarded as severe ; but we can- 

 not help giving it as our opinion, that do- 

 mestic servants collectively are a frightfully- 

 bad lot. They ?ra^be so, from circumstances. 

 They spring from the lowest origin ; receive 

 no elementary education to teach them right 

 from wrong, and are instructed from their 

 earliest infancy to consider every evil thing 

 they do, as right — provided it be not found out. 

 This is a universal law among the sisterhood 

 and brotherhood. They are fearfully ignorant, 

 for the most part ; and respect neither God nor 

 True socialists, too, are they in their 



man. 



an 



ideas ; and would soon place all upon " 

 equality," if they could have their way. 

 You cannot convince them of the true rela- 

 tive positions between themselves and their 

 employers. One is " as good as the other." 



If my young lady has a new dress, my 

 lady's-maid must take a pattern of it ; and 

 have one made exactly similar in style for 

 herself. The housemaid — aye, and the cook, 

 will, on Sunday at all events, " follow suit," 

 and all the establishment will be in the 

 fashion. This same " principle " obtains in 

 smaller families. The servants icill ape the 

 manners and dresses of their mistresses, do 

 what you will. We have oftentimes seen a 

 servant, with a fine figure, looking infinitely 

 nicer and better dressed than her mistress. 

 Such a pretty cap ! Such a well-made, trim 



