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KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



boot ! Such a genteel dress ! And such tasty 

 ribbons ! ! Of course, these delicate creatures 

 despise " work." A poor servant has no right 

 to be driven about like a slave. No ! as- 

 suredly not. The mistress must have a nice 

 looking servant, and a dirty house. She can- 

 not help herself. If she speaks, one stereo- 

 typed answer awaits her— •" Then suit yourself 

 ma'am with another ! " Just so ! 



It can be no matter for wonder, that things 

 are as they are. Servants have so many mis- 

 tresses, and mistresses have so many servants, 

 in the course of a year, that it is impossible for 

 the one to get " used " to the ways of the 

 other. Fire and water, gentleness and rough- 

 ness, simplicity and duplicity, cupidity and 

 generosity — all commingle. Fear, deceit, 

 insolence, and tyranny, usurp the places of 

 love, honesty, amiability, and good- will. The 

 servant hates the mistress; the mistress tole- 

 rates the servant. Both strive for the mastery, 

 and neither can get it. There is a blow-up ; 

 the discordant elements are dissolved — to be 

 got together again in twenty-four hours. "We 

 " change ;" and for a bad servant, generally 

 get a worse. 



When we were a boy, the schoolmaster was 

 not abroad. Servants then were " happy " in 

 their ignorance. They loved and respected 

 their employers, and discharged their house- 

 hold duties willingly. They kept their situ- 

 ations ten, fifteen, and twenty years ; and were 

 truly a part of the family, and treated as such. 

 They lived and often died under one and the 

 same roof. Now, they are taught their 

 alphabet ; and though not often to write, yet 

 are they taught to spell — and, superficially, to 

 read. They do read — vile penny " Miscel- 

 lanies," treating of love, seduction, suicide, 

 and romance. They fancy themselves hero- 

 ines ; their " cousins 1 ' frequently figure as the 

 heroes, and the " issue " may be guessed. 

 •ly every female serranfs mind is now de- 

 moralised ere she is yet twelve years old. "We 

 affirm it. What they know at this tender 

 age, we shudder even to imagine. They are 

 " up " to everything that is bad — and put such 

 a face on, the while ! 



What is the consequence of all this ? 

 Why, that thousands and thousands are per- 

 petually out of place ; and smuggling them- 

 selves into respectable families, by paying for 

 "false characters,"' which are easily procurable 

 at the " Offices for hiring Female Servants. " 

 We will not now enlarge on this, but it is a 

 fearful social evil. 



Then, again — the constant and needful 

 ejectments of servants from private families. 

 Let anybody examine only one daily news- 

 paper — the " Times " — and cast his eye orer 

 the advertisements inserted by Servants who 

 " want places." The list is always alarmingly 

 long; and we hardly need point out "the 

 consequences " arising from engagements 



through such a medium. No servant of any 

 ■ tability need ever be driven to this last 

 resource. Private recommendation would 

 always ensure her a place. 



It may be said — " But are not many masters 

 and mistresses as bad as their servants ? and 

 do they not treat them shamefully ? " They 

 do : we admit it, and deplore it. But this only 

 proves the discordant elements of which so- 

 ciety is constituted. Fire and water can never 

 come peaceably together. If a master or 

 mistress find they have been deceived, they 

 sometimes vent their anger in an improper 

 manner ; and this, of course, irritates the 

 person subjected to their abuse. Human 

 nature is alike in all. This is to be lamented. 

 Loss of temper can never be defended. And 

 here let us enter our strong protest against 

 the haughty and overbearing tone used by 

 some masters and mistresses towards their 

 servants. Their mode of addressing them is 

 inhumanly disgusting — so indefensible, that 

 we willingly admit the servant to be superior 

 to the employer. Every dependant, however 

 mean, is entitled to courteous treatment ; and 

 he who forgets himself in this matter, is 

 little better, nay worse, than a brute. And 

 how inhumanly, too, are some servants driven 

 about — never allowed one moment's repose ! 



We had written thus far, when we received 

 a communication from our highly- valued cor- 

 respondent — F&RESTIERA. on a subject nearly 

 akin to this. We shall therefore leave her, 

 in her own gentle manner, to comment on the 

 frightful moral offence of giving a bad servant 

 a good character, in order to get rid of her — 

 a practice, all but universally adopted by the 

 higher and middle classes ; and one which 

 destroys the possibility of enjoying real do- 

 mestic happiness. 



Solomon says — " Train up a child in the 

 way he should go, and when he is old he will 

 not depart from it." We say the same of 

 domestic servants. They must be well trained 

 in infancy, before we can expect them to be 

 fit persons to enter our houses, //"we admit 

 them — such as they now are, we know the 

 penalty, and pay it. 



Servants have much in their power. They 

 can make a house comfortable or miserable. 

 The latter they study to perfection. How 

 pleased shall we be, to record a single instance 

 of their excelling in the former ! 



FROM THE GERMAN. 



The rose is my favorite flower, 



On its tablets of crimson I swore, — 

 That, up to ray last living hour, 



I never would think of thee more ! 

 But scarcely the vow I had made, 



Ere zephyr, in frolicsome play, 

 On his light airy pinions convey'd 



Both tablet and promise away ! 



