THE SERVANT QUESTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 211, 5 September 1900, Page 2

THE SERVANT QUESTION.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Having read with interest the letters now appearing re the much-vexed domestic servant question, will you Kindly allow me, as a servant myself, to say a tew words in defence of my. much-abused class. No doubt servants have their failings, and it would be as.absurd to deny that there are bud servants as it would bo to say that all mistresses must be us unpleasant as judging by her letter, "Mistress 18. But iv my'humble opinion the good conduct or otherwise of a servant depends in a groat measure on what sort oi people sue works for. How can a person of 'Mistress's" type expect "Mary Aim to give satisfaction when she is treated with, far less consideration, in many respects, than a dog? A.s 1 have said, we have our faults, often very many of them; but if a girl has am' good in her at till she will respond to reasonable and humane fl-eatiuent by doing her level best to give satisfaction. Although I speak personally, 1 have no reason to suppose i am an exception to the general rule of domestic servants. On the other hand, take a girl, it may no far superior by birth and education to the petty tyrant who rules lier.be starved, overworked, and downtrodden till the very consciousness of her degradation as a menial drives her almost to desperation—what can be expected but dissatisfaction and failure: Work becomes the merest drudgery, anil life an existence uucheered by much hope for the future. For what can such a girl look forward to? Marriage? Who can she marry? when "followers" are sternly forbidden the kitchen, and even suen ellglbies as the baker-boy and butcher are bidden not to linger at the kitchen door.. Oh, "Mistress," wherefore this splMnc outburst against the country lass? Is It possible that being well aware that no girl witn home or friends. near would stay ! with you long, you sent up the country for i .... Krontt "trl of good character willing to rteiS general work," and that, having I secured her! you half-starved her expected her to work 1G hours a day, and then expected her to spend the whole of her wigea in smart dresses, that your friends might, :re what a stylish establishment you kept? Then at last came the revolt of the "wench "• and "Mistress" is now looking ■ Ol\Vhe°n I md° rHo£e PL of the letters servants : hate written I cannot help a feeling o£ sympathy for their woes: for I am a country girl, and having left a comfortable home? find myself in a situation as general in what I have heard spoken of as a truly Christian family, where I am worked a -.-oat deal harder than my father used to work his horses, and have nearly all the food locked away from me: Almost every day I have the edification of hearing my mistress complaining how much bread 1 devour in the kitchen, to say nothing of the tea I drink and the firewood I burn. Truly there must be something radically wrong when such a state of affairs exists, and surely with the publicity given the evil will be lv time remedied, and better times coino for pooß MARy A^ ,Symouds>-street.