SOME SNOBS.

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 925, 19 September 1896, Page 7

SOME SNOBS.

Or 'Electro-Plated' Aristocrats

During the debate on the Domestic Servants' Half- Holiday Bill, Mr T. Mackenzie, the member for Clutha, remarked, apropos of the treatment of servant-girls, that ' some of the worst mistresses were women who had themselves risen from the ranks.' Another member interrupted the speaker tosay : ' They have all done that here,' 1 There are some who have not,' replied Mr Mackenzie, ' and they are the mistresses who treat, their servants in a generous and humane manner, but there are others — colonial upstarts — who don't know how to treat a servant ' Mr Mackenzie is quite right. It is the ? colonial upstart,' the ignorant, insolent, purse-proud snobs, who make the very worst employers. These people fancy that to treat servants like dogs is ' the correct thing,' and stamps them (the snobs) as being of the cast of Vere de Vere. They could not possibly make a greater mistake. No true lady, in her demeanour towards her dependents, outrages their self respect or makes them feel that they are as dirt beneath her feet. But your female snob delights in this sort of thing, delights in that ostentation and vulgar display which as surely indicate her origin as though she were legibly labelled : ' Upstart.' This, and this alone, is the reason why some women find it difficult to get a domestic servant, and impossible to keep one for any length of time. It is also the reason why certain women in particular are persistently advertising for female help. They treat their servants even worse than they would treat the house dog. And, because a girl with self-respect will not Bubmit to it and grovel and abase herself for the gratification of her vulgar-minded ( mistress, the said mistress employs herself in declaiming against domestic servants as a class, and denouncing them as lazy and worthless, and more trouble than they are worth. This is the kernel of the domestic servant trouble. .'. Bat it is not only in the treatment of their servants that these ' snobs ' — who, by the way, are as often puraeless as purseproud — betray'themselves. The other day one of these ahoddy aristocrats was visiting at a certain station, and one evening, in discussing with her hostess a number of mataal acquaintances, the name of a city lady who shall be nameless cropped up. ' Oh, 1 said Mrs Shoddy, with her little affected

Here is another and more recent instance. There was a wedding in the family of a certain man in the soft goods line, and with commendable consideration he invited his employees with his other guests to the wedding festivities. Next day, an indignant yonng woman who had been ' there ' was busying herself to see that her name was not published in the society columns of the weekly press with those of the other guests. ' I never was so annoyed in my life,' she said, ' as when I found that Mr So-and-So had invited his shop hands to meet his other guests. It is so awkward to meet people in trade when you go out of an evening, and Ma says I did wrong not to come straight away home at once. Indeed, Ma was quite shocked.' Alas, poor Ma. Subsequently the episode was being repeated to a much-amnsed lady, who rejoined : ' Really, is that a fact ? Well, do you know, her Ma was our servant a good many years ago, and a really excellent servant ahe was.' However, it would seem that she is not taking any ' trade ' now.

laugh, ' I haven't got her on my list. One must draw the line somewhere, you know, dear, and one doesn't care to be on intimate terms with a woman whose father is a com - mon storekeeper.'

During this conversation the elderly host was lying on a sofa in the same room — supposed to be indulging in forty winks. But, in reality, he was wide awake, and much interested in the dialogue. When it was ever he suddenly turned to Mrs Shoddy and said : ' Well, Mrs Shoddy, let us have a little chat. Pray forgive me for being asleep when you entered the room just now. How is'your father?' 'Very well, I thank you, dear Mr .' replied Mrs Shoddy, with a beaming face. ' Ah,' resumed her host, ' lam glad of that. I have known him for thirty years. You didn't know that? Oh yes, 1 remember him when he peddled tapes and cottons and needles and things from door to door and station to station, and I made his acquaintance at my own back door.' It was cruel, but nevertheless well deserved .