SERVANT GIRLS AND THEIR MISTRESSES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 1861, 18 February 1874, Page 3

SERVANT GIRLS AND THEIR MISTRESSES.

(From the Auckland Weekly Serald.)

I think at some time or other I have intro duced to my readers a friend of mine whom I call Robert. He is only a constable — just that and nothing more — but, nevertheless, a man who, I take it, possesses a more than ordinary amount of intelligence and a clear wholesome insight into human nature. We meet occasionally in the small hours of the night, when I am returning from my office labours, and we halt and discourse upon things terrestrial. It was a few mornings since when the city chimes had just struck the hour of one, Robert and myself had been discussing the rather knotty subject with respect to the age of the world. Going back to the Mosaic period, and ascending up to the present year of grace, we came to the conclusion that neither of U3 were in a position to pronounce precisely and definitely how old the world was — that is to say, within a week or so. Wo further agreed in concluding that we didn't think anybody else did. Still further that as it did not affect the price of bread, butcher's meat or house rent it was not. of much consequence. It was at this time that two young girls, gaily-dressed, flaunted past us and turned up a by-street. " Robert," I ■said, " I need scarcely ask what these girls are, or by what means they procure all the finery in which they are attired." And Robert said, "No, Mr Snyder, what they are and the calling they follow stauds out as marked as the brand that was placed on Cain." " And how is it, Robert," I asked, " that these ttvo young women. should prefer leading a life of shame to that of honest service. Is there not employment for all of womankind who choose to seek it? Good wages, good treatment, good lodging, and abundant food." "Well, Mr Snyder, you, like unto not a f tw others I know, fall into the same blunder. Young women can earn good wages, and they need never want for plenty ; but they don't often get good treatment ; nor do they often get good lodging. I attribute the fall of many of the poor creatures who pass me on my beat at late night or early morning to the unkind, thoughtless, and inconsiderate usage they receive at the hands of their mistresses. Women, Mr Snyder, are hard task masters, especially to , their own Bex. Now you know that lam ai : married man, with _ young children about me when off duty, and I think my character isn't a bit in jeopardy which I sometimes take upon myself to offer a bit of wholesome solidadvice to one of these outcasts. I came across one of them just so lato as last night, and I stopped her and said, ' Jane, my girl, why did you leave the respectable service you were in to follow this wretched business? 1 Then she fired up and says to me -just something like these words : ' It's all very fine asking why I do this and didn't do that. It's easy to put questions to a girl, but it's not so easy for her to answer them. I suppose mine was what you call a respectable place, but it wasn't a good place for all that, and I've had several respectable places, but I can't say that I have ever had a good one. I may have, perhaps, and didn't know it, but I can't say I recollect it.. Missuses look upon servants as so many white. slaves,.and they never think what they are driving 'em to. Look at my last place, which you called a good one. There I was roused out of my bed before six in the morning — out of. a bedj you see, where two, of the children, e.lept with me, and twolothers in the same room. Then comes the fire to light, the wood to. chop, .the water to draw, and master's breakfast to get ready. If anything's late or anything goes wrongr there's- the missus nagging, 'always a^nagguig, and never leaving off' at you. There's washing to do, ironing to .dp, errands to run, boots ; to. clean, knives to clean j and still the nagging goes on. Do you know what the life of ,a servant girl means? It means no rest from the early hours of the morning till a late hour of tho night. What do you think a mißsus would say if she found a girl had sat, down. for. half -an-hour in the middle of tho day to rest — just as men sit down and have their rest ? Why one would never hear the end of it.,. Of course I .hear, I am always hearing of people talking about the fine times domestic' servants have of it.. So far as regards wages, .they can't comjiiain, that is, if they wore to get their wages regular, which in many cases they don't. And they get as much food as they want to eat, of course they do — after it has been mauled about by the master and his wife, and fingered over by tho children.. ,_But wages and food isn't all a girl wants. She wants to be thought she's a human being ; she wants a little consideration and some show of kindness. Most' of tho servant : girls ' haven't got fathers and ' mothers near at hand to give 'em good advice, or a home to go to when they leave- a place or the missus, finds they don't suit. Away they go wito their box after 'em into a 1 lodging-house until the- registry-oflice-keeper, gets them another place for another bout of i early .getting up and. late going- to bed, arid; hard work and no allowance made for mistakes between all the long- hours. Of course, I. know I ought to put up with it all sooner, than do what lam doing ; and- T supppso ! T know what it will all lead to, aud that it "will all end bad ; but 1 have been more than halfdriven to what Tarn, find 1-can't go back, and I don't- know. that I would go back if Icould.j Once I went up to my missus on a Saturday, and asked her whether she would give mej leave to go to church the next day. She says to mo, " What do you want to go toj church for ?". Then I tolls her, I suppose I had got a soul to be saved just like other people. She says, "don't you give me ira-i pertinence. If you've got a soul to bo saved 1 soJiaXQ I, and as I pay wages I think I'm thW first to bo taken into account. I suppose your' spul wiH keep for. -another Sunday.'' Now< ; that's what I call a missus for you if you' like. 'Oh, yesy havn't servant girls fine hours o£ it? Don't they wear their -.- missuses' best bonnets ? and don't they take holidays whenever they want it, and do just as they

like ? I often hear toll of these things, and read about 'em in the newspapers, but I've never seen anything of that color myself — and so, wishing you a good night Mr Treble X, I'm off for Dixy's Land.' " " Well, Robert," I said, " I suppose there's some truth in all this about what the girl told you." "Mr Snyder, there's only too much truth in it. Of course there are mistresses who are good aud considerate to their servants, and who take an interest in their well doing and well being but these are few in number. Girls do get good wages, but they are badly found. There is not one in twenty who gets a separate, decently furnished sleeping-room to herself, or a comfortable, convenient kitchen to work in. It's hard lines with most of them. Here's another thing which belongs to this kind of servitude. A girl gets hold of a decent man for a sweetheart, who will in time make her his wife. How's that man treated P Why, if he visits the kitchen he's looked iipon as a thief, or some one that requires the spoons and forks to bo counted after he has left. Instead of the mistress sayi'Jg, ' Mary, my good girl, if your young man is respectable and means what is right by you, let him come fair and above board to you after your work's done of an evening, because it's niucli better than that you should have to go hunting him 1 up out o 3 doors. But then, you see, mistresses don't say this nor think about it. And, God bless ie, why should they say or think anything about it ? Doesn't the girl got forty pounds a year, and isn't that all she canno3sibly look for ? If tho girl's got no mother what's that to tho mistress. If a girl's inclined to be giddy or has got hold of an improper companion what's that to the mistress. She's not going to bo a mother -to her — she merely gives her warning to leave, and advertises for . another servant. That's what she does. " Robert," I said " what you have told me may be true, but the same cause ; cannot ; apply to all those unfortunate women." . " No, Mr Snyder, it does not. Your Good Templars, and your Recbabites, red-hot teetotallers will tell you it's all drink, and I tell you it's nothing the kind. These girls go wrong long before they care for anything stronger than tea or syrup. It's the love of dress —the inordinate insatiable craving for finery that Bets so many astray. You see, Mr Snyder, I haven't much to do on my beat but to watch and observe ;. and I should be sorry to tell even you what some women will not do to obtain five apparel. Tho love of dress, the desire for night entertainments, and laziness — laziness and. hatred for work, Mr Snyder, willjbe found .the parents of those who have descended into the depths of social infamy. And it's ouismatrons and our married women who have so much to answer for. Whenever an unmarried girl enters the house of a married woman, no matter in what limited capacity, she should be looked upon as one who is entrusted to her keeping, and for whom, whether for weal or for woe, sho ought to consider herself answerable. . By the way, Mr Snyder, can you tell me how many rounds were fought out in the great affair between Tom Sayers and the Benieia Boy ? I've got a bet on it." I said I couldn't, but would enquire, and wo parted.