GEORGE ELIOT on SERVANTS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1807, 5 February 1884, Page 4

GEORGE ELIOT on SERVANTS.

Tin, I'all Mall Gazette leproduces an ,11 tick 1 \uitton IS yens ago 111 its columns by (Jeoige Eliot on "Servants' logic." The conclusion is as follows :— Set \ a nt») iii c 1 ich m institutions. They h.ue.i vast nunibci ot cci t.unties which aie deep by leason of thuii moundlessness The postman bihigs a letter for Mai ia ; she was sine lie would — she did not know fioin whom it would come, and if jou vvcie to knock hci down she couldn't tell you why ; but this morning w hen she got out of hu bud, and diew up the blind and ,s,iw the wind blowing the lua\ cs about, seemed to see the postman coining with the letter in his hand. You make a gicat mistake it you suggest ceitam conditions which might have given use to the expectation. She lejectj such low minded analysis of her eeitainty No; thciu was no leason why she should expect a letter this moi mug moie than any othei ; but so it was — and it was the same once hefoie, when the dish-cover fell and got bimscd : she had said at bieakfast, something would happen that day, &he knew. 15ul as to yoiu eeitainties, tor wliieh you allege aiguments, tlie same Maiia consider them offensive, unless they are to be oveieome by her asseition. It you will not believe that a looking-glass is cloudy and spotty in spite ot daily, diligent nibbing, oi that the steel of all yom vanously piocuml stoves happens to be of so pcciiliai a quality that it will not " take'' polish, she thinks she has a light to teel offended. If, however, she happen., to be in a good humour, she will pei ha p* olvbcive, apiopos of the steel, that at one place wlieu slie h\ed theie was a bught tender with a shaip edge, and muse let the child fall on it and cut itself ; and when the nurse has given you all the eneumstances atttendant on this e\ cut, the name of the doctor who was called in and what he said, she will feel that she has leadju&ted her position as a poh^hei of stov es. On the w hole, servants are little disposed to think that the opinion of gentletolks can have any piactical value for them, Out lemedies, our methods, our explanations, aie like the drapery and tailonng we pay so much for — they con espond to the supposed scale of our income ; but servants, for their parts, gets then sturla and their views ii i om other quaitets. The cure for a gentleman's toothache is not likely to suit Sally's molai so well as the cure leeom mended by the giocer's boy on the authout\ of his iiist cousin, who went about with a blue handket chief aiound his head for weeks and weeks. And for the piobabilities of the dimness of the coming summer, oi theguiltofthe manlast taken up for minder, the poison to be consulted with the most deference is the laiuuliess who serves voiy good families, and w hose husband is in the carrying line. The moi al of all this is, that wise mastcis and misti esses will not argue with then sen ants, w ill not give them leasons, will not consult them. A mild yet fiim authoiity which ligorously demands that ceitain tilings be done, without urging motives or entering into explanations, is both prefened by the sei\ ants themselves, and is the best means of educating them into any impiovement of then methods and habits. Authoiity and tiadition are the chief, almost the only safe, guides of the unin■^tiueted — aie the clnet means of developing the ciude mind, whether childish or adult. Reason about everything with jour child, you make him a monster, without levorence, without affections. Reason about everything with your servants, consult them, give them the sulbage, and you produce no other effect in them than a sense of anarchy in the house, niesolutencss in you, the most opposed to that spiiitof older and promptitude which can alone enable them to iill their places well and make their lives lespectable.

Br.iujv in 1016 had a population of 100,000, London had one of 9.35,863 and Pans one of 713,906. Sixty years later Belli n hnd 1,230,000, London 4,000,000, and Paiis 2.300,000, Berlin therefore mci cased moie than six-fold, London •ibout four-told, and Paiis about threefold. The population of Berlin during the leigu of King William has more than doubled.

Rats and Mioe.— lf j r ou wish to de stroy tlu in get a parket of llu l's Magic Vprmiv Xii 1 1 k in i).icket<; ) 6d, Od, and Is, to be obtained of .ill storekeepers, or from T. B. Hiil by enclosinjr an extia stamp.

One .Shillixo.— Francis ,T. Shortts' Popular Art Union —'l en first-class Oil Paintings by celebrated artists. 5000 tickets at Is. The pri/cs are magnificent and costly. Country subscribers sending stamps or otherwise will have tickets by return post. Enclose stamped cmelopc for reply.— Fkwcis J. SHOUTr, 140, Queen-street, Auckland — [Advi.]

Lifk ix the Bum r— Tiikx axd Now.— It is generally supposed that in the bush we have to put up with many discomforts and privations in the shape of food Formerly it was so, but now, thanks to T. B. Hill, who has himself dwelt in the bush, if food does consist chiefly of tinned meits his Colonial Sauce gives to them a most delectable flavour, making- them as well of the plainest food most enjoyable, and instead as iidird bisGiitts and indigestible damper his Improvld Colonial Hawino Powder makes the very best b,read, spones, cakps, and pastry far superior and more wholosome than yoast of loavon. Sold by all itorokeepon who can oh<a m it from, jiny w(jrch»nt jn AHcW^4 t