Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1855-07-07
The BiddieS.

Blessed st. Bridget needed no canonization
to perpetuate her memory. The green isle of
Erin has reproduced her name by tens of
thousands. and their descendants have kept
fresh the remembrance of the saint bv con-
ferring it upon their children in other clmes.
The saint was emphatically Hibernian-even in
name. We have no other feminine appella-
ton that may not be Gallicized, Germanized,
or ltalianized; but we defy the most learned
phlloogist TO tran smute the eptbet of Bridget
INTO any other tongue; and we are almost as
certain that there never has been an English
Bridget, nor an American Bridget, unless the
title be derived direct from the Milesian saint
The Bddes of this country, as is well known,
occupy very subordinate positions. The In
telligence Offices parade them by the hundred;
seated on hard wooden benches, like the sick
around the pool of Bethsaida, they await the
ingress of French, Dutch, German, English and
American ladies', who may come to release
them from their idleness by giving them EN-.
ployment. One nigh: naturally suppose that,
under these circumstances, some degree Of
gratefulness would be manifested. But there
is not bit Of it. An offer of employment is
met by thaQuestians:-"How nanny children
have yees!-"Shure yees don't expect gir:ul
to stay in doors on Sundays!" "Do yees give
the washin' out?" The next question is the
wages, and they will not unfrequenty refuse
good home and reasonable pay for the doubt
full contingency of securing half.a-dollar per
month more after waiting long time unem.
ploysd.
A Biddy is always girl! Grey hairs and
decrepitude never change her inerasable title
girl. Nor is the Biddy, however advanced in
senility, unaccompanied by at least two ap-
pendages-a batch of cousins and an offensive
breath. If you engage them, mark well their
characters" see that the documents be genu.
inc and from a respectable source; and when
you have engaged them, make it a rule never
to give them occasion to suppose you value
their services, even though you do. Treat
them kindly-never forget the laws of humani.
ty--but give not an inch of remissness or they
will retaliate by an ell of insolence.
Ifyou keep a servant-that is, an Irish ser.
van,-if you find it cost you less than three
hundred dollars per anuum, you will be very
fortunate, for the Biddy runs as naturally to
waste as the swamps Of Illinois do to agues
and 'four.horse" shakes. lftheir consumption
is large, their extravaganza is, litarally, tire.
mendous. Yet the Biddy has one great re-
deeming traitrshe is strict in her attendance
upon mass. Though she may steal, pilfer, and
abstract her employers property, yet she never
manifests any remissness in her religious s.ju-
ties" And, as general thing, the more
intense her devotion, the more ingeniouslyshe
will defrand you.
Happy, therefore, is the housekeeper who
is independent. of the .Biddy, whose hand
maidens are Dutch, Scotch, Welch, Negro, or
anything but Milesian. In the language Of Mrs.
Dobbs, model housekeeper up town, "sar-
vints is sarvints; but from such sarvints, Good
Lord deliver us!"--N. Y. Mirror.