Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1856-08-16

FEATURES OF NEW YORK
TJEI,
TnE SERVANT GIRL

\ LIFE.
/ THE SERVANT GIRL.
The wages of the servant girl are usually mere
ilV nominal. 4 good cook receives the highest,
froInseve to twelve dollars month, while cham
bermaids get but from four to seven. Now the
former sum is not sufficient for good servant,
| (which is the reason why we 50 frequently hear
lmiStresses complain that their domesttcs are I'M
ltidy-the poor creatures not being able to c!othe
themselves with deccncy ont Of their slim sala-
Try, and reserve n little besides to send back to.
| some destitute relation i'll their fatherland, who
fcannot subsist without their assistance.
| Let US look around the world and examine
all the grades of society, and we shall see exhib
Iited throughout cold and heartlcss selEishness.
In the bright sunshine of prosperity friends
swaTn and cling aTonud you; but at the first
EcIoud, first chill wind ofadyersity, like summer
flies they fall off and disappear. In this city
of Gotham, where the natural fountains Of the
| heart appear to have been stopped and chilled
b. cold and calculating p0!icy-whcre the
| almighty dollar is worshipped as omnipotent-
liz Is relicfto the philanthropist to see one green
spot, one oasis in this desert of atfecton-toSee
one humble class who have not yielded to the
| general deprivation, but, amid toll, suffering
RESTITUTION, and contagious example, have still
preserved in its holy purity these first natural
Impulses, parental aud brothc:ly Affection
Though the ocean may divide her from those
she loves, and want and suffering should await
her, the servant girl will send her last cent to
destitute parent brother, orsster. Take n hearts
lesson from those who do your drudgery, We
proud ones! and forsaEe NOT parent in the de-
cline Of life, nor brother, nor u sister in the
dark hour of misfortune.
Though the sphere TO which the servant girl
is consigned is a lowly one, and though. day af-
ter day, toll and seedlings he her portion, still
she has her little pleasures With buoyant
heart she lahors through the morning and after
noon, thinking how nice she Will look in the G.
yening with her new muslin dress on, when
iyoumg Dick the carpenter, or din the sEoeInn-
ser, will paw her visit-thca on Sunday She
will wear her new bonnet to church in the NOR
ming, and be the envy Of the girls, WHO will not
be able to keep their eyes off Of her, she will
look so prettv-aDd, amid her anticipated tri-
umphs, She viii handle her broom SO b:ishly
that perhaps she will knock down Is looking
glass, or n hower-vase, which, falling upon the
floor with crash, will awaken her from her
dream ms suddenly as was the BARRIERS brother
III every family the nurse is usually the favO-
rite because she has the care Of the baby
Though not 50 fat MS the cook, she always looks
in good condition; for she gives the children their
meals, makes nice things for the baby, and at
the sane time supplies to her hearts content,
her own bodily wants She is a kind of privi-
Legged character, and is not held i'll su"h strict
discipline, nor subject to SO many seedlings, as
the other servants are; for the mistress knows
that should she be cross TO her, she will retail
ate upon the baby, the first opportunity she has,
by pulling It's poor little nose
The character of the servant girl is usually
Judged by the position she OccupieS-thus: girl
who has been In n saloon or a restaurant, though
she may be as chaste as Diaua, is always looked
upon with suspicion, and can seldom get stu
ton in respectable private family; and esim-
pie circumstance of her having been placed in
such position at first, will ever after keep her
in an inferior sphere.
In a first class hotel, if she attend TO the floor
usually occupied by the lahvs, the servant girl
accumulates a great deal Of money, in the way
OF presents from the Sussts-often getting, in
that way, as much as forty or fifty dollars, a
rare occurrence, as such golden showers fall en-
" upon a favored few.
The mind Of the servant girl is often aspiring.
In her romantic vagarics, she does not always
think OfshoemA!.ers, taiors, carpenters, and 9TH
err respectable mechanics, but pictures the tine
when she will be q lady. Probably some
gallant gentleman has told her that she was too
beautiful and TO graceful to occupy the position
! of Il servant-or probably. when lighting the
gas in the room Of some old bachelor, who has
nothing upon which to beStow his affections, he
has called her his dear" These little sayings
the heroine of the broom cherisheS IL her
memory, and resolves, when she becomes Mrs.
I-,and owns fine house, that she will employ
her friend Jemima as cook, and discountenance
Bridget, her quondam chunI, for having said thut
she was too short to be pretty.
Servant girls, like those of the genus homo, re-
ccivc, in great measure, their notions and char
4 acter from the circumstances which surround
them. The domestic Of u fashionable family be-
comes as fashionable and extravagant as her
means will permit her and though she may re-
Ceivc third higher wages than one who is liy-
ing in plain family, yet she is not bit better
off, for the splcndor of her mistrcs' costume in
cites her to emulation, and she considers it her
bounden duty, il the lady wears rich heavy silks,
to have light gauhy ones-thus moves us a
planet, and the other as satellite, i'll the May
orbit of fashionable folly.
But new era now dates itself in the servant
| girls exiStence-she has become q politician!-
1.-THE subject is new to her; she does not under
stand, or cares not to, the exact difference, ac-
cording to political pariance, between the party
factions of the day, but, by natural intuition
she detects know Nottingham" Since that
baneful star has arisen in the political horizin,
she sees n great change in the department of her
master and mistress. They have become mo-
rose and quarrelsome by turns, sometimes giving
evidence of rabid ferocity; and the poor girl
wonders, in the simplicity of her heart, why the
city don't prepare pound" where all who
ere under this maddening influence might be
carried, as the dogs are in the dog-days. She
is great geneIascr, and attributes tle vast in
crease Of murder, arson, and all the other ex-
icesSeS Of fallen humanity, to know Nothing
ISM resolving never to marry one imbued with
that hcrclical doctrine.
Let all, however, treat the servant girl kindly
and gently; for, take her 'all In all, though
Sp!aesd.i in continual temptation, she is purer-
tHoSs t6iling and drldg dly SS She. IS
nfdteresigHsd+-th moving in aIOiYJ plaFe,,
she is elevated by nobler thoughts, and iInoTIe
true 10 hernatuTai instincts, tih diiy Other eASs