The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-28
DOmestic Service Rllmstrmard Ey
the NOVclTsa

- INC NOVcAnsa.
From the Saturday ReUew
When certain advanced school of philoso-
phy has had its way, we shall hear no more of
hdeity as virtue. 1t will be gone out of fashion
as a half-developed canine pnase of humanity.
IN the meanwhile, however, it As invaluable to
the novelist, and will continue so to be as
long as there is craving in people to be
loved and looked up TO for something un-
earned and beside their merits. When once
the gauge of desert comes in, the proudest
and vainest has an inner qualm and shrinks
back to another standard. We like to
be convinced that there is something in us
and about us, independent of our occasional
lapses, that insures not only obedience but
willing submission. II is pleasant to escape
the penetrative scrutiny of equals by with
drawing into a region where our will is law
not only because it is strongest, but because
it is ours, and therefore taken for granted;
where we may repose upon a Difference that
accepts our definitions of right as unquestion-
able. 1t is this feeling that makes the por-
trait of faithful servant always attractive. A
sort of virtue is there depicted which is admi-
rable in its self-denial, and at the same time
makes no heavy demands on our own prac-
tice. No doubt the very nature o. service
implies the duty of some suppression of the
critical faculty on the part of him who serves.
The master may judge his man, where the
man had best not judge his master. Blind
loyalty once the gentlemans S fidelity, we may
be said to have outgrown as a political virtue,
but we still delight to see it portrayed as a
domestic one. Hence whenever fiction con-
descends to delineate service at all, to hold
up examples of it for our admiration, it is in
the exhibition of a blind unreasoning
fidelity. Even comedy, he recognized
form Of satire on human folly and baseness,
makes the servant-greedy and grasping as
he is-take his view of life from his master,
and run personal risks to serve him. But it
is in the novel that we must look for the pas
sion Of fidelity set off by the humors which
make delineations of our social interiors so
especially stimulating to self-esteem. 1t is in
the novel that we may see how dear to the
heart of man is the notion of being the object
of an unreasoning instructive faithfulness. A
hero is twice hero with his inseparable fol-
lower, comic or tragic; whether that hero be
Mr.. Pickwick, with Sam Weller qualifying
himself to be still his masters body servant
in the Fleet, or old Caleb Balderstone starving
and thieving for his masters credit in the
bleak tower OF VOLTS Crag 1t only needs the
vivid impersonation of a servitor so in love
with service that he shall without effort, with
out thinking of sacrifice, have no private in
terests-or else, as a matter of course
and without struggle, make them give place
to his masters-to excite in the readers mind
very peculiar qualification Old Orlando,
who so we'll exemplified the constant service
of the antique world when servants sweated
for duty, not for need, did it without requir-
ing return, but looked forward to the time
as simply inevitable
''When service should in my old limbs be lame,
And unregarded age in corners thrown"
It is SO recognized feature of the conven-
tional servitor to have no plans for the
future, that it is made a trait in the
venal crew of High Life 6el0lo Stairs that
lie Of N
Customs, and selfish couple look forward to
keeping public house together. So entirely
are we removed from inconvenient personal
applications in these fancy pictures of self
devotion, that we expect as matter OF course
that the masters interests should be always
uppermost The ideal retainer need not be
perfect; if his sins are committed for his
chief he finds us lenient judges. Everybody
sympathizes with the Savage fidelity" of Els
peth of the Craigburnfoot, in which she found
a stern and stubborn satisfaction. ''No man
in old time parted frae his chief for love of
gold or of gain, or of right or of wrang. She
had served the head of Glenallen as she was
required to serve her. ''None shall say be-
trayed my mistress, though it were to save
my soul.
A thoroughgoing popular novel constantly
owes it's popularity to the relation between
master and servant. What would Robinson
Crusoe be without his man Friday? What
1 would Sternes Uncle Toby be apart from
Corporal Trim his masters humble double
nurse, dog, and confidant in one-with always
thought between them
'gTrim! said my Uncle Toby, after he had lighted
his pipe and smoked about dozen whitfs-Trim
came In front Of his master and made his bow-my
Uncle Toby smoked on and said no more. Corpo
raj! said my Uncle Toby-the Corporal made his
bow-my Uncle Toby proceeded no further, but
finished his pipe. Trim! said my Uncle Toby have
project in my head"
For our part it would be bore to have to
wait upon the slow, smoky workings of an
| other man S brain, but Trim is supposed to like
it. The whole fits in with the ideal much bet
ter than if Trim had had even the most re
firing, modest interests of his own, which
could not fail to make indefinite suspense OF
his masters cogitations irksome. Sam Wei
Ter is for the same reason one of the mos
popular of modern creations; his wit woul
not tell half as much without his exuberan
and jealous fidelity
\ 81 could serve that gentleman till ! fell dow
deadn saws the repentant job 81 say" said San
''I1 trouble you, my 1rend-none o. that. None
that say young feller. No one serves him bu
me-"
And when Mr.. Pickwick wants to settl
him in life with his Mary, not even lov
offers a moments temptation
'Tf you want more polished sort o. feller, we
and good-have him; but wages or no wages, motto
or no notice. board or board, lodgn' or no lodgn
Sam Weller as you took from the od mn IN IN m th
Borough sticks TO you come what come may; an
let everythin' and everybody do their very Heroes
4 nothin' shall ever perwent 1T"
All this, though not according to our expe
rience, sounds an excellent recipe for maxim
life easy and is appreciated accordingly.