The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-28
N Il WY o r k s M S.
From Our OSn Correspondent.
New YORK, June %, 1870.

Chinese Servants.
The great initlatory step has been taken-the
step that is to drive Biddy into common sense
and good behavior, or to sweep her, socially
speaking, from the face of the earth. We have
putup with her airs and her graces long enough
We have paid her from twelve to seventeen dol
lars month; we have been brow beaten in our
own kitchens, and not allowed to call our hearth
stones our own; we have been obliged to put our
washing out and to iron our own bosoms and
wash our own door-steps; we have allowed her
one afternoon a week and every other Sunday
out, cousins" dd tibitun, and holidays when
ever she bespoke them; we have been "sassed"
by her to the last point of endurance, and now
the weapons of revenge are put into our hands.
The Chimes. servant looms up. He is not good
looking; he is not proficient in English; he is not
prepossessing in manner. But he is "willing."
He puts into constant use that great compen-
dium of the virtues, the desire to give satisfac-
ton. In all seriousness and solemnity tell you
that Jack Chinaman and his wife-when he has
a wife-are being introduced as servants into
the homes of New York and suburbs. | don't
know whether you will find advertisements to
that effect in the newspapers, but do know it
is fact A lady and gentleman of my acquain-
tance residing in Hoboken fortnight ago ex-
perienced the last stage of infinite disgust and
hatred of everything Irish in the way of SER
wants. They had tried every variety of Biddys,
under every variety of conditions, through
long married life, and the conclusion to which
they had come was that if any Biddy of their
experience got into Purgatory, it would not be
through the Intervention of their prayers if she
got out under a thousand years. SO they came
to town, and sifted all the channels of news until
they found Chinaman and his wife. These two
orient pearls they seized upon, and instead of
stringing them at random, as is the poetical
tradition with respect to orient pearls, set
them to work, John to gardening and Mrs
Pigtail to housework. The brooms are new,
but they do sweep clean. So my friends assure
me- at least. But then, since nothing could be
worse than the average Biddy, perhaps the COM
placency of these innovators in the art of house
keeping is not to be greatly wondered at. But this
is not, by any means, the only case have heard
OF, although it is the only one of which have
such clear and definite knowledge, Yesterday
morning the inestimable woman who is respon-
sible for my board and lodging, and who inter-
prets the first sentence of the NOSter pater
into "Give us this day our daily hash," entered
my room and informed me that she was going
to dispense with two Irish girls who
made her life torment to her.
and to endeavor to get along with one Chinaman
instead. She thought with little instruction
that he could be taught to make beds, bake
bread sweep, DUST scour, wash, and iron fully
as well as the Emerald Island failures, and
without tithe of the ingratitude, drunkenness,
and impudence. It's well. / shall expect to see
a little mite of a peeked-Np Mongolian face,
looking as if it were made of persimmons and
mahogany, stuck right over against my place at
table when go home to dinner. l shall take for
+ol hat ,,,,to lo
me by one who speaks pigeon-English, and that
the culinary pottery and earthenware will be
broken all the less in proportion as the vernacu-
lar is broken by the Celestial handler of them
all the more. Ring out wild bells Ring out
the requiem of Biddy, ring in the annunciation
of John Chinaman. Ring in the era of the
coolie, with pinch from the morals of Con-
fucius and speck from the justice taught by
mandarins.
The ''EveninR Posto Livery.
The New York EUening Post is one of those
good old snoring newspapers which only know
they are living in the nineteenth century from
the evidences of other journals enterprise
which are scattered around them. In the gov
ernment of its own affairs, however, it has its
hobbies, the laws of which possess degree of
irrefragability to which those of the Medes and
Persians were bagatelle. One of these laws,
for instance, has relation to the costume of its
employees. In obedience to it no one connected
with the editorial or business departments of
the Evening Post is permitted to represent that
paper with any coat on other than black one.
The formula designating the nature of full even
ing costume for gentlemen is not more precise
and imperative than this requirement of the Af-
ternoon Grandmother. Journalists upon other
papers wear what coat they will, both as re-
CARDS texture, color, and pattern. Not so those
upon the Eoening Post. In this sweltering
weather you see these unhappy gentlemen going
to and from their places of business, giving
forth the richest eXudations of their being
beneath an agony of broadcloth, and thinking
themselves sufficiently repaid by the honor of
working for the author of ''Thanatopsis." 1
don't know, but / presume, that no editor is
permitted to use a pocket-handkerchief that is
not hemstitched. / cannot swear, but suspect,
that such vulgarities as dickies butteray-ties,
and false wristbands would not be tolerated by
the Beau Brummellian manager of that aristo-
cratic sheet. i cannot venture to uncondition-
ally affirm, but l secretly imagine, that an
employe discovered with cotton umbrella, or
pair of patched shoes, or collar button not of
pure gold, would be Immediately dismissed.
And serve HIM right 1t is not every paper that
can find time, amid the hurry of editorship, to
lay down rules of etiquette, and to see that
every employe is kept well up to the mark
Madame LRnner's Ballet
About twenty-five years ago Madame Weiss
/ introduced combination of ballet and pantomime
at the Old Park Theatre 10 this city. The ma
| jority of the dancers were children, varying in