The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1873-12-02
A Servants Right.

IL madam that it is expedient to treat
our servants courteously. A few kind
words cost nothing, you say, and they are
worth great deal to those who hear them.
little condescension hurts nobody, and
you, for one, have found that it serves a
great deal better than domineering.
There is something in what you say, but
the tone of your voice when you say it, in
dicates that the relation between yourself
and your servant is not just what it ought
to be. You put your courtesy on the
ground of expediency; you say that itpays
to treat our work-people kindly, and there
fore you do it. You have found that they
serve you better if you refrain from brow
beating them, and therefore you refrain
But the way in which you leave the matter
suggests that if this course did not pay you
might not follow it. You call it "conde-
scension." You appear to think that every
kind word you speak is gratuity, and that
your maid-servant ought to accept it as
something added to her stipend. She is
entitled to something of the sort if you
withhold it, you do her no wrong if you
bestow it, let her take it and humbly thank
Heaven for giving her so kind mistress.
Such conception of the laws of courtesy
between mistress and maid is grossly i'm
perfect. 1t is not of condescension, it is
not of grace, it is Of debt, that this reward
is bestowed by the one upon the other.-
Courteous treatment is the servants in
aliano lA1a rioht oh 4bo
right as are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. And if, madam, you refuse
your housemaid this gentle courtesy, you
do her wrong just as real and palpable as
if you withheld her hard earned wages.
Your notion that kindness is boon for
which the servant ought to be very CRATE
full, and which must be credited to you as
a work supererogation, is not only false
notion it is, if you will excuse our plain
ness, a very vulgar notion. Not generosity
but justice, is at the bottom of all true
gentility. A man or woman who is free
to bestow favors upon others, but slow to
concede their rights, is chargeable with
one of the worst sorts of vulgarity. That
alone is good-breeding which makes an
individual careful to respect every right of
his neighbor, his rights of silence and
privacy, his rights of opinion, of taste, of
idiosyncrasy, for human beings have rights
even in this realm. The true gentleman
is one who has the instinct to see and the
tact to yield even these small claims which
his neighbors make upon him, gracefully,
out of respect to their rights as individuals.
Not until he has given them what he thus
comedies to be their due, will he venture to
offer them favors Of any sort.
Now the servants right to be politely
treated is, we repeat, just as absolute and
indefeasible as that Of the queen. She is
child of the Great King, and to her applies
the royal law according to the Scripture,
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
That law, which is the highest of all, surely
includes politeness. If we are bound to
love our neighbors as ourselves, we are
bound to treat them courteously, at any
rate. That is one of the first rudiments of
our duties to them. Your servant, dear
madam, is your neighbor-the nearest of
all your neighbors. She has right, then,
under this royal law--which is itself the
spirit of all just laws-to be courteously
treated by you. 1t is no more condescen-
sion for you to use respect and gentleness
in your intercourse with her. than it is for
her to sweep your floors or build your fires
You are entitled to no more credit for
speaking kindly to her than you are for not
stealing her pocket-handkerchiefs If you
do not govern yourself in all your CONVEX
sation with her by the same laws Of court
esy which you observe in your conversation
with the callers in your parlor, you are a
very vulgar person. The maid in your
kitchen is woman the guest in your
parlor is nothing more. Will you give to
silks and feathers and purse what you
deny to womanhood That is the very
essence of vulgarity. Do not say that the
guest never tries your temper as the SER
want does. You know that many of those
whom you greet with smiles, tell lies about
you when they are beyond your sight The
laws of good manners lead you to treat
their deceitfulness with forbearance; should
they not require equal forbearance toward
the ignorant irish girl in your kitchen9
1t may be that you have yourself had
some experience Of service. Many of the
mistresses Of this land were once maids
themselves. Ifyou never were in that CON
dition, you can find in the parlors OF your
neighbors those who have been, and who