Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-05-10
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
The Servant Question-Resi Estate-Fashtons
Prices OF Goods-The Post once Uatastro-
phe-Lifo Insurance-Business.
Correspondence of ths Grant County HERALD.
New York, May 4, 1877.

VI
New York, May 4, 1877.
The Servant Question.
The question of servants is what
is now agitating the New York ma
tron. In the olden time the intelli-
gent farm. house people of Now Eng
land and the State of New York fur
nished "hired girls" for the city, but
that is all gone. The factories, stores,
telegraphy, bookkeeping, and kin.
dred arts which are now almost the
exclusive property of women, gives
this class employment. and New
York families have had TO depend
upon foreign importation. The Irish
girls have control OF New York
houses, and they have established a
domination that is very severe.
There are not servants enough who
understand their business to fill the
demand, and the result is,lthe Bid
dies are as ezactiDg as they choose.
They insist upon from els to s25
per month, are very particular as to
their rooms and the furnishing there
of. They demand certain portion
of their time out, and also stipulate
as to what food they shall have; and
if their mattresses object TO their
adjoining their persons with their
best clothes, there is certain to be q
rumpus. In short, it is question
which is the real servant. the mis-
tress or her maid. There Is a rebel
lion against Biddy. Enterprising
parties have gone South and picked
up q thousand or more of colored
girls, who were house servants or in
Craining before the war, and have
brought them to the city, and are
placing them. They make excellent
servants, for they are rot only intel
lgent, but docile. They will do any
thing that is required of them and,
as rule, are honest. The Biddies
are enraged at this turn of affairs,
and are sbating their pretensioDs,
now that competition in this as 10
other things has brought them to
their senses.
II cal ESTATE.
A test was made Of the real es-
tate market last week. Certain lots
of ground on Eighty-seventh treet.
which cost five years ago, $4,000,
and was considered cheap at that,
were put up at auction to determine
what reduction in price and in rent
ais should be made. The property
brought S55, 900 on the usual terms.
As the sale was made in good faith
the reduction is accepted by owners,
aud prices are established according
-ly. This is q terrible let down, but
owners are compelled to stand it.
Rents have fallen more in proportion
than prices. Stores on Broadway
which rented formerly for 5000 on
~ command $4,000 or $4,000, and
the hoped for rise for May was not
obtained. There are thousands of
stores standing empty, and thous-
ands upon thousands of houses.
People who formerly occupied a
whole house, now content Themselves
with half, and in very many cases
with even less room. Agreat many
apartment houses have been built,
in which seven rooms can be bad for
from $25 to $50 q month. and they
are taken by the people who former
ly paid $25, 900 or $4,000 for whole
houses. The depression in business
has done part of it, and the perma-
nent loss of trade to the city has
done the rest.
FASH ons.
Common as dolmans," is a saying
about SEINE features of dress which
were new two months ago. Every
Biddy on the streets has dolman,
aud every cheap suit has the back of
he bodice in seven pieces, style
little less than torture to an eye of
any cultivation, but, happily, so over
done that its popularity promises not
to live with the season. To see the
back of woman's dress cut into
narrow strips is piinfnl waste of
goods and deformity, making the
figure mean and stiff looking. The
best models in fne dress eschew this
fashion, and the basques have almost
the simplicity of the French form
with bold side cores which fit the
figure with the ease and elegance OF
a glove without trou tiesome and dis.
figuring cross-seams or more than
one dart. The best Breton habits
are fitted in this way Fine import
ed toilets show notable simplicity
OF design, very diff from the
fashion plates common among US.
The Breton jacket, or the simplest
fitting French jacket, the same
length all round and just we'll cover
ing the hips. buttoning diagonally or
the large fchu ruffled with lace are
the favored wraps in these costumes.