The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-10-16
SERVANT GIRLS.
The Superiority Of English Hand
maidens.
The WAGES I'm England-Promoted Ser.
wants. A Servant I'm the Queens
Palace Farm LabOrers-
WORSE, OF than Their Sig
te. = I'm America.
Boston Comm lercial Bulletin.l

in the world who have better domestic help
than the English, and this ia ct is less due to
the superiority of the English sglrl as a do
domestic than to the custom when closed
all other avenues of employment 10 her, ex-
cept those of the milliner ana dress.
maker, and compelled system OF
training in her early years which
fully qualified her for the salts
factory discharge of domestic duties, when
it became necessary for her to relieve her
parents of the burden of her support. Nor
did she demand exorbitant wages for her eff
ficient service. She was content with f6
$500 for her first years service and when,
after wears experience in the various de-
partments of domestic duty, her services re-
quired an additional value, she seldom
demanded more than f10 $500, scarcely 81
week. Her wages at the present day range,
all the way from f6 to ego per annum (from
$50 to 500 per annum, or from little over
81 cents to a little over 81 "a per week.
OF course, there are exceptions TO this
scale Of wages, to which / shall presently have
occasion to refer, but the number Of servant
girls who receive more than EGO per an
mum is very small. The writer is confident
that he does not underestimate the wages Of
domestic servants In England in averaging
them at $3.50 pr week, including in such
average the wages of the highest priced
servants. He has been permitted TO copy
the following extracts from the letters of
this country, having reference TO wages.
The extracts are given verbatim, and 1t will
be seen they illustrate one of the statements
made in this letter in relation to female edu-
cation among the lower classes in England
Both letters are dated the present year. One
gIrl writes:
Il am living at place called Croydon A
very Pretty Place ended about 10 Miles
from londonthe Lady live with is A widow
with no Family of her Own but has always
Plenty of company She does not keep A Man
in the Ouse so / am what they call Parlour
Maid that is enstead of A footman i am very
Comfortable has Els year and los the quar-
ter for Beer besides"
The other writes:
az am still in the same place Tin Kent
and expect 10 be ere till am married Master
keeps Ounds now my wages is just the same
but am upper ousemaId And glts plenty of
Tips next year / am going to be raised to
thirteen pound wich now gets twelve
Both OF these girls, Notwithstanding their
education, are high class servants one in the
family of a lady who entertains literally,
and the other in that of gentleman who
keeps his "'ounds," one diScharging the
functions OF a footman, and the other the
important duties of upper housemaid, and
the one fencies herself Ia clover with less
than 50 per week, and the other considers
herself comfortably situated at S1.15 per
week. II is true she admits the receipt of
tips (presents from guestsl but tips are
merely incidental to certain positions, and
are not taken into consideration in hiring
servants.
Referring 70 the servants who are In re
ceipt of larger salaries than those described
1t may be stated that there is promotion in
domestic service, just the same as there is in
the civil service or the army, or in any de-
partment of labor and industry where long,
faithful and intelligent application TO duty
secures large pay and less labor, though, per-
haps, entailiug increased responsibility.
Some girls enter domestic service with an
ambition 10 rise. Some have begun in the
family Of tns grocer or the butcher and
ended in the palace of 81. James. The writer
has personal knowledge of a case of ambi-
ton of This kind. A fine, intelligent,
young woman, the daughter of q ship cap
tain who was drowned at sea, declared, when
1t bscame necessary for her to earn her own
living, that she would enter domestic ser
vice, that she would earn promotion, land
one day be servant In the queens palace"
Many girls had said this before, and then
gone off and married the blacksmith's sp-
prentice, or railway porter with fifteen
shiiliDgs week, or any other respectable
young man who offers himself. But this
young woman had the true grit, and she set
to work to fulfill her own prediction.
Taking service first in the family of a
country gentleman as cook, she gradually
worked her way mp, and seven years later,
when she surrendered to a persistent wooer
who had been her classmate in Sunday
school, and became his wife, she was head
cook of one of the lord chancellors of En-
gland She had not exactly reached the pal
ace, but she had come very near it. In the
family of the lord chancellor she was the
highest paid female servant, and
yet she never received more than
E40 per annum, less than 81 per
week. II is only in exceptional cases,
like that described, in which larger wages
than those previously mentioned are given.
These cases are 50 rare that they would have
no effect in raising the average named, even
il the writer had not taken them into con-
sideration in making his calculations. 1t will
then be seen that while domestic service is
kept at high standard in England in con-
sequence of its being recruited from that
class OF girls who in this country prefer the
labor of the desk, the counter and the work.
shop, ii does not cost more than half as much
as il does here.
But there are various grades of domestic
service in England. The girls who form the
class Of help that has been described are
drawn principally from the most respectable
OF the lover class and from such of the mid
die Class az are from time to time forced by
the pressure of adverse circumstances to
earn living by their labor. The lower
grades OF domestic service are those of the
held and farm. The girl who hires with q
FARMER accepts lever grade OF service tnar
the girl who enters a private family. Blu
the farmer looks less for refinement than fol-
strength and robustness in a domestic. In
addition to the performance OF household
duties, she is expected to assist in mllkinl
the cows, and, during the harvest, in the
harvest, in the field, Maud Muller like, max
ing hay. Her tolls are arduous and bel
compensation small She seldom receives
more than 81 per annum, and is Of more
than ordinary value when she receives fS
In large farm houses she may have the care
OF one or two or three departments of labor
that of the cows or dairy alone or the do
nestle duties, including the cooking. In
any event, her labor is sure TO be severe
The next lowest grade of service is that o.
the field.
Farm laborers, when making their contracts
With farmers, are usually required to supply
the services OF a woman as well as their own
Wheh they have no wives and sisters to sup