Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-11-28
George Eliot on Servants.
From the Pail Mall Gazette

IN the shops before next winter.
George Eliot on Servants.
From the Pail Mall Gazette
Some eighteen years ago we published in this
journal an article by the late George Eliot on
servants logic, which, If it had appeared under
her name. would have received much more no.
tice than that which was actually accorded it.
Nor did many people know at the time that the
foremost of female novests was among the
contributors to this journal. The article. al
though. perhaps, not in George EliOt's best
style, is nevertheless sufficiently characteristic
to induce US to reproduce 1t in our columns to-
day. After describing the dismay with which a
hostess discovers that the scalloped oysters
| with which she would fan load friends plate
| have been served with their boards on. and the
| troubles Of dyspeptic psychologist with aweak-
ness for spinach who has vainly endeavored to
| impress on the cook the Importance Of thor
oughly squeezing green vegetables, the writer
proceeds:
Again, you desire soup but desire it without
| fat. You are perhaps genius; the world is in
| need of your new poem; or you are evolving
| mOmentous theory. and the evolution of fatty
| acids within you is a serious impeachment Your
| mental activity is reduced to the consciousness
that interesting facts in animal chemistry are
going on within you; you begin to think you
can serve mankind only by leaving your body
for dissection. At length you ask your wife,
! with hardly suppressed peevishness: and unus-
ual emphasis on my DEAR to inquire into the
making of the soup. Your wife, who is rather
frightened at the cook tells her that Mr.. Queasy
in spite of his orders, dscerned fatty particles
in his soup yesterday. "1t's a thing i'm
ming and everything-there's nothing neglected
in my power" "Show me your cold stock"
Exit Sally returning with a vessel in one hand
and spoon in the otfer. There is a white film
Of fat over the surface of the stock. "See.
now, Sally, there is fat" La. num- says
Sally, plunging her spoon in and turning up the
jellied soup from beneath as a gardener turns
| the soil when he is digging for roots, the cold
| fatty getting underneath in the process. that's
nothing; besides l take my soup from under
| and take the fat off with spoon" (The
spoon itself is studded plenteously with frag-
ments of cold fat But unless you wash your
spoon each time you dip it there will be fat, and
however little Mr.. Queasy suffers from it. Be-
sides"-(Mrs. z. here eXerts all her cOurage)-
''it belongs to good cook to send up her soup
freefrom fat Sally smiles bitterly. La. num- do
you think when was at Nuneham-gata, and
there was people of all sorts coming to the
house as could have give That satisfaction
and Scotch people wanting things you might
think no Christian nd tOuch-and Mr.. Tooley,
the gentleman with the wooden leg. praising
my soup. and saying he never tasted better?
but there's stOmachs will not stand soup. and
that's where 1t is" (Iere Sally shakes her head
and signs, as is her wont when she is seeing
deeply into the causes Of things) "And as I've
said to Jane many and many's the time, if gem
tie folks constitutions are of that sort it's no
wonder what comes. l said so only yesterday
when was draining the rice, and the cat eating
the white sauce all the while. and HE not know
ing. It's true what I speak--every word"
Here Sally sets down the vessel of stock en-
phatically, and tapping the outside of it with
her tinger-ends, looks hard out of the window
Mrs. Queasy is non-pussed If she says more
Sally will give warning; she draws her dress
round her crinOline. and rustic upstairs again.
Servants are rich in intutiOns They have
vast number of certanties which are deep by
reason of their groundlessness. The postman
brings letter for Maria; she was sure he would,
she didn't know from whom it would come. and
If you were to knock her down she couldn't tell
you why but this morning when she got out of
bed. and drew up the blind and saw the wind
blowing the leaves about. she seemed to see the
pOstman coming with the letter i'm his hand.
You make a great mistake if you suggest GER
tain conditions which might have given rise to
the expectation. She rejects such low-minded
analysis of her certainty. No; there was no
reason why she should expect letter this
morning more than any other; but SO it was
and 1t was the same once before, when the
dlsh-cOver fell and got bruised: she had said at
breakfast something would happen that day,
she knew. But as to yOur certainticS. for which
them offensive unless they are to be overcome
by her assertion. If you will not believe that
lOOking-glass is cloudy and SDotty in spite of
daily. diligent rubbing. or that the steel of all
your VarlOusly procured stoves happens to be of
so peculiar quality that it will not take" a
polish. she thinks she has Alright to feel offended.
IL, however, she happens to be in goodhumO
She will perhaps observe aprOpOs Of the steel
that at one place where she lived there was a
bright fender with sharp edge and the nurse
tll nd nnf h.rsa nnl vxri,n
she has given you all the circumstances attend
ant on this event, the name of the doctor who
was called in and what he said she will feel that
she has readjusted her position as pOlisher of
stoves
On the whole, servants are little disposed to
think that the opinions of gentiefOlks can have
any practical value for them. Our remedies
our methods, our explanations, are like the
drapery and tailoring we pay SO much for; they
correspond to the supposed scale of our incomes
but servants, for their part, get their stuffs and
their views from other quarters. The clre for
q gentleman's toOthache is not likely to suit
Sally molar SO well as the cure recoln ended
by the grOcer's boy on the authority of his first
cousin. who went about with blue handker-
chief round his head for weeks and weeks.
And for the probabilities concerning the dry
ness OF the coming summer, or the guilt of the
man last taken up for murder, the person to be
consulted with the most Difference is the laund-
ress who serves very good families, and whose
husband is in the carrying line.
The moral of all this is that wise masters and
mistresses will not argue with their servants.
will not give them reasons, will not consult
them. A mild yet firm authority which rigor-
Ously demands that certain things be done
without urging motives or entering into eXpla-
nations is both preferred by the servants them
selves and is the best me ans of educating them
into any improvement of their methods and
habits. Authority and tradition are the chief,
almost the only, safe guides of the uninstruct-
ed-are the chief means of developing the crude
mind, whether childish or adult. Reason about
everything with your child, you make him a
monster, without reverence, without affections.
Reason about things with your rvants, con-
suit them, give them the suffrage, and you pro-
duce no other effect in them than sense of
anarchy in the house, suspicion of irresolute- |
ness in you. the most opposed to that spirit of
order and prOmptitude which can alone enable |
them to fill their places well and make their |
lives respectable.
AT RECENT TEMPERANCE MEETING in Boston
thrifty old lady observed that she knew some
thing of the evils of rum. 81 have buried three
husbands, and all were hard drinkers But |
am glad to say she continued, ''that didn't
fight with them. AS soon as found they would
drink got them to insure their lives heavily
and let them go ahead. All, me! each one of