Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-07-11
British Serving People.

The present marquis Of Salisbury keeps about
seventy indoor servants, exclusive Of depend
ents Of . higher class, such - private secre-
taries, librarians and chaplains. All Of the
servants are in activity only when the marquis
is at Hatfield, his London residence not requir-
ing 90 large . service. I give the catalogue
roughly in the order of importance: First
there is the house steward, who pays the other
servants, and is charged to a certain extent
with their management. He receives 81 900
year, and his assistant the under steward.
$3.50. The butler is paid $50 year, and the
two under buffers s250. Two French cooks are
paid $500 a year each, and a valet $500 year
also. Then there are eight coachmen, the best
Of whom receive $3.50 year; eight footmen;
pay is about the same. OF women
servants, there are eight kitchen maids,
whose pay ranges from s125 to SIS
q year; eight housemaids and four still room
maids, all Of whose pay is on the same scale as
that of the kitchen maids. I have omitted to
mention four larder boys, whose pay is prob
ably very small, but who doubtless have a good
opportunity of getting fat. Then there are a
number Of workmen in constant employment
On the house, large number of pensioners,
and long string of professional or educated
men. Sometimes 100 visitors and servants are
at Hatfield at time. The upper servants dress
for dinner, though for that matter they are
me that forty servants, male and female, in
full dress, often sit down to dinner in the upper
servants hall This includes, of course, the
Wallets and ladies' maids of visitors.
OF course very important item in the in
come of these servants is contributed by tips,
which they call walls" correct but some
what unusual word. The servants who come
most in contact with visitors receive fully half
their wages over again in the form of tips.
Lord Salisbury spends a fortune every year
II
He has, for instance, a head gardener with
twenty-five assistants, and forester with
twenty men under him. The total yearly ex-
penditure of Lord Salisbury is about S400. 900,
and he is not one of the richest of his class.
These facts only apply to the very exalted.
They find the life to be one of uninterrupted and
balmy content. The servants of the smart but
poorer people in the west end of London do
not have nearly such good time These are
the people who must keep snowy men servants
but cannot afford to have proper supply of
help in the kitchen. 1t is generally believed
that when they have their houses crowded at
the height OF the London season the servants
are slowed away to sleep somewhere in the
cellars.
A London journalist recently told me story
of a servant of Lord Salisbury's who was quite
political parsonage at the time his master was
about to form ministry, in the autumn of Sc.
The Journalist In question is the parliamentary
correspondent of several of the best provincial
papers in England, and is a man of tremendous
dignity. He has been about the world a great
deal and has seen some fighting, and is big.
stout-bearded, and strong-voiced. He does not
ordinarily condescend to ''door stepping" as
the London reporters call going to houses
where they are snubbed. He still boils with
rage when he tells of this experience
When the unionist majority was returned to
parliament, in 1886, there was considerable de-
lay on the part of the queen in sending for SAL
lsbury to form a ministry, and it was rumored
that Lord Harrington would be summoned.
Reporters were calling at Salisbury's house, in
Arlington street, all day long. One morning a
paper announced that Salisbury had gone to
Balmoral, where the queen was at that time
My friend, the journalist. rushed around to Ar
hngton street. There he was.received by Mr.
Sands, the marquis hall porter. He asked
Sands if it was true that Lord Salisbury had
gone to Balmoral, and Sands replied in a calm
and stately way, "'Is lordshp his now hup stairs
hin bed" The journalist Immediately went
away and sent out to the papers what was
good item of news of a negative kind. Next
morning it was officially announced tina: Sails
bury had gone to Balmoral with his list of min
listers. The correspondent found that at the
moment the hall-porter had said that Lord Sal
isbury was in bed upstairs, he had really about
reached Edinburgh on his way north. Almost
overcoms with fury he went round to Sands
once more and demanded to know what he
meant by telling him such lies. But Sands was
feet and unabashed, and he answered:
''You be damned. My business is to look after
my master. You've got nothing to do with it.
l shall tell you as many lies as l like. Go
away" Then he slammed the door in the
newspaper mans face. Lord Salisbury play
fully speaks of Sands as his treasure" There
are many such in England. Indeed know of
no quality which is esteemed more highly
among Englishme1 than this sort of rude low
atty. A man servant is very often of measure
less value to the spendthrift and broken British
gentleman. He acts buffet and shield
and guards his masters interests to the end,
even when he has nothing in the world to gain.
As have said, he believes his master to be of
higher order of mankind and is content to
serve him to the end