The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1890-08-15
miscellaneous.
Servants in the South
What Housewives Endure.

What Housewives Endure.
Philadelphia Times.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala, July 5.
want to say to the thrifty Yankee house
wife who has long entertained the idea of
sending South to get real nice, smart col
ored woman" to do the cooking, scrubbiDg,
washing and ironing for the family, that she
might possibly get her order filled in the
moon, but the creature she is looking for
doesn't exist south of Mason and Dixon's
line.
boldly assert that none except Southern
women can get along with negro servants
Why? Because none but Southern woman
will pay extortionate prices for work half
done; because none but Southern women
will allow a servant to break china and lose
silver by the wholesale, without charging the
same to the said servant; because Southern
women will allow servants to quit work on
every holiday, national or otherwise, and
then come back and drop complacently into
their old situations, in spite of solemn warn
ing-previously given-that il they departed
az crisis their soft places should be lost to
them forever The fact is, a Southern wo-
man will bear anything from darkey except
sass" This is the color line she draws, and
whenever it is crossed it is funny to see my
lady rise IN her offended dignity and go to
washing dishes, while the "sasser" takes the
shortest way home least the lord ofthe house
hold, coming home, should have something to
say on the subject.
OF course, you say it is all the fault of the
women, who have spoiled them. My friend,
did you ever hear of any one spelling Linn
burger cheese? Then what is the matter
l will tell you, cooly and dispassonately, that
the Southern darkey is the most shiftless
thing in the "heavens above or the earth be-
meath or the waters under the EARTH" and so
law that he doesn't like TO be around where
| fresh work has been done. Like the immor
tai Byron, he twas born So" and l expect
we ought not to be too hard on him. l know
the popular impression is, that we accept bad
service rather than perform mental labor our
selves to confess the truth, i, for one, would
never touch kitchen with forty foot pole
| did not that imperative mother of invention
often force me into one. Be this as it may,
there are subtle and sacred ties which bind
together the negroes and their former land
presently masters, of which the Outstanding
North catches never a glimpse. Ties that
were formed as we first nestled in the arms
of devoted black nanny, and which were
| siren gthe ned, more and more, as we picked
cotton by her side, to make her basket fuller
than any other; or, in sickness, turned in
stinctively to the touch of her gentle hands.
A queer combination this negro character.
Coupled with a religious fervor that might,
some centuries ago, have cost them their
heads, there is an entire disregard of all
morality and roguish disposition that would
disgrace decent fox. In slavery days they
would say otis masters meat and master 8
Niger" How they satisfy their consciences
now is more than can TELL but l can assure
you that they get the lions share of all the
white mans goods under lock and key.
On inquiring, the other day, after an old
colored friend of mine, who was noted for
being very pious and thievish, l was told by,
her Young master that she had died "tri-
umphant" death in the penitentiary. Re-
quiescat in pace nanny; the God who
made thee knows the frailties of thy race, and
He can forgive. Apropos of religious mat
tiers, never saw but one negro woman who
was not protesting Christian, and she had a
| lofty disregard for Superstition" which would
have made Bob Ingersoll green with envy.
On going into the kitchen one sabbath morn
ing her mistress was shocked to find the old
sinner sewing for dear life. why, Tidy
she said don't you know the old scratch will
get you if you sew on Sunday?"
This reproof, instead of crushing Tidy
acted by boomerang, and struck the lady
speechless when Tidy looked up with fine
seorn and said, LA, Miss Agathyl does you
b'lieve in signs?"
And they are witty, too. l will challenge
white men to entaDgle one in conversation
so that he can't reply as sharply as heis at
tackled. One day a little girl, noticing the
dents in spoon, which had been made by
the baby's teeth, asked an explanation OF her
nurse, who replied, with an air of wisdom
Now, Annie I'm gwine to tell you de trufe
bout dat spoon. One time man come yere
wat done had the smallpox an he ct outer
dat spoon, an hit look dat er way ever
sence."
They are faithful-faithful unto death
Only we who have known their ministrations
and sympathies through sickness and sorrow
can fairly estimate the amount of real gooC
there is in them.
Looking back only few short years car
see the most perfect illustration of devoted
self-sacrifce that ever left its impress upon
human heart. They had grown old toge
ther, mistress and maid the shock of war and
the quiet erosion of years had in no wist
loosened the ties which bound them together
! Lincoln's proclamation stirred never a rip
pie on their quiet waters. The old negres'
had lived with her family on the estate (no
bounded by Mrs. Stoves imaginary blood
hounds) in peace and plenty till war lait
waste the South. 1t never occurred to tht
widowed and childish mistress that she coul(
collect rents for her lands and houses from
her ex-slaves. They shared aud shared alike
When "Old Miss" as the servants called her
fell i'll for the last time friends gathered
!; around her, and hands, black and white, wer
ready to perform every loving service. Nom
but Mary, the servant friend, could please tn
sick one, and for four months she watched
by that bed side night and day, and only
rested where the sound of that feeble voic
could wake her. During the time Mary her
self was very sick, but no one could persuade
her 10 leave the bedside of her lifetime friend
: there she served and suffered till the angel o
death carried away her mistress to the better
land, where she herself will one day stand tC
receive the Masters "Well done, thou goot
and faithful servant" Since there is SO much
real good in these unfortunate ones, would i
not be well TO try to mitigate the evil there
If some one would please invent me tele
phone which would connect at once with tn
hearts of all good Southern women-a tele
, phone whose wires would not get crossed
with bloody shirtism, Northern prejudice o
Southern pride-I would ring up every tru
woman under these broad Southern skies
and say TO one and ALL "On us devolve
3 the salvation of the negro race"
: If in its women lies the hope ofevery land
so in its women must lie the future elevation
or worse degradation of the black race, ant
who are better situated Or better qualified 70
8 this branch of the. Masters work than til
good white women of this section, who ar
thrown in daily contact with their dusky sis
d ters But alas how often does my lad.
Q smile in unreproving amusementat Sarah
y Vondoo tendencies or pass unnoticed he
steps aside from the straight and narrow pat
of virtue and then sally forth to the mis-
sionary society, where she sheds tears owe
the lack of goodness and virtue in the make
= savage. Obi gentle sisters, we who hold, b
reason of your virtue, the highest earthl
:. position which God or man can bestow, la
this to your hearts, The heather at you
J. door, dressed up in your old clothes, need
|; the Gospel of our Lord as much as the make
IL savage who dances in demoniacal glee aroun