New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-07-21
THE AUSTRALIAN SERVANT GIRL

II was oil very well for Bishop Berkeley TO
declare that Westward the course of empire takes
it's way; but in all humility of National spirit
we must confess that he seems to have been a
little premature in regarding America as the
last and MODEST offspring of Time. lie did not
dream of the potentialites that lay amid the
long wash of Australasian seas" Neither did
we, until recently. But now the truth Is dawnlng
upon us, If may properly speak Of dawn IN
the west" till the West is East The course or
empire has decided to emulate Phileos Fogg and
Citizen Train, and make the circuit of the globe
At present it has left the Golden Gate behind
it, and has reached the land of black swans and
kangaroos, and from America the glory has do
parted. We may continue to export ideas and
enterprise and other products to the efete realms
of Europe, but we must in turn ourselves import
,t1pplies from the Australian Commonwealth
This we feared when the Australian Ballot came
over the Pacific to revolutionZe our electoral
system; and our fears are now more than con-
frmed by an impending domestic revolution under
the Australian Servant Girl.
For the problem of problems is solved at last
Il is authoritatively declared that in Australia
servants serve and their employers rule. Not
only that but family of even moderate wealth
can there afford to hire servant or two, and
thus have some work done In the house, and
well done. The extraordinary character of these
statements might we'll inspire much doubt, were
il not that they arc made by the wife Of o mis-
sionary, who supports them with detailed in
stances that prove their truthfulnPss. Z" | know,
she saws of one mistress who has the happiness
to inspire her servants with most enthusiastic
admiration" Think Of that! "They seem as
though they could never do enough for her." Yet
she is woman who would allow nothing to be
ill-done in her house; she and her husband are
most hospitabe people, and the servants have no
sinecure." This chronicer narrates her own ex-
perience also One Of her servants got drunk.
The mistress told her she could employ her no
longer "No ma am was the reply, " of course
YOU can't. I'm only sorry I've put you to this
inconvenience" But she went on to tell how
she had formed the drinking habit; story so
sad that her mistress kissed her and exclaimed,
You shall not go. You shall stay with me and
not touch whiskey any more " She did stay,
and kept sober Some time later she was offered
twice as high wages by another employer, and
her mistress advised her to go, as she could not
afford to pay her more But the servant
said Don't send me away; I'd rather
serve YOU for kicks than anyone else for pound
weeks Another girl belonged to large family
of good servants. There are many such in las
mania, This one was never out Of temper;
she took a reproof without trace Of annoyance.
A case is also cited of a lady who has one house in
Sydney, another In the country, and third, for
the summer, in Tasmania; yet she has never had
much trouble with servants. al could says
our remarkable witness, with the sublime audacity
Of conscious truth, II could mention such cases
without limit
II is not our purpose in making these amazing
circumstances known to the public to precipitate
a wholesale migration of desparing housekeepers
TO Australia Primarily, of course, we desire
merely to record the actual progress of the course
of empire. But in the second place, this narra-
ton may perhaps provoke the inquiry whether
the aforesaid course has really taken It's way so
far to westward as to have left us hopelessly be-
hind: and also whether that which housewife has
done in Australia housewife may not also do in
America And indeed is our servant-girl problem
as hopeless as it seems9 Or, like the plumbers
bill. and the Vassar girls chewing-gum, and the
womans hesitation at the box-Oifice window, is 1T
chiefly creation of imaginative brainsP