The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-11-27
Our Guarantee Means Nothing
SERVANTS THAT ARE SERVANTS
io0d Service One Of tho characteristics Of
English Civilization.

io0d Service One of the characteristics Of
English Civilization
Notwithstanding the cockneys who
are not content to stay in London, but
pervade the summer resorts, and some
pther people, including cockneys born
In America, but without the educated
impudence of the English kind, Eng
land is a charming place to loiter in
the summer season. If l were asked,
however. to say what is one OF its dis
tinctions, should say, seriously, that
it is place where the traveller can
have his boots BACKED. do not mean
daubed over with stickey compound,
and unclaimed and dim in an hour, but
permanently polished. In the smallest
and most out-of-the-way inn in Eng
land land am glad to say that unpre-
tending inns can still be found
that preserve the old traditions
of comfort and civility) boots
are polished. highly polished. This
may seem a very low and unim.
portant matter to mention. tbs, how
ever, note of good service and one OF
the characteristics of the high civiliza-
ton of our British friends, as much so
as their habit of travelling about with
trees for their boots. 1t means de-
termination to be comfortable and well
cared for throughout.
The whole of the socis.y is built
upon this idea; the servants are ser.
wants for the sake of making society
comfortable; and / am not sure but
well brushed clothes and polished
boots are as much part of the English
constitution as the o'clock cup OF
tea. Nobody knows exactly what the
constitution is; but Mr.. Balfour, when
he rises in the house of commons and
says that such and such a proceeding
violates it, is not surer he is right than
the humblest subject is when he APP
peals to it in a matter of his individual
comfort.
The idea Of the average Britisher
is to get the most satisfaction possible
out of his daily life. in little things as
well as in large, and he will not put up
with slack service, among other an.
noyances; and the servants. who are
in turn served by other servants. feel
in the same way. This means, l take
1t, subordination and order, or, in other
words, civilization. And a sense of
some leisure goes with this enjoyment
of the small things have never heard
the English accused of lack of enter
prise, or lack of sturdiness and dis
position to have their own way, but
they certainly have come to the idea
that life is too valuable to be frittered
away in perpetual uneasiness.
And 1 am pleased to bear my testi-
mony to one thing, at least, among the
class who travel for business or pleas
ure, and some who travel rarely, that
they know enough to lie abed in the
morning. We got the raw idea from
the English that 'iearly to bed and
early to rise makes man happy,
healthy and WISE, but they seem to
have given up this notion pretty gen.
orally; and, if they are wise. and OBJ
viously healthy, and tolerably happy,
they evidently now owe this blessing
to plenty of sleep in the most delicious
time for sleep There is another rule
for the workers in factories and mines,
and noticed in the great prison of
Dartmoor, l, 400 feet above the sea. on
desolate and cloud covered moor. that
the convicts were required to hustle
out at o'clock in the morning. But
these examples do not interfere with
my general conclusion, for fancy that
these compelled classes. these early
risers, are not the healthiest and hap
piest, and probably not the wisest.
Another version of the adage is that
getting up at daylight makes a man
healthy, wealthy and wise do not
see, however. that the wealthiest in
England are the class that get up first
in the morning. And speaking still OF
a civilized way of living, one can not
but see, in spite of the democratic talk
and the labor agitations and the pow
erty and the liberal use of spirits, that
there is good deal of solid content in
England, even when the country is
stirred-as it rarely is stirred other
wisely genera election. One marks
a general disposition to mind ones
own business, and 20 wait in conserv-
alive sort of way for time to right ex-
listing hardships - Charles Dudley
Warner. in Harper's Magazine.
EhE wACN,T GREEN.