The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-29


 to many urgent temptations. When they are in a situation, and off duty. there is practically no place in which they can sit, except the public house. There they are subject to the tempta- tion to drink to excess, and it is there, most likely, that many Of them acquire the pernicious habit of backing horses, which ruins them on small scale quite as effectually as it does their masters on a larger scale. Man servants out of a situation, condemned to lodgings where there is no place for them to sit, from which indeed they are expected to be absent from an early hour in the morning until the evening, are subject to the same temptations in an aggrava- ted form. There are, indeed. as numer- ous instances have shown, very apt to lose caste altogether. Moreover-this l venture to throw in by way of sugges- tion on my own account-the ex-man- servant ofthe indoor type, who has tot saved enough to set himself up in lit tie business of his own, is not likely to obtain any other kind of creditable em- ployment. To such men, and to men in situations when they have time at their disposal, the club is an unmiXed bless ing.
 There is no temptation to drink there; in fact, intoxicants are not permitted to be sold or intraoduced; there is no gambling; foul or blasphemous language meets with sharp exulusion; and the members obtain shelter, comfort, socie- ty and rational recreation, including pe- ,4os1S large hall, together with wholesome food and clean sleeping places, if they need them. Nor, after conversing with some of them, not in the presence of Lady Hope, is there any diubt inN my mind that there is a real feeling of cam- araderie among them. Nobody, save a man who has passed through it, really knows the mysteries and the etiquette of life in and about the servants hall; and the servants hall caret sacro of it's own. Thackeray, in 'Pendennis' rather than in his lighter works, and MT. Bar rie, in his Admirable Crichton' have given us glimpses of that life which seem realistic. But both have written from the outside and from above. Still, inc knows vaguely that the world of servants has it's etiquette and it's rules of precedence as rigid as those of Burke or Debrett, although their exact mature may be hidden frim us. So it seemed right to make inquiry, as dis creetly as might be, whether the grades really did mix on terms of equality within the walls of the club. and I was assured, by an eminently digniffed and respectable butler, that it was so.
 "A pantry boy, of course you know, sir, is everybidy's lackey"-I did not, but should have so guessed-"and the butler is, as yiu may say, the head of all the male servants; but pantry boys and buffers are. equal here" Surely democratic equality could no farther go. Man after man, and they were respec- table fellows all, testified to the bless ing which the club had been to them and their class, and there is not the slightest doubt as to the care with which the registry is kept, or as to the value if good characters" received from it. That, as most of us know in our various ranks if life, is emphatical- ly not the case with regard to charac- Iters given by some masters and mis- tresses who, from carelessness, good nature, or fear of a possible lawsuit, frequently pass into the service of strangers servants of no character, but ! armed with excellent Characters"
 I All this is good work-good for the men, good for the general body of em- tployers, and work which ought to be ex- 1 tended, and it is manifestly not just 2 that Lady Hope should be left unassist- led to meet the capital expenditure as well as any losses incurred while the scheme is getting into full working or der. Moreover, apart from money sub scriptions, Lady Hope is very desirous of securing the moral support of addi- tional patrons whose names and inter- est would tend to raise the prestige oi the club among servants. Minor, but very useful and much appreciated ad- ljuncts of the club are the coffee vans tickets for which can be obtained at the Irate of thirty shillings per hundred, by the givers of evening parties. Then due notice having been given, the var appears with coffee, tea, bread and butter, cake, and so on, and the wait ling footmen and coachmen, who are Ireally a good deal to be pitied in norma circumstances, are innocently regaled ,But they appreciate the attention great fly, and in fact it was the chance obser. lvation of a coffee -drinker at the clut (which caused the clubs coffee-vans tc be brought into existence. In a word lthe whole scheme is so obviously whole. Isome and so completely thought out fthat othing remains except to say that Lady. Hopes address is No. Con