Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-09-07
DISCUSSES THE OLD
PROBLEM OF THE SERVANT

WASHINGTON, Sept. Some
where in the world some housewife
Is complaining about the servant
problem every minute in the day.
In all probability, all are agreed. that
having trouble in getting and keep
ing good servants is a modern phe-
nomenon. In nearly every CONVEX
sation on the subject, some one is
almost certain to sigh for the good.
old days" A careful examination
of the servant problem from the his
torieal point of view forces the stu
dent of sociology to the conclusion
that there never We're any good-old
days and that the servant problem
today is lot much, if any, worse than
It was at any previous time in his
tory.
1t might safely be said that the
servant problem is as old as any
problem which civilization has pro-
duced. Even before civilization, in
the cave days, in all probability, eff
forts of one part of the human race
to subjugate the others met with
Indifferent success.
A vast deal of quiet amusement
can be derived from listening in on
a conversation among a typical
5AOap u nest -IlpNSEM lNE6 anu
comparing their complaints about
the servant problem with similar
complaints that have echoed down
to us from former times. The same
general complaint is identifable from
generation to generation.
Let's go back just about a century
and read over a paragraph from a
magazine article printed in England
in 1911.
There is nothing, perhaps, of
which this age may more justly
boast" says the article, written in a
vein of satire, than of the very
improved state Of domestic servants.
No longer distinguished, except in
certain cases, by any articles of dress
from their masters and mistresses,
they nobly life up their heads on high
like lords and ladies of creation and
assume without exception, all the
airs and graces and manners of their
employers.
Instead of giving anybody the
trouble Of hiring them" the article
continues, lin the old fashioned way,
their only mode of coming into sery-
ice now is to hire themselves; they
wait not to be asked what they
can do, but ingeniously tell you at
ono what they won't do; and II
upon trial they should happen to
suit their employers ever so we'll,
yet If their employers do not suit
them, they avoid all disagreement
by withdrawing at once"
The article goes on in the same
| general vein and could be repeated
in any 1923 servant problem onver-
sadion without a words variation.
| UTLa~a rur1.. Aha noa1 11d IaNv- af q
hundred years ago.
Dean Swift's Comment
Going still further back into the
eighteenth century we find the cele-
brated Dean Swift commenting upon
the servant problem and describing
the servants Of his time as dirty
lazy, dishonest, drunken, dissolatt
and impudent.''
In the same century, an anony-
nous French author reported some
what similar difficulties with serv-
ants in France. THE class of do
mestics," he says, ARE devoid oil
feeling and education. Verbal cor
rection is with them merely beating
the air; 1t leaves no impression.
Michael, Lord Montaigne, still fur
Their back in history, devotes con
siderable space to discussions of tht
servant problem. He is inclined tt
believe that servants would be pet
ter If their employers treated then
more humanely. II envie those
he writes, who can be familiar will
the meanest Of their followers anC
Vouchsafe to contract friendship an(
frame discourse with their own serv
ants"
The parallels between the mod
ern every day conversation, whethe'
it be across the backyard fence o
in the opera box, and the opinion
Of five hundred years ago are strik
ing. As long ago as that Cove
wrote in England:
1.-THE poor and small folk VIII
should eleave to their labor, deman'
10 be better fed than their masters
Moreover they bedeck themselves II
fine colours and fine attire. / Sc
the pbor folk more naughty thai
their lords"
Even the middle ages knew tn
servant problem. Bartholomew,
medieval writer says the "servaun
women were likely ito be rebel
and unbouxom to theyr lordes an
ladyes'' and when they "ben nc
holde lowe with drede, theyr harte
swelle and wax stoute and proud
ayenst the communicates Of they
| soveraynes."
SO it goes. You can not go ia
enough back in history to escape tn