Year: 1870

very iHcouSluordOe, DuI very Haru on InOSc WHO


serve them. We shall haze no better SERVANTS


until zoe hGUe better masters and naistresses The


trouble begins a0ere the aO0st diseases Gta0ays, do


at etop! 1t is bad enough to be inferior, but


when the inferiority entails demand for a


class of virtues which the inferior does not


meet III the superior; when in intercourse with


domestics everything looking toward the Golden


Rule is omitted; when we create the very


things we complain of and take no known or


decent method to remedy, restrict that the


culprit is in the parlor not in the kitchen, in


the counting room not on the wharf Why


don't we demand of ourselves, the more fortu-


Date, what we expect of them, the less fortu-


nate Why so busy about the notes in othe


peoples eyes when our own. are choked with


beams? All this hue and cry ebout the service


of subordinates, which seems to have become


chronic vail and is so much the topic when


tongues and pens and minds might be better


employed, is just the fault of the finders, and


is doomed to grow and spread and blast both


ssses5 to make bad worse, so long as the so


called better class will not set itself to remedy


the evils it makes. Look how preposterous
it is You take an ignorant woman into your


service She has had no advantage of any


kind-no discipline of home, no knowledge of


reading or writing, n elevated taste. no idea


ever instilled into her beyond getting 4 living


as she best can by that kind Of work you have


engaged her to do. She may never have known


the simplest joy or pleasure, luxury of the


bright leisure she may have been educated


under the lash. Put yourself in her situation


in imaTination,-as you are bound to do,--


before you have right to say what you ex


pect of her. How does it look to YOU? What


would you do or be? What would be your aim,


hope, ambition? What grade of virtues would


you rejoice in and exemplify? Well of this


woman you expect perfection, perfect washing,


perfect cooking, perfect neatness, perfect tenn


per, thorough, uncomplaining acauiescence in


your whim. your extra demand, your pet


AriGt you are ashamed Of yourself? Don't you


stand degraded and convicted before the Golden


Rule l am not surprised that so many of them


prove false; only eoonader that any of them keep


true. 1 do not marvel that the chasm between


employed and employer yawns and broadens


more and more fearfully, and l tell you that


the stopping it and filling it up is not to come


from those underneath. The man TO whom


you give the lowest ware he will take will


make it up by pilferino, no matter whether he


be on your coach box, IN your store, or in the


bank, and you would do the same. Human
nature IS human nature. and there are certain
outrages put upon her against which she will
rebel, and it's only very big and very rare
Christians spirit will put it down. Servants


have had only little chance at that Chris
tian spirit, and don't believe they have any
cause to think very highly of that which Is
professcd in the front part of the house, though
it NAV be very punctilious about domestic wor-
ship and going to church, and carry a very
elegant prayer book and keep handsomely
bound Bible


Out upon all this hue and cry against dom


tics, the powerpr s of slavery, OF Irish despotism,
German ignorance and want and put the axe
where it ought to lie! Reform is needed, and is
imperative, bu: the reform is to come from the
quarter at which you will not be so swift to d.
mand it. The evil Of slavery was not in the
slave but in the master the evil of service is
not in the servants, but those who employ them.
If you want to right wrong, right yourself! In
stead of pouring out your troubles to those who
are impatiently awaiting their chance 10 do the
same, and writing articles in newspapers and
magazines against class, begin reform by e1-
pectig more Of yourselves less Of yOur dependants
Put every selfshne.s aside and see just what it is
+ sonable to ask that those so educated, circum-
stancnd, rewarded, should perform. Bring
good, TOuSing, honest common sense TO bear, and
cap and crown 1t acith the golden rule Rome was
not s.tinsaaF sss;it N da5r nor in day can you stop
and rurn IIA slu psr-ep a5u!Ga I. pe 8,
res: ~ =, - - t------.---.-- = f''" "F''
I'M I'M v work 1t Will take tine. 1t must be DONE
II we will not grapple with it our children will
be driven to. 1t is the next social problem. For
one want the big fights to be in my day, and
for my children, prosperity and peace. Some
men ~ "Why care for posterity. What has
DO terty done for us' For one, | want poster
ity to think well of us,-better than that
want it to be better for u.s. want that to-day
should put in its firm round in the ladder by
which the generations are to Chamber up to the
high dcstini 9 of the race.


We expect TOO much of the poor. "The poor
ye have always with you," said Jesus, and men
have accepted it as a sort of inevitable fact and
doom, and have been neither very hearty nor
very wise in their efforts 70 relieve or preven
There is no cla,s so little understood,
of whom so much is with so little re-son, with
terrible unreason demanded. It is bad enough
TO be poor, honestly poor, poor by the will of
or God, without having to bear
what the comfortable SO ruthl sly add to the
burden whole ho"t and rabble of expectations
which you never dream of meeting in your own
ca.


1t does me good to > the honest way in
which Ruskn handl the English language when
his path takes him aero s any of the privileged
crimes of privileged men, Nothing appears to
me-" he says, Sat once more ludicrous and more
than the way the people of the pres
ent age usually talk about the morals OF laborers.
You hardly ever addr laboring man upon
his prospects in life without quietly a.. suming
that he is to po- seis at srting, as small moral
capital to begin with, the virtue Of Socrates, the
philosophy Of Plato, and the heroism of Epami
nopdas Be assured my good man, you say, that
if you work steadily for ten hours day all your
life long and if You drink nothing but water,
and the very mild ct beer and live on very plain
Food, and never To- your temper and go to church
every Sunday, and always remain content in the
D. ,ition in which Providence has placed you,
and never grumble, nor swear, and always keep
your cloth decent and ri early and use every
opportunity of improving yourself, you will get
On very well, and never come to want "


All this is exceedingly true; but before giving
the advice so confidently, it would be well it we
sometim tried it practically ourselve9 and spent
year or so at some hard manual labor, not OF
an entertaining kind, ploughiug or digging, e.
2. with very small allowance of beer nothing
but bread and cheese for dinner /; no papers nor
mullins in the morning; no .oias nor magazines
1T night; one small room for parlor and kitchen,
and large family of children always in the
middle of the floor. If we think we could, uu-
der th2se circumstance enact Socrates or Epami
nondas, entirely to our own satisfaction, we
shall be somewhat justified in requiring the same
from our poorer neighbors, but if not,
we should consider little whether among the
various forms of the oppression of the poor, we
may not rauk, as one of the first and likeest,
,he oppression Of erpecting too much Of hem"


Yet friends, we saddle the poor with the most
grievous of burdens, and even while we dole
charity and prate of sympathy, we bind burdens
we could not ourselves bear Your professional
charitable people are some of them the meanest
creatures on Gods earth. The gift OF a stt g
outright would be blessing compared with the
twaddle and cant with which they wrap up the
help they seem to grudge, and if the te r pride
starts, or the wounded spirit speaks, or indig-
nantly refuses what it knows would not De offeF-
ed paupered dog, the twaddle becomes sharp,
lljudeed advice or abuse. What kind of charity
is it that sends the poorest refuse COAL half slate
and sag to a poor man Would you burn 1t
yourself, and is the fact that he is poor man
any reason why you should break his manhood
down by giving him what in his soul he can be
grateful for the while expecting him to be
grateful Doesn't he feel the sting, and haven't
you crowded down the man? Jesus said you
ought to raise the man He never went near with
out raising. Is that the kind of coal he would
send Is it charity to give a man putrid meat,
or unmerchautable -four or your ragged clothes ?
Mend your clothes first Give him palatable
food Try 10 elevate, not depress him. If you
expect him to keep his manhood, help him keep
it Don't hold him up with one hand to knock
him down with the other Don't be so hard A
poor man said to me one day. '"The merchants
and heads of working establishments have grown
hard this winter, and it is not pleasant asking
for work. suppose they feel the tightness of
the time, but that is no reason why they should
treat US, who feel it so much worse, abruptly and
unkindly' That is true, and ought TO be
thought Of 1t may be hard to sit in your place
Of business and feel you are not making or are
losing money, but put yourself in the place of
the man who asks for work. who is honestly in
need and give him a kindly answer kind