ETIQUETTE FOR THE SLUMS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 158, 28 March 1908, Page 11

ETIQUETTE FOR THE SLUMS.

.. Tho manners of aristocratic society are being Haken to the slums, of Southwark by the Marchioness of Tweeddalo and others for the civilising of, tho 'Arriets, who used to provide Phil May with,so many comic sketches. The; girls, most of them factory hands, are being rounded up in their scanty leisure by the new social missionaries, smiled upon, encouragingly, instructed; in the virtues of,"a soft voice, told, that "blokes" are never mentioned'in polito society; arid generally warned against the' worstatrocities of tho 'Arriet language. The Marchiohess and her friends aro evidently imitators.; The same notioii was put into practico a short tiino by a number of society ladies, in New York, and apparently not without good result. From one point of , view the ironical 'humour of the thing is obvious enough to: anyone who has had an opportunity to study the factory girl of London or Now York; but where tho teachers are genuinely syinpathetic and tactful they will not ;be without some reward. The . factory girl, veneered a little, might easily, fit into gaping „ranks of domestic service, and thus becomo a healthier, better fed and more hopeful worker than sho is at, present. The domestic servant does not enjoy equal freedom, but!she alvrays has an opportunity (denied to factory workers as a class), to emigrate on easy terms, and, by doing so, at once to improvo" her status and chances , of marriage. Tho whole country is being scoured for servants. .There is a threat of something like pivil war between the managers of those registry offices which try to supply tho needs of English households and tho now formidable army of emigration agents, steamship company agents, Salvation Army agents, women who combine philanthropy with 'business, and other practical persons who get £1, per head for- every servant. they . capture. for servico overseas. While inbibing; a - knowledge \of • "how:to behave in polite society,"' tho Southwark, factory girls aro being taught how to cook, sow, and keep neat in appearance. The best of them will presently be invited to-tako up.house work.—"Tho Age."