SERVANTS AND THEIR MISTRESSES.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2664, 31 August 1871, Page 2

SERVANTS AND THEIR MISTRESSES.

To the. Editor. Silt, —The above subject has invariably been dwelt npon, but, without producing the desired effect, hence my object in penning this epistle. Numberless servants nave meritoriously and sedulously endeavoured to exemplify the unavoidable necesssity of reforming the present defective and perverted magisterial unethical treatment towards feminal servants, which has hitherto.proyoked and,kiudled incalculable inverate insidiousnoa in the unbiassed minds of some illiterate people towards acrvantgalism, who have been and are a class from whom have descended England’s greatest genuises; nevertheless,’ servants are always, - at least very frequently, maltreated hy their domineering, nndutiful masters and mistresses, >rho erroneously imagine they possess the. prerogative of unrestrainably compelling their educational and monetary, inferiors of servants to submit to their tyrannical misand outlandish ill-treatment. Countless servants, who, through reduced circumstances, have been reluctantly con<trained to betake themselves to menial service, who are much their employers superiors, morally, intellectually, and, prudentially speaking, which their employers are not slow to perceive. Admitting that servants are betimes contumacious and rindutiful towards their masters and mistresses, which is frequently observable in their sometimes unstrained,, but not ethical character, they should not experience such egregious harshdeportment from those whom the Lord biblically enjoins' to exorcise forebearance, meekness, and benignity towards servants, who should be “obedient unto their" masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again. “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh ; not with eye jervice, as mcnpleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing (loti. With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.” Numberless biblical quotations may be cited which require the master and mistress of servants to record them all goodness, and not to exercise that despotic and uncharitable domineering power of maltreating their servants, which is invariably the case in Dunedin and elsewhere. ” Persons smbitious to possess intelligent and excellent servants should recollect that coiitumaciousness, inadvertence, and bad example will always and must counteract and defeat their expectations, Let them rot an edifying example to their servants in kindness, meekness over household duties, and most assuredly their labor will not be in vain., On the contrary, when master and mistress only study to discharge their duty towards their servants in an honorable and spontaneous manner, they will straightway discern the indescribable •and unexpected benefit they desire thereby. .Servants are frequently intelligent and dociblo, not tri mention excellent housekeepers, and they naturally and rationally expect that persons of education and refined sensibility will hot descend so low as to misjudge and undervalue their acknowledged meritorious qualities, which are prevented from producing any superior good by reason of high-mindedueas and neglect on the part of master and mistress. People now complain of bad servants ; but whether they.arc justified in so doing 1 shall nfibuindertake tQ fiontrpTprt. as. my foregoing remarks will undoubtedly indicate that bad. servants must be attributable -to miajudgment and . domestic, ignorance .on the. side of the employer,. .whoso knowledge and experience of treatment of servants is sadly and apparently defective in the highest degree. No wonder then, servants are unjustly compelled to submit to and endure unpardonable dcspotical magisterial coptumaciousuess, which, must never—perish the thought -be exercised towards, and perpetually practised upon 1 female servants, who

justly resent such unethical conduct. Berviijlts ijre as good in a moral and divine masters and mistresses, who reprobate such an e quality and unacknow--1 edged assumption. When will people learn ithat'seryMvts are as good, sometimes better, masters, and it is ignorance that maintains the contrary. T.t may be mentioned that this lenthy epistle is penned for the benefit of those whom adversity has {constrained to betake to an inferior but not ignoble sphere in life, whose uuexalted, yet frequently honorable and meritorious station deserves sympathy rather than the too often harsh an( i depraved conduct exhibited towards them by masters and mistresses, who oughtJjp know * better than to disabuse the respectability and worth which 1 rightfully apertains to servants. If employers of servants will only persuade themselves in future to mirt\)ufc a line of conduct,- as by of books, of mast era towards their servants, they will have no cause to complain o£. bad servants, who will ,in like manner perforin their duty towards their employers with mutual credit and satisfaction., , ; v . On behalf of the female working class you will confer a great favor byfinsefting this letter. . . M. L. King. - Leith street; Atrg.’ 27, 1871: " [Wo do not profess to understand all that our correspondent has written, and had laid the letter aside, but have' published it because we arc informed that .a number of servants desired, it should be made public. Meanwhile, we commend Chaucer’s English as a sturdy'to .out -eorrospondent.— Ed. E. S. ]