THE SERVANT GIRLS HALFHOLIDAY QUESTION.

Hastings Standard, Issue 77, 25 July 1896, Page 3

THE SERVANT GIRLS HALFHOLIDAY QUESTION.

[To the Editor.] Sir,—ln your issue of the 23rd appears a letter signed " A Lady," but it does not require tlie exercise of any unusual intelligence to detect my old friend " Cynicus " breaking out under a new name. At any rate 'llO one in their senses will accept her statement that she is a lady because, like St. Peter, " even her very speech doth betray her." No lady would allude to her humble sisters as " menials and vassals," nor be so blasphemous as to assume that Providence placed her specially in a position to be bowed and scraped to by " well trained " serfs. It is mistresses like " A Lady " who make our lives a long hopeless struggle, without a word of pity or human sympathy across the " impassable " gulf which she assures us exists between mistress and servant. My own late employer was something of the type of "A Lady," a selfassertive, purse-proud tyrant, who at one time of his career occupied a much lower position than that I occupied with him, but now he considers any treatment good enough for " menials," and it is this class Avhich evolves the task masters, the slave drivers, and the grim, cast-iron unapproachable "ladies," whose unbearable manners have whipped the servants of the colony into open revolt. I don't feel angry with " A Lady " but it is disheartening to know that in our bright free country, in this latter age of enlightenment, that people capable of holding such feudal opinions exist. —Yours, &c., A Qcaxi>am Housekeeper. [Personal references in the above we have omitted.—Ed. Standard.] [To the Editor.] Sir, —For once I am glad to see " Lady " appearing in her true colors, when she should thank Providence she is a lady and not a "menial." I should like to know what her definition of a lady is ; does it mean a person in possession of money or manners ? As her letter shows plainly she in possession of very little of the latter, or does it mean a being placed by Providence in such a position as to " boss " (in plain words) a poor unfortunate who is obliged to seek employment from such a person as she appears to be for her or his daily bread. I think it very much out of place for her to say " as a rule servants are not treated as a lower creation," when she is treating them as such in her letter. For my part I think "Lady " had better import a few Chinese who are not in possession of French, music, and painting (of which she seems to be very much afraid of), or shift her domicile to .Johanesburgh where she ought to be glad to learn that " menials " are not even allowed to walk on the same side of the street as this "Lady," under penalty of a flogging. It is too late; I'm afraid servants are going to have their " half-holidays," unless the Government (which she favors) and which is not " servile," steps in, and stops such a foolish matter as the " Servant'e Halfholiday " question.—l am, etc., Disgusted Servant.