NO SERVANTS.

Patea Mail, 13 February 1882, Page 3

NO SERVANTS.

Ton old grievance was that ladies had “ nothing to wear.” The now grievance is that ladies cannot get servants. The domestic help is herself a lady, and behaves as sieh." That is, she outdresses her mistress, and rends society novels, and rides on horseback with a large over-shadowing Gainsborough hat coquettishly slouched askew. If her mistress is going to a pic-nic party, the servant thinks it a hardship that she is not invited to bring her young man. Some Paten servants are not highminded, and are not coquettish ; but their number is limited. It is not safe to mention that you have a gem of a servant, for fear she should take wings and fly to some other abode. The good servant does fly away all too soon; for she gives yon notice that she is going to he married, and yon meet her next week but one at a friend’s house among the visitors, and yon find she is the wife of a settler of many acres, and is just a cut above yon in social status, besides the conversational advantage of knowing the innermost details of your household. And so the servant racket goes on from year to year in a new country, where Jack is as good as his master, and where Jill is a person who patronises her mistress.

Bui the want of good domestic helps is becoming serious. A remedy must be found, and it appears to consist in going back to the sweet simplicity of doing your own cooking and sweepingup, and bathing the children, and mending stockings, and scolding the butcherboy. The philosopher will tell the lady-housekeepers that they are realising the true ideal of, happiness in being independent; the politician will assure them that they are setting a wholesome example to their growing girls by showing the true dignity of labor; and the political economist will demonstrate that they are redressing the inequality of supply and demand. Perhaps the doctor’s opinion is worth all the rest, and it is pretty certain he will insist on the healthy vigor and variety of domestic occupations. And when a lady without a servant does get an afternoon out, how she will enjoy it! If the husband grumbles, set him to chop the wood.