FOOTMEN'S TROUBLES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1649, 1 April 1884, Page 2

FOOTMEN'S TROUBLES.

A letter from a footman appeared in the" Times" the other day, describing tho wretched way in which'footman are housed in the mansions of London. Commenting on this letter," Dogonet" says in the" Referee" : I have just been a tour of the ; principal town houses of the nobility, and the pen I hold trembles in my grasp as I attempt to describe tho horrors I have seen. It is not my purpose to be graphic or sensational. My sole desire is to give the public an idea of the manner in which tho male servants of the aristocracy are housed, in the hope that the public conscience may be awakened to the iniquity, and that social reformers may tako up the " bitter cry" of these poor outcasts, and answer it satisfactorily.

Case I.—John Bloggs, footman to the Earl of Broadacres, a pale, tall, thin young man in the first stage of consumption, three years ago came from the country in all the health and vigor of early manhood. Sleeps in the dustbin, and complains bitterly that after he has gone to bed tho kitchen' refuse is often placed on lop of him, He has been taken away twice in .a dust cart by mistake, Complained to' the butler, who'referred him'; to his lordship. His lordship asked if he would like his lordship's bedroom, If he didn't like the dustbin, which had a nice comfortable lid, he could havo :a door-step. Advised him not to be too big for his place and gave him a month's notice,

Case 2.-William Biggs, age 16,; page to tho Dowager Duchess of Greenwich, looked very ill—eyes heavy, face leaden, coughed terribly,... and : .spat Wood, Asked where ho slept, said 11 Up the chimney." Fe removed his jacket and showed terrible abrasions an his shoulders and back, caused by being subject to epileptic fits, and having them in the night while up the flue.

Case 3,—Benjamin Grinham, under footman—kept scratching himself at interview—said he shared a kennel in the back yard with a big Newfoundland dog, Didn't like it because the dog

kept his bones a long time up in tho corner, and, being stxvage, ho (Grinham) didn't like to throw them out. Sometimes the dog got out to look at tho moon at night, and was awkward with his chain. Once got it round Grinh'am's throat, and nearly throttled him. When the family were in the country, slept in apigstye. Didn't libit, but no use complaining. All the best of families were'alike in providing'accom modation for male servants.

Case 4.—Jeremiah Smith, valet to Lord Porapanpride. ' Slept in the in an open 'empty wine-case. 'Don't' mind so much in the summer, but found it disagreeable in 'the winter,; Had,to hang his clothes on the area railings when going to bed, andpay a policeman out of his wages to watch them. Had to get up and dress in the pitch dark, for fear of being taken into,, custody. Didn't complain, because he ' did'get the .fresh air where he; was; might have'been put to sleep in a worseJplace.. -.

: These are a few cases culled : from one district in the" most aristocratic quarter of London. . It is to be hoped that the revelation of the horrors in our midst will not fall upon npathetio ears, but that the newspapers,, tho magazines, the clergy, and the Lord Mayor will «&■ once start a crusade against a condition of things which is a scandal to tho age and a blot unon the escutcheons of the great nobles of tho' United Kingdom. . .