A WORD FOR IRISH SERVANT GIRLS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 41, 7 February 1874, Page 12

A WORD FOR IRISH SERVANT GIRLS.

(' Philadelphia Standard.') Sehvant girls, to the ordinary observer, form an humble though 1 necessary element in our social economy, but according to the late utterances of one of our Protestant contemoraries, many of them are no less than Jesuits in disguise. This acute journal has discorered that the earnings of Irish Catholic seivants, are part of the revenues of popery, and that the e-ection of a Catholic church or school h signalized by the levying of acontiibution upon Protestant musters and mistresses hv tho shape of a demand f>r higher wages. W-e shall not venture to stiuggle aguinst such a tenible indictment, at least for the p-esent, but we call attention to it as offering a key to the literature' constantly cropping out on the question of '• help." Any one who reads the papers must know that " Bridget " is always a bone of con--tin ion, and how frequent and bit tor are the condemnations burled upon her devoted heal. When Mrs Shoddy, or for all that Mrs" Knickerbc cker is seized with the cacoellies scribendi, the writes to one of the j urn als on son O'such congenial theme as " the tyranny of the" kitchen," and her utterances reveal such harrowing depths of domestic woe *' that the editorical oracle is often moved to expressions of" sympathy and advice* Germans, Africans, Chinese-- anybody of any' race under the sun is preferable as a servant to the Celtic impressible who, calmly entrenched among her pots anl pans, hurls defiance at the unfortunate man or woman whom she has secured for an employer. Such is the doleful picture familiar to readers of current' literature, and if it is in the inai.i a creation of fancy, it has been co often and so persistently presented to the bublic eye, tint it has gained quite a respectible semblance of reality. We are noc sure that t*ie ' Irish girl, whose sad lot it is to be driven from the land of her birtl>, finds her proper level in this country, and wo are inclined to believe that necessity, more than/ natural fitness, determines the position she here generally assume*. But capable as site may be to fill a higher sn life than that which usually fulls to her loft, it is no ieproach to the^ men or woraon of our race that they are hewers of wojd and drawer.*, of water. There is a-nobility in their honest servitude which is wanting in manyof the pursuits which cl.iim more. of the world's eateeff Men gloiify tlio progress thai has asserted the dignity of labor, whereas the whole tendency of the age is to cast discredit on honest toil, andto scorn the simple fai>h and earnest trust that sweetens the hardest fare and brightens the poorest homo. But let us not lose sight of the point we wish to insist upon. Irish servant-girls, as -a class, deserve in' Ino way the sneers and accusations frequently directed agtinsfr them. I They are good workers, notably honest, and above all daepiy imbubedwith a religious feeling affording the surest guarantee of the purity and j characters. Indeed, in this latter respect they pub to shamo many a Catholic favorad by fortune and education, who has come t>' adopt the fashionable theories of religioui indifference. And iv this very tenacity with which they cling to their fai.h, may bo found, to some extent, tho secret of the bostili y to Irish 1 Ciitholic servants which now and then makes itselt heard in the p,ublu! prints. Mr Shoddy and Mrs Knickerbocker, having . no religion ihemselues, c-innot endure it iv their inferiors. They go to tin ie fine meeting-house and listen to their fine p eaoher, and soino Sunday when new sensations are lacking, that w ell-paid functionary has recourse to an old cue. Lie dilates upon the folly of popish superstitions and tho danger thoro is that lion).i>.i>rn may insidiously [ enter the household of his hearers. Perhaps i{c is fortunate enough' to attract the attention of the audience from the bonnets and dress .'a displayed by the congregation, and to send them home with no very amiable feelings towards Catholics in gcneial and their honest servant girls in particular, who insist upon going to Mass regularly onSuud >y's and holy days.

The mistress's tongue is sharpened with tho acid of bigotry, and her temper becomes more and more trying. The servant is not a paragon of perfection, and there is a limit to her endurance. The result is a domestic revolution which sooner or later we hoar of in the slripo of an indignant compaint against the ignorance and impudence of li tali help. But aftsr all, these expressions of petty malice reflect^ the feeling of a very small and insignificant minority. \s a rule,j| employers repose v trust a confidence in th?ir Catholic servant girls which is seldom betrayed, and these pure, simple-minded women go through life displaj ing virtues which adorn thei- station, and might well be imitated by those higher in the social scale.