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The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness
·
Florence Hartley
210
"If
all
young
housekeepers
were
strict
upon
the
subject
of
dress,
much
misery
to
servants
would
be
saved,
much
temptation
avoided,
and
self-reproach
prevented.
Instead
of
this
kind,
and
wise,
and
matronly
particularity,
a
type
of
the
good,
old-fashioned
common
sense
of
our
grandmothers,
ladies
now
countenance
their
ladies'-maids
in
discontinuing
caps,
or,
if
they
have
caps,
in
wearing
flowers
and
lace,
flowered
gowns,
and
other
items
of
little
apparent
moment
in
detail,
but
of
much
importance
to
a
community
as
serviceable
to
the
public
when
well
managed
and
respectable,
as
they
are
odious
and
noxious
when
immoral
or
insolent.
After
these
cruel
indulgences,
ladies
marvel
when
they
find
servants
rise
above
their
station
and
that
they
will
not
bear
even
a
mild
reproof;
they
wonder
that
a
plain,
useful
servant
is
nowhere
to
be
met
with.
There
is
now
no
medium
between
the
fine
lady
with
mittens
and
flowers
who
dresses
your
hair,
and
the
dirty
sloven
of
a
lodging-house.
All
housemaids
must
now
be
upper
housemaids;
cooks
must
be
cooks
and
housekeepers.
The
homely
housemaid--that
invaluable
character
in
her
way--is
indeed
difficult
to
be
found;
and,
at
a
time
when
cleanliness
is
at
its
zenith,
the
rarity
is
to
discover
any
one
who
will
clean.
All,
except
the
raw
country
girl,
expect
to
have
deputies;
and,
if
we
go
on
to
perfection
in
this
unhealthy
system,
we
shall
soon
have
no
working
servants
above
twenty
years
of
age.
The
consequence
is,
that
a
greater
number
of
servants
are
kept
in
every
household
than
formerly
in
similar
families;
many
of
these
menials
are
corrupted
by
congregating
together
and
by
idleness.
The
loud
and
crying
complaints
of
the
worthlessness
of
this
class
are
but
too
justly
founded.
That
they
are
more
mercenary
than
ever,
is
owing
to
the
pernicious
system
which
lifts
them
up
above
their
condition,
but
fails
to
elevate
them
in
the
moral
standard.
In
the
scale
of
virtue
they
sink
every
day
lower
and
lower;
in
the
outward
attributes
they
are,
as
they
consider
it,
raised
in
character
and
improved
in
appearance.
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