Various

“ There is in England no such recognition of long and faithful service as exists in Germany. Seven years ago, the Empress of the Fatherland instituted a Long Service Order, and since that time many hundreds of domestic servants who have lived with the same master and mistress for forty years, have received from royalty diplomas and golden crosses.
Is such an Order impossible in Great Britain? Could we not modify and adapt it to ourselves? If a person is to work well for any length of time, some motive must be found. Why should not a system of rewards be adopted? ”

“ In no direction is the old order of things vanishing more rapidly than in the household. The relations of mistress and maid are not to-day what they were yesterday, or what they will be to-morrow. A hundred years ago, servants were more part and parcel of the establishment than they are now. They entered a family, in the majority of cases, whilst they were young, and marriage or death was the only cause of separation in general. It never occurred to the domestic of the past to ‘give notice,’ any more than it occurred to the mistress to dismiss her servants, on the slightest provocation. ”

“ We now discard our exploring garments, and having enjoyed a not unneedful wash, we quit the works, and returning homewards, congratulate each other on having trodden the very foundations of the wonderful Forth Bridge, and ponder how little the future traveller, as he lightly skims the estuary at sixty miles an hour, will think of the practical ingenuity and patient labour that wrought, deep down beneath the waters of the Forth, the foundations on which repose the huge structures through which the flying express is whirling him. ”

“ We are on the confines of the great Arctic Ocean. Under these promising auspices, we anticipated a good and quick catch, as the whale has that feeling in common with man, that he loves sunshine and a calm sea. ”

“ Yes; that’s quite another thing, Marian. That’s nothing, to be dark as you are. Your hair and eyes and complexion are just perfect, darling. But Mr Noel—well, he’s a shade or two too dark for me, anyhow; and I don’t mind saying so to you candidly.—Mr Hawthorn’s a great deal more my ideal of what a handsome man ought to be. I think his eyes, his hair, and his moustache are just simply lovely, Marian.’
‘Why, of course, you and he ought to be friends,’ Marian said, a natural thought flashing suddenly across her. ‘He comes from Trinidad, just the same as you do. ”

“ When my uncle—poor deluded man—turned me, as he did, out of his house on account of my marriage, something had to be done; so we came to London. For two years my husband has been trying to earn a living by literature. Far better had he stayed in the country and taken to breaking stones or working in the fields. It is a bitter life, Mr Carver. The man who wants to achieve fortune that way must have a stout heart; he must be devoid of pride and callous to failure. ”

“ In the meantime all the crew are busy clearing the line of the harpoon, and we are still in doubt whether we have hit him; but the suspense does not last long, as immediately a ‘Look out!’ is shouted by the captain, and the line runs out with terrific speed and a great noise. ‘Full speed ahead,’ is shouted below; but the ship is running double her highest speed, such is the strength of the whale which has her in tow. The animal is fleeing at the top of its speed, and we follow right through the breaking seas. ”

“ The helm is turned, and we follow them in hot haste through wind and waves. A complete silence reigns on board during the pursuit, only now and then broken by the captain’s short words of command, who stands calmly watching the animals. Now the vessel heels over—the whales are within range. ‘Stop,’ sounds in the engine-room. But the speed was too great, and we shoot past them. ‘Full speed ahead,’ sounds again. ‘Two men at the helm!’ The vessel turns swiftly, and we separate the couple. The whales disappear. ”

“ It is an invariable rule that the most contented homes are those in which the servant is treated with the greatest respect. Servants must be servants. No one but a lunatic would suggest that they had any right to enter the drawing-room or the dining-room on a footing of equality with its owner. ”

“ Though, of course, with Edward to take care of me, I wouldn’t be afraid to go anywhere.’
‘Of course not,’ said Nora confidently. ‘And I shall be there, too, Marian; and we shall have such lovely times together. People have no end of fun in the West Indies, you know. Everybody says it’s the most delightful place in the world in the cool season. The floors are kept polished all the year round, without any carpets, just like the continent, and so you can have a dance at any moment, whenever people enough happen to drop in together accidentally of an evening. ”

“ Ladies and gentlemen sitting round their table are apt to forget that the man or maid waiting upon them has ears, and that their comments on life and the way the world is wagging, cannot fail to excite attention on the part of the domestic. Topics thrashed out in the dining-room or drawing-room are frequently carried below-stairs, and there subjected to a similar process, though it may be on very different lines. ”

“ It was a face and figure that men would look at and turn again to watch, even in the busy street. Her complexion was almost painfully perfect in its clear pallid whiteness, and the large dark lustrous eyes shone out from the marble face with dazzling brightness. She had a perfect abundance of real golden hair, looped up in a great knot behind; but the rebellious straying tresses fell over her broad low forehead like an aureole round the head of a saint. ”

“ Our good-fortune in obtaining permission to descend a caisson of the gigantic Forth Bridge—which when completed will be one of the most stupendous railway viaducts in the world—obtained additional zest from the fact that comparatively few structures are founded on what is termed the pneumatic principle in this country—the employment of compressed air being more in vogue on the continent—and still fewer are open to the passing visitor, uninfluenced alike by professional or scientific ardour. ”

“ There was none of that reserve and strict etiquette with which ministers usually love to surround themselves, like a wall of division between them and the people’s representatives, none of that exclusiveness and national party spirit which, as a rule, is always present in the Diet. Very few uniforms were visible among the guests. The nooks and corners, in which, according to Bismarck’s own words, the great affairs of the state could be settled and arranged in five minutes, were now all filled with eager talkative groups of deputies and councillors, or the leaders of the different parties. ”

“ We would fain linger amid a scene so weird and wonderful; but time fails, and we must return to ‘bank.’ We take a last look at the air-chamber with its busy occupants, and ascending the ladder, not without exertion, for a vertical ladder at all times calls muscle into play, and the pressure we are under by no means lightens our labours, we find ourselves again in the air-lock. ”

“ The future must be pregnant with reform in the relations between the occupants of the drawing-room and of the servants’ hall. If masters and mistresses are wise, they will rob the revolutionary spirit of the age of any force it may have, by anticipating in a generous and liberal-handed manner{30} claims which, if ignored, may result in a condition of things as undesirable as that which to-day obtains in Australia, where servants, at least as they are known in the old country, are non-existent. ”

“ Edward’s heart smote him rather at the strange way Marian had received the news that so greatly delighted him. It was very natural, after all, no doubt. Every girl feels the wrench of having to leave her father’s house and her mother and her familiar surroundings. But still, he somehow felt vaguely within himself that it seemed like an evil omen for their future happiness in the Trinidad judgeship ”

“ No class of the community are kept to so perpetual a round of labour as the domestic servant. With the exception of an occasional afternoon or evening—often it is not more than once in a fortnight—those who live below-stairs rarely have an hour which they can call entirely their own. ”

“ There seems, indeed, to be no limit to the part science is destined to play in the pursuits of man of late; but that it should lend a hand in killing the leviathans of the sea, would hardly have been credited a few years ago. This is, however, now a fact. Along the shores of Arctic Norway, in latitudes seventy to seventy-one degrees north, whale-hunting takes place annually by means of steamers and a cleverly contrived piece of ordnance. ”

“ In principle, the air-lock of a caisson in no way differs from the well-known lock on a canal. The air-lock is formed by a tube of larger diameter, which surrounds the upper end of the vertical tube leading to the air-chamber.
Having entered this outer chamber, the door is closed behind us, and our connection with the outer world severed. A cock is turned, and with a steady hiss, the compressed air enters, a fact of which we soon become painfully conscious by the pressure that is brought to bear upon the drum of the ear. ”

“ Others, however, leave one situation with the express hope that they may never enter another, and if employment of a different kind offers, eagerly avail themselves of it, albeit generally to their own disadvantage. Thousands of young men and women in every way qualified for service are swamping many callings. Milliners, dressmakers, clerks, shop-assistants—what a host might be found in the ranks of these who would constitute first-class recruits for private service! It is a fact, that whilst their numbers are on the increase, the numbers of domestics are almost stationary. ”

“ No whale is in sight. A little while ago, there were a few ‘puffs’ down in the eastern horizon; but they are gone now; perhaps the supper has not been dainty or plentiful enough about us; there is neither whale nor bait to be seen. From time to time, a solitary seabird flits rapidly by, towards shore ”

“ We have been searching for two years, and not a trace can we find.’
‘Perhaps Miss Wakefield is hiding the plunder away,’ Eleanor suggested with some indifference.
‘Impossible,’ eagerly exclaimed Mr Carver—‘impossible. What object could she have in doing so? The money was clearly left to her; and it is not likely that a woman so fond of show would deliberately choose to spend her life in a dingy lodging-house.’
‘And Eastwood?’
‘Is empty. It will not let, neither can we sell it.’
‘So Miss Wakefield is no better off than she was four years ago!’ Eleanor said calmly. ”

“ No one can doubt that if a lady, when engaging a domestic, said, ‘Supposing you stay with me and perform your duties to the best of your ability for ten years, I will, in consideration thereof, present you at the termination of your engagement with twenty-five pounds,’ the effect would be beneficial. On condition of being assured that the money was safe, many servants, for the sake of the bonus, would consent to accept lesser wages than they receive at present. ”

“ There is, quite without reason, attaching to service a certain disposition on the part of many of our domestics to resent the washing-up of dishes or the cleaning of a floor.
The rule is not, of course, absolute, and there are many really good servants who enter a family and stay in it a number of years. But the tendency of the period is nomadic. In some quarters, there is a disposition to account for the perpetual changing of servants on the ground that servants love change. ”

“ The salmon, the cousin of the trout, is famous for its method of going up-stream; it darts at falls ten or twelve feet high, leaps into the air, and rushes up the falling water in a marvellous manner. ”

“ Groups of foreign workmen—enlisted for this service, owing to continental experience in this class of work—are busily engaged in levelling the surface of the rock. The majority of these men wield pick and bar; whilst others fill the iron tubs or ‘skips’ with the fragments of rock, which are then drawn to the surface, passing through a lock similar in principle, though differing slightly in design from that we have ourselves traversed; and having discharged their contents over the edge of the caisson, return for another load. ”

“ No one who knows anything at all about them will hesitate for a moment to reply in the affirmative. ‘Why, then,’ it will be, and often is asked, ‘do they not go into service?’ It would be found that if they applied for a situation in the household to-morrow, they would want to become ladies’-maids or valets. ”

“ What is wanted in many places is that some one concerned in the mission-work amongst sailors should be on the lookout when a ship arrives in port with a crew to pay off, and see the men lodged in respectable boarding-houses or sailors’ homes, so that they can send their wages home by means of the Money Orders ”

“ Beyond the locality in which they lived and the immediate circle of their master’s acquaintances, the world was to them little more than a blank and a mystery. To-day, they are nearly as familiar with the world as are their masters. ”

“ As soon as the animal feels the wound, it makes a sudden bound, whereby the hooks on the shaft spring into a horizontal position; by which action, again, through an ingenious piece of mechanism, the explosive in the shell is fired, and the latter bursts with such a force that death is almost instantaneous. ”

“ But Mr Bates already had his hand on the cheque-book, and commenced to fill in the date. Mr Carver gave him a look of approbation, and flashed him a sign with his fingers signifying the amount.
‘I suppose you have some friends?’ he continued hastily, to cover Eleanor’s confusion. ‘It’s a poor world that won’t stand one good friend.’
‘Yes, we have one,’ replied Eleanor, her face lighting up with a tender glow—‘a good friend.{27} You have heard of Jasper Felix the author? He is far the best friend we have.’
‘Heard of Felix! I should think I have. Read every one of his books. ”

“ It is grievous to think that the wages of many of our sailors, who have perhaps been out on a voyage of many months’ duration, should be dissipated in a few days, and most of it fall into the hands of the worthless creatures who live by this species of plunder. ”

“ The unrest which characterises society itself characterises every section of the community. To ‘better’ themselves is the lifelong aim of servants in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Good servants are already at a premium. The complaint is constantly made that whilst domestics are more independent than of yore, their{29} work is less carefully attended to. Those who understand the forces at work in our midst have no difficulty in recognising that, as time goes on, first-class servants will become rarer still. ”

“ Further, there can be no reason why mistresses should not agree to let each of their servants have a certain number of hours during the week which they may consider their own. The one drawback to service, in the eyes of many who would be better off in service than they are now, is, that they cannot have the evenings which at present are at their disposal. ”