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at a village ball, although the young farmers and mechanics were all expected and even begged to attend.
“What is the difference?”
I asked.
“Why, of course,” said the ladies on the committee, “you expect to dance in the same set, at a country ball, with your milkman and shoemaker, but as to meeting on the same terms Mr.--'s man-servant, that is a very different thing.”
I never could see why it was different, but long observation has convinced me that it is so regarded.
Now if the very ladies who give all the good advice still make this distinction, and if they rank household service as socially inferior to the more independent lines of work, how can they expect not to be taken at their word?
They may talk never so much about the dignity of household employment, but they do not really believe in it.
I have lately asked a series of ladies, who are all content with their own social positions, whether they would prefer to have a son or a brother marry a young girl who had been a seamstress or one who had been a domestic servant, and they have always said that they should prefer the seamstress.
On being pressed for reasons, some said that they did not know, but that this was the way they felt.
Others said that household service seemed “more menial ;” others, that it would be awkward to receive as an equal one who had opened the door for you or
