A little while ago I was wandering from factory to factory, watching girls at work amongst whirling spindles, clattering machinery, and clinking hammers; wondering often that the young creatures were not bewildered or permanently deafened by the ceaseless noise which accompanied their hours of toil; wondering still more at the varied articles produced by girl-hands, and at the way in which the comfort of persons in every rank of life seems to depend upon, and be ministered to, by what they do as outdoor workers.
The comfort of the world at large, of the great human family, is very greatly influenced by the girl-toilers in these hives of industry. But how much more is the happiness of all the separate families which go to make up the vast total, influenced by the lives and conduct of those who actually serve in the home itself, who fill the honourable and responsible position of domestic servants.
You who thus serve will, perhaps, think that I use strong terms respecting your work and the place you occupy. I mean to justify these expressions, and to show you how truly important is that work, how high is your position, when measured by the vast trust which employers are compelled to repose in the girls whom they receive into their homes as servants.
I have been the mistress of a house for a great many years, and yet, considering that I have usually had four female servants at once, I have not had a large number in the whole time. The reason is that very few have left our home except to start in houses of their own, or from some equally satisfactory cause, and usually after a long term of service. Also, that when circumstances have rendered it necessary for a servant to leave us, it has been the rule for the family and herself to part with feelings of mutual regret and goodwill. It is always a pleasure for us to welcome under our roof those who have served us faithfully, and to hear of their well-being.
I have had only one thoroughly bad servant—but she was a systematically bad woman, who would have wrought mischief in whatever position of life she might have occupied. Ignorance of household routine, and inexperience in the performance of certain duties, may easily be corrected wherever a servant is able and willing to learn, and a mistress to bestow time and pains in teaching her.
It makes me glad as I write to think that I both have had, and still have, servants whom I regard as dear friends; who have proved themselves sympathetic and self-devoting in various seasons of sickness, and when extra labour and watching were needed; who have been true helpers and comforters to all around them.
Some, too, have been associated with me in Christian work, and have deemed themselves more than repaid for any additional labour which has thus devolved upon them, by the happiness that accompanies the very act of good-doing for Christ’s sake.
I think of such servants as these not only with pleasure, but with the deepest thankfulness. With all my heart I desire to thank God for such service, and for the sense of family comfort and safety which has been one of its happy consequences in my own home.
I am sure every girl who occupies the position of a domestic servant will agree with me, that it is a good thing when a mistress can kneel down and thank Our Father in heaven, for the great family blessing He has sent her in the shape of a faithful servant. Equally so when a girl, coming a stranger into a new home, can thankfully feel that she too is regarded, not as a human machine to be sent away as soon as she breaks down, and, once out of sight, out of mind also; but as a member of the family, to be cared for by the rest both in regard to health of soul and body—and most of all by the mistress as ‘house-mother.’
I wonder whether servants and mistresses generally understand what the word ‘family’ means. I have alluded to each servant as a member of the family, but I know that people usually take a much narrower view of its meaning, and think it should be confined strictly to those who are united by the ties of kindred.
The word is used in several senses in our language, but the one which takes the lead is as follows:—‘Family. The collective body of persons who live in one house and under one head or manager of a household, including parents, children, and servants.’
So you see, dear girls who serve in other homes than those of your parents, you are none the less members of the family into which you enter, though your actual place and work in it differ from those of the parents and children. But if you claim to be of the family, you must remember that the very privilege brings also responsibility.
It forbids the putting of self in the first rank, and binds you to consider the well-being, convenience, and comfort of every member of the household, at least equally with your own; to work and think for the common good, because you also are of the family.
Notice how the Bible recognises this. Read through the Ten Commandments, and see what individuals are named in those rules given by God Himself, for the government of the human race. Here they are, following each other: Father and mother, son and daughter, man-servant and maid-servant.
Not many pictures of girl life are to be found in the pages of Holy Writ. We catch glimpses now and then of Rebekah and Rachel and the daughters of Jethro tending their flocks, and watering them from the precious and jealously guarded wells. These show us something of their occupations out of doors, of their readiness—ladies though they were—to serve the stranger and wait on the weary traveller. But the curtains of the tent are rarely lifted sufficiently to give us even a peep at the girls within, whether young mistresses or waiting damsels, when employed in household duties.
Ruth has a whole book given to her and her family. But we only see her for the first time in her widowhood, and when she has been ten years a wife. Esther has a still longer book, but in her story is involved the fate of a nation of captives.
But there is a little picture given in another place, and I never read it without thinking how delightful it must be to every young servant, to look upon this word-sketch of the little captive maid who waited upon Naaman’s wife.
It tells so much in so few words. It shows us the girl, far away from her home and her kindred, a stranger in a strange land—yet full of sympathy with her mistress, realizing that she is one of the family, and anxious to do good to its afflicted and suffering head.
Putting away the memory of her own wrongs, she would fain direct her master to him at whose word, she believed, the loathsome disease would vanish and Naaman be made whole.
This little servant maid must have remembered her own home and friends, because she could speak of the miracle-working prophet in her own land. A revengeful girl would have rejoiced in her master’s affliction. A selfish one would have made terms, and only told of the healer on condition of being restored to her own friends.
This young servant girl did neither. She uttered a wish which was also a prayer on behalf of him who held her captive: ‘Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.’
Though she was in such a humble position, she had gained a character for truth. Her mistress durst speak after her! A king durst write a letter, send an embassy, and despatch an offering of enormous value, in sole reliance on the word of the little foreign servant.
Her master, a great and powerful general, the mighty man of valour, and conqueror in many a battle, set out on a journey with a heart full of hope, because he could believe the wish she had uttered was sincere, and that she was convinced of the prophet’s power and will to heal him.
Only a story contained in three verses of the Bible, but how much it tells! What a beautiful character it reveals! A young servant girl, truthful and trusted; forgiving and doing good to her captors; realizing that she was one of that family in which she served; forgetting self in her sympathy with suffering; repaying the kindness and confidence of her mistress, not merely by faithful service, but by heartiest goodwill.
Ah! you who serve in the homes of others, well may you rejoice to think that one in a like position is the heroine of this delightful Bible story. May you in reading it take home all its sweet lessons, and in your own narrower circle, and perhaps a far humbler household, imitate the example, and reproduce the disposition shown by the little Israelitish maiden when a captive in a strange land.
Probably many a young, ay, and old woman too, looks back upon her girlish days in service, and recalls the period she spent under one particular roof as a turning-point in her life for good or evil. If the former, she will lift up her heart in thanksgiving as memories of wise, loving counsel and patient teaching come before her mind’s eye.
Some, perhaps, are still in situations, and regularly and habitually doing their daily work as if the eye of the mistress was always present. Each thinks of one who, in bygone days, was the means of making her the valuable servant she is, by dint of much careful training and painstaking when she went, a mere girl and very ignorant, to her first place. She knows that the seeds sown by that hand have brought forth in herself the fruits of regularity, order, neatness, cleanliness, and punctuality; and that truth and honesty, if not planted, were fostered and encouraged by that true friend and experienced mistress.
Perhaps she remembers, too, that in those early days the patient teacher did not always find a patient scholar; that the lessons which were given for her good were often little valued—sometimes even resented as the acts of a fidgety, worriting, too-particular mistress whom nothing could satisfy.
She knows better now, and rejoices that she fell into hands equally firm and kind. But the memory of her own little tempers and impatience under training makes her, let us hope, more patient and forbearing with other young girls who are in turn placed under her, to be similarly instructed.
I fancy I hear a chorus of young voices cry out, ‘It is all very well for you to say we should be particular about the places we take, but we cannot always choose from a number. Often our very bread depends on our getting a situation. If we are unable to get what we want, we must take what we can get.’
Quite true. Yet it is not often that a girl who is worth having has to leave a situation at less than a month’s notice, so that she has always some time to look about her and make inquiries.
Shall I tell you my recipe for getting a good servant? It will be just as useful to you in securing a good place. It is prayer, as well as the use of ordinary means. Whenever a servant has been about to leave us, it has been the custom for my husband and myself to kneel together and ask God to guide us in the choice of a successor. We felt that the peace of our home, the well-being of our family, and perhaps even more than all, that an important influence on the minds and manners of our little ones would depend upon the new-comer. Was it not, then, worth while to ask God’s guidance and blessing? If good for master and mistress, surely it must be equally so for the girl who seeks work and a home amongst strangers.
Do not take a place where you cannot have Sunday privileges. A widowed mother, herself in service, applied for a situation for her young daughter. She returned disappointed in one sense, but not in another.
‘Jane could have had the place, and good wages; but when I named the going to church on Sundays, the lady said Sunday was always her day for company, and she could spare none of her servants to go out. She would give her another day instead. I told her this would not suit my girl,’ said the poor mother, who had much cause for anxiety about employment for her child. ‘I had all my life tried to train her in the faith and fear of God, and specially taught her to value and remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. I dare not go against my own teaching and conscience, come what may. I must trust; the Lord will provide.’
And He did provide. The mother’s prayers were not in vain; her faith was not disappointed. Pray, then, for guidance, dear girls. You will not ask in vain; but I believe you will be answered by having good homes and good mistresses, as my husband and I have been, in having good servants sent to us from time to time.