Even Among The Clergy,
Some Things Might Seem Rather Peculiar To A Person Fresh From England.
A
clergyman coming to a pause in his sermon, one of his auditors from the
floor called up "Propitiation;" the preacher thanked him, took the word,
and went on with his discourse.
The difficulty of procuring servants, which is felt from the Government
House downwards, is one of the great objections to this colony. The few
there are know nothing of any individual department of work, - for
instance, there are neither cooks nor housemaids, they are strictly
"helps" - the mistress being expected to take more than her fair share of
the work. They come in and go out when they please, and, if anything
dissatisfies them, they ask for their wages, and depart the same day, in
the certainty that their labour will command a higher price in the United
States. It is not an uncommon thing for a gentleman to be obliged to do
the work of gardener, errand-boy, and groom. A servant left at an hour's
notice, saying, "she had never been so insulted before," because her
master requested her to put on shoes when she waited at table; and a
gentleman was obliged to lie in bed because his servant had taken all his
shirts to the wash, and had left them while she went to a "frolic" with
her lover.
The upper class of society in the island is rather exclusive, but it is
difficult to say what qualification entitles a man to be received into
"society." The entree at Government House is not sufficient; but a
uniform is powerful, and wealth is omnipotent.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 47 of 478
Words from 12588 to 12862
of 129941
