he women who work in the kitchens and the chambers of other women
sullenly resent the imputation of their menial status in so doing.
Just why the modern servants should be looked upon as inferior to
other women workers is a difficult question, for their close relation
to their mistresses would appear to give them an individuality which
the "hands" in a factory do not possess. The line of demarcation
between the domestic employers and employes is not always a clearly
pronounced one, for it not uncommonly occurs that those who themselves
employ a maid send out their own daughters to similar service. The low
regard in which servants are held, and the application to them of
this very term, which carries with it an implication of ignominy,
is responsible for the poor grade of efficiency, intelligence, and
character found among domestics as a class. There is no reason, in
the nature of the case, why a young girl with intelligence and fair
education should not self-respectingly take domestic service, and
rank above factory hands and many of her sister workers in inferior
clerical positions.

In earlier times domestic work fell largely to men. The kitchen work
which now is performed by scullery maids was done by boys and youths;
and before the office of housemaid had been established, that of
chamberlain signified the service of men for the work which maids are
now employed to do. The very titles of those who are connected with
the person of majesty signify the lowly household functions which were
ordinarily performed by those to whom now fall the honors, but none of
the duties, of those offices. In ecclesiastical households there were
no women employed at all in former times, excepting "brewsters." The
personal relationship which used to endear the tie between servant and
mistress no more exists than it does between other working people
and their employers. Instead of the idea of personal attachment,
the monetary consideration is the only one that enters into the
relationship. The maid is but a part of the machinery of the
household, and must deport herself in a deferential and often an
abject manner, assuming a mask of propriety which is thrown off as
soon as she is among her companions, when the pent-up animosity and
resentment find expression. How different the modern condition from
that which obtained in other times, when a lady considered no one
fitting to attend upon her excepting those who were of gentle blood
and betw