conscientious man at the head of such an institution,
managing it upon the principle that it is just as much his interest to
furnish the employer with a good servant as to provide the servant with
a good place, would be truly a public benefactor. In this, as in all
other kinds of business, honesty would be found the best _policy_. It is
a base imposition to recommend as good a servant who is known to be bad,
and it is just as dishonest to recommend as good one whose character is
totally unknown. It should be the business of every purveyor of
household 'help' to ascertain, by rigid investigation, the characters
and qualifications of those who apply for places; and they should
steadily refuse to have anything to do with any they cannot honestly
recommend. This, we repeat, they would speedily find their best policy.
In this way, and this only, can they win back the confidence and
patronage of the public; and they would soon find that the worthless
characters who now constitute their main stock in trade, would be
superseded by a much better class. There would be another important
benefit to the servants themselves in such a course. In an office thus
conducted, the known necessity of being able to show a clean record in
order to procure a place, would reform many a bad servant, who now,
knowing that her twenty-five cents will procure her a place (and no
questions asked by the agent, so that he need tell no lies), has no
incentive to improvement or good conduct. There would soon be a rivalry
among servants as to who should stand highest upon the roll of merit.

The fault which has been before alluded to under the name of
'independence,' deserves more special mention than I have yet given it.
It is probably the most exasperating, as it is the most general of all
the failings of servants. It makes the timid and sensitive housekeeper a
slave in her own house. No matter how grave may be the offences of her
hired girl, she must bear them in the meekest silence. Even the most
friendly advice, conveyed in the blandest possible tone, is often
declined with freezing dignity or repelled with tart resentment. The
cook who makes a cinder of your joint, or sends you up disgusting slops
for coffee, or the laundress between whose clean and soiled linen you
are puzzled to choose, has almost invariably the reply, uttered with a
majestic sternness that never fails to crush any but a veteran and
plucky housekeeper: 'This is the first time any mi