Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1886 — MASTER AND MAN. [ARTICLE]

MASTER AND MAN.

Relations of the Two in England—A Demonstrative Butler. General Badeau, writing on the relation of master and man in England, says: I was staying once with a young nobleman who had a crowd of peers for guests. We had been dining some miles away and drove back latei at night in what is called an omnibus. The valet of one of the visitors, a lad of 19 or 20, stood on the steps outside. By a jolt of the carriage this youth was thrown off into the road while we were still some distance from the house, and the whole party alighted to look after him. He was unable to walk or to endure the motion of the carriage, and a couple of Viscounts, an officer of the army and a Baronet carried the valet a quarter of a mile up a steep hill, then bore him into the room of the master of the house, and one tore open his shirt to look for his wound. There was no surgeon, so they bathed his breast and fils forehead themselves, and the youth lay on the nobleman’s bed till it was certain he was not seriously injured. Not till then did the gay young rollickers assemble for their late carouse. I know of another nobleman whost eldest son was standing for Parliament The contest was keen, and the excitement in the family extended to the servants. Finally, the heir was elected, and the news was brought to the Earl and the Countqss as they stood on the steps of the house in a crowd of friends and followers. Tho butler, a very respectable man of 50 or more, who had been in the family all his life was unable to contain his delight. He rushed up to his mistress, threw his arms around her and kissed her, and the salute was forgiven by the lady as well as the Lord. 1 did not witness this demonstration of fidelity, but I was told by an Englishman \\jio was present and pronounced it unusual, but not inexcusable. The Queen, it is well known, sets the pattern in this consideration for personal retainers. She not only visits her gillies in tho Highlands, but the servants on all her estates; she attends their balls and their christenings and funerals; she invites them at times to entertainments at which she is present in person; an honor she never pays the nobility; ampler affection for nor devoted John Brown she has been anxious to make known to the world. Twice I was present at country houses where - the servants joined in a dance with the family. Once it was after a servant’s wedding, which was, of course an event. On the other occasion, at a well-known lodge in the Grampians, a highland reel was proposed, but there were not enough ladies to go round, so the best looking of the housemaids were brought in and placed in the line with Marchionesses and the daughters of Earls. One was by far the prettiest of her sex in the room, and the heir of the house didn’t like it at all if any of his guests danced too often with his maid. But none of these young spinsters presumed on the favor that was shown them; the distance in rank was too great to be bridged by any transient familiarity. It was the very consciousness of the gulf that made the condescension possible. At a house of a nobleman who had a crowd of sons, and these always a crowd of boyish visitors, the whole frolicsome party was sent off nightly, after the ladies had retired to a distant tower of the castle where they might make as much noise as they pleased. They drank and they smoked, and they played cards, and had two or three of the footmen told off to them who stayed up half the night with their young masters, to wait oo them and amuse them. The young men were all of the same age, and the gentlemen often invited their servants to a cigar or a glass and not unseldom to a turn at the gloves, for most young Irishmen box. They played fair; the lords and the lackeys wrestling together on an equality. The servant might get his own master down if he could, ana if the valet struck out from his shoulder the gentleman took his punishment like a man. “Last fall,” said my Alexandria friend, “when the Norfolk boat stopped at Alexandria one night on its way down the river, a well known Alexandrian, who had more liquor than was good for him, walked on board and said to a gentleman who was talking to some ladies; ‘I want a cigar or blood,’ in bloodcurdling tones. ‘Have a cigar, sir?’ said the stranger, handing nim one in a most conciliatory way, and then the Alexandrian came on shore again.— Washington Letter to Philadelphia Record. The prevention of decay in wood is said to be effectively accomplished by exhausting the air from the pores and tilling them with a gutta percha solution, a substance which preserves the wood alike from moisture, water, and the action of the sun. The solution is made by mixing two-thirds of gutta percha to one-third of parafine, this mixture being then heated to liquify { the gutta percha, when it is readily in- I troduced into the pores of the wood, the effect of the gutta percha being, when it becomes cool, to harden the I nores.