Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1882 — The Welsh Maid. [ARTICLE]

The Welsh Maid.

Rambles in South Wales, Sykes, That any employment for women should rank below that of domestic servant in popular estimation, is an idea which strikes the American mind as quite a novelty. An American girl will do almost anyth ng rather than be a servant. A factory girl ranks in the United States as a far more important member cf society than a domestic servant. This is not the case in Wales, nor, I believe, in Great Britain generally. The servant girl holds herself far higher in the social scale than the tip girl,or.indeed any other girl who works with her hands, unless it be the- girl “in business,” as the phrase is. A girl “in business” is what Americans politely caff a “saleslady,” though in Great Britain she is not infrequantly a seller of gin and beer —in other words, a barmaid. Bar keepers of the masculine gender, it may be remarked by the way,are nearly unknown in Wales,unless as an exotic of American origin. The masculine bar-fender of America is an outgrowth of pioneer roughness—a condition of society in which pistols and bowie-knives were many and women few.. There is, hardly a bettfer servant in the world than a really good Welch maid. She more nearly approaches the best French model than any other I have known. 01 course she has not the training in certain polished customs which the French servan t has, but her deftness, alacrity, Jand politeness are equally great. T rhe politeness of a servant to an employer is as clear and fair a thing as any politeness on earth. Its absence is great loss to both parties; in America it is very generally absent, its expression being thought servility. The servant in Wales who is not polite is thought to be lacking the social culture befitting his or her station. The wages of servants, while very much below those common in the United States, are, as a rule, better than the earnings of any other women on their social plane. 4