From this cause domestic service in America has had less of mutual
kindliness titan in old countries. Its terms have been so ill-
understood and defined that both parties have assumed the defensive;
and a common topic of conversation in American female society has often
been the general servile war which in one form or another was going
on in their different families--a war as interminable as would be a
struggle between aristocracy and common people, undefined by any bill
of rights or constitution, and therefore opening fields for endless
disputes.
In England, the class who go to service _are_ a class, and service
is a profession; the distance between them and their employers is so
marked and defined, and all the customs and requirements of the position
are so perfectly understood, that the master or mistress has no fear
of being compromised by condescension, and no need of the external
voice or air of authority. The higher up in the social scale one goes,
the more courteous seems to become the intercourse of master and
servant; the more perfect and real the power, the more is it veiled
in outward expression--commands are phrased as requests, and gentleness
of voice and manner covers an authority which no one would think of
offending without trembling.
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