American girls
understand this, and so they won't go out to service in the usual way.
Even in a summer hotel the relation has its odious aspects. The system of
giving fees seems to me degrading to those who have to take them. To offer
a student or a teacher a dollar for personal service--it isn't right, or I
can't make it so. In fact, the whole thing is rather anomalous with us.
The best that you can say of it is that it works, and we don't know what
else to do."
"But I don't see yet," said the Altrurian, "just why domestic service is
degrading in a country where all kinds of work are honored."
"Well, my dear fellow, I have done my best to explain. As I intimated
before, we distinguish; and in the different kinds of labor we distinguish
against domestic service. I dare say it is partly because of the loss of
independence which it involves. People naturally despise a dependant."
"Why?" asked the Altrurian, with that innocence of his which I was
beginning to find rather trying.
"Why?" I retorted. "Because it implies weakness."
"And is weakness considered despicable among you?" he pursued.
"In every community it is despised practically, if not theoretically," I
tried to explain.
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