A second mark of social inferiority is the use of the Christian name
in address. It may seem a very trifling matter, yet the fact again
remains that domestic employees are the only class of workers, except
day laborers, who are thus addressed. The weight that is attached
to the matter in other walks of life is seen in the policy of more
than one well-known newspaper; a strong weapon of attack in encounter
with opponents has been the reference by Christian name to those
whom the writers wish to consign to political obscurity. In no way
does advancement in age and dignity show itself sooner than in the
substitution of the surname for the Christian name. The boy shows his
sense of growing importance by dropping the Christian name in addressing
his companions. In the eyes of the débutante the first card bearing
the name “Miss Brown” throws into insignificance many other advantages
of the new position. Probably few persons would choose to go through
life addressed by even their most intimate friends, aside from kith and
kin, as are the class of domestic employees. The use of the Christian
name in address undoubtedly grew out of the close family relationship
that existed between the employer and the employee, but it has become
a badge of social inferiority since it is used alike by strangers and
friends. Any person considers himself privileged to use the familiar
address towards any employee simply by virtue of the employee’s position.
Even more objectionable is the English custom, sometimes affected in
America, of dropping the Christian name and using the surname without a
title, since it implies social inferiority even more than the familiar
address.[274]
A third badge of the position sometimes insisted on is the cap and apron.
These are not worn, as are the cap and sleeves of the trained nurse, to
indicate the completion of a regular course of scientific training; they
are not the uniform of the postman or the policeman, which shows the
recognition by national or municipal authorities of superior fitness for
the position filled and carries with it somewhat of the prestige of the
power the wearer serves; they represent necessarily no attainment on the
part of the person wearing them, nor are they, as worn, always the object
of laudable ambition. The cap and apron sometimes indicate the rise of
the employer in the social scale rather than the professional advance of
the employee. The wider the separation in any community between employer
and employee, the greater is the tendency to insist on the cap and apron.
The same principle is involved when coachmen are not permitted to wear
beards and hotel and club waiters are required to sacrifice the moustache.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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