[151] A visit to many New England burying grounds will illustrate this statement. It was doubtless a survival of the English custom. A curious and interesting collection of epitaphs of servants has been made by Arthur J. Munby. [152] “... Help, for I love our Yankee word, teaching, as it does, the true relation, and its being equally binding on master and servant.”—J. R. Lowell, _Letters_, I., 105. [153] Even Americans commented on it. John Watson writes: “One of the remarkable incidents of our republican principles of equality is the hirelings, who in times before the war of Independence were accustomed to accept the names of servants and to be drest according to their condition, will now no longer suffer the former appellation; and all affect the dress and the air, when abroad, of genteeler people than their business warrants. Those, therefore, who from affluence have many dependents, find it a constant subject of perplexity to manage their pride and assumption.”—_Annals_, p. 165. [154] _Autobiography_, I., 331. [155] _Society in America_, II., 248. [156] _Society in America_, II., 245. [157] _Ibid._, II., 254-255. It is of interest to contrast this picture of service in America by an Englishwoman with one given a little earlier of service in England by an American. Elkanah Watson writes from London in 1782: “The servants attending upon my friend’s table were neatly dressed, and extremely active and adroit in performing their offices, and glided about the room silent and attentive. Their silence was in striking contrast with the volubility of the French attendants, who, to my utter astonishment, I have often observed in France, intermingling in the conversation of the table. Here, the servant, however cherished, is held at an awful distance. The English servant is generally an ignorant and servile being, who has no aspiration beyond his present condition.”—_Men and Times of the Revolution_, p. 169. [158] _Democracy in America_, II., 194. [159] _The Americans in their Moral, Social, and Political Relations_, pp. 236-237. Thomas Grattan also says, “The native Americans are the best servants in the country.”—_Civilized America_, I., 260. [160] _A Year’s Residence in the United States_, p. 201. Charles Mackay also says that “service is called ‘help,’ to avoid wounding the susceptibility of free citizens.”—_Life and Liberty in America_, I., 42. [161] _Domestic Manners of the Americans_, I., 73. [162] _Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States_, p. 284. [163] He adds the interesting facts that cooks usually received $1.50 per week; chambermaids, $1.25; gardeners, $11 per month, and waiters $10 per month.—_Recollections_, pp. 299-300. [164] _The Englishwoman in America_, pp. 43, 214. [165] _Civilized America_, I., 256-258. [166] _Ibid._, I., 259. [167] _Civilized America_, I., 264. [168] _Ibid._, I., 269. [169] _Views of Society and Manners in America_, p. 338.