Now, this subject appears too clear for any question of right or wrong, liberty or slavery. The same course--open and above-board--should be plain to both employer and employé. Among business men this law of honor is fully understood. The amount of wages in all employments is well defined. Custom fixes the prices for specified labor. It is those who offer beyond the accepted rates who cause most of the trouble experienced in all classes of labor. A manufacturer engages a certain number of men to work in his mill. He offers and they accept the regular rates of payment. A neighboring manufacturer is short of hands, and privately goes to these men, _bribing_ them, for it is nothing short of a bribe, with offers of higher wages to leave their present work and come to him. If their ideas of honor are no higher than his own, they will probably accept the bribe, and their first employer’s mills must stand idle until he can secure others to fill their places. Would you not call this dishonorable? This is acceded to in the outdoor world, among merchants, mechanics, manufacturers, and farmers. But how much more sacred, how much stronger, should this code of honor be to us, in the family! If we learn that a girl has “given warning” to her employer of her intention to leave, we have a perfect right to try and secure her; but to avoid the least appearance of evil, to do truly “as we would be done by,” we should think it but wise and just to go first to the lady and signify our wishes, making such inquiries as may be needed. In the case given by “Laicus,” however, the nurse-maid is sent, and offers of higher wages given through her. The girl is _bought_. We cannot think it acting honorably by the mistress or kindly by the maid. If tempted once to act secretly, she probably can be again, and from a useful, reliable servant may become one on whom there can be no dependence. If this mode of securing assistance is accepted as a correct and honorable practice, no one is safe. In every department we shall be at the mercy of the selfish and unscrupulous. The laborer is evidently worthy of his hire, and in this country no class of people are likely to remain long in ignorance of the price they can command, or to estimate their ability at too low a rate.