'The servant girls of Dundee have formed a Union and
agreed to three resolutions. They will not take service where the regular hours are longer than from six a.m. to ten p.m. ; they will have Sunday once a fortnight ; and they will organize inquiries into the characters of employers. Everybody smiles, but it should be remembered that eight-tenths of these girls in Scotland work in houses where there is only one servant, that they cannot be married without courtship, which, without holidays, is in such holism impracticable, and that their mistresses' tempers are of the last importance to them, because if they do not stop a year no future employer will trust their characters. In the smaller Scotch towns, and even in Edinburgh, household discipline is still maintained with a strictness of which Londoners have no idea, and a mistress who "follows " an unlucky maid all day, who has a hot tongue, or who thinks broth quite sufficient nourishment, is not a pleasant task-mistress, even for the limited time of six- teen hours a day. The girls will be beaten of course, but even if they succeed they will be worse off than London lodging-house servants, who at all events sell their health for good round profits.
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