Page:Olive Malmberg Johnson - Woman and the Socialist Movement (1908).djvu/29

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It is scarcely possible to expostulate on woman's troubles and tribulations without stumbling upon this much disputed ground. Of all the worries of the society woman, the problem of controlling her menials is probably a little the worst. The lackeys, that is, the genuine hangers-on of plutocracy, constitute at the present time a large class of people. The more riotous the society life of plutocracy becomes the larger grows the army that they draw in their wake. The train must needs be long to make a splendid show, equal or over and above, their society rivals. They keep whole such retinues for mountain homes, seaside homes and city homes, homes in the south and homes in the north. Some fit out whole floating palaces and make cruises around the world, waited on and bowed to at every turn. Some have nurses for their poodles and flunkies that take them for an airing.

These places with the rich are desirable refuges for men and women who can curb their entire individuality and become mere mummies and lickspittles. There is no indignity to which the typical flunky will not stoop. Often, however, the servant gets the mastery over the master. They are the go-betweens in dissipations and secret adventures. If these are to remain secret the servant must be bought. But one that can be bought for silence can also be bought to talk. Thus these inevitable evils to a useless and corrupt class become the scourge and menace of their good master or mistress, who often becomes entirely tyrannized by them. In most of the great scandals the servant plays a formidable part as a witness. But it depends on which side can buy, whether he is silent or talks. The rumors and small gossip that are always afloat concerning various society people mostly come through the servants' hall. There is no doubt that society ardently wishes that we still lived in the age when the servant class could be reduced to dumb mutes and eunuchs.

The lackey class furnishes no field for Socialist propaganda. They ave hangers-on of the rich and are as a rule ardent up-