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THE

BOY'S OWN LIBRARY,

PRICE SIXPENCE, MONTHLY.

Part I., published May 1st, 1861, containing 48 pages of paper of the first quality, and beautifully printed in a perfectly new type; with a splendidly Coloured Frontispiece, and a Map, showing the distribution of Animals on the Continent of Africa.

THE BOY'S OWN LIBRARY, a series of books for the Youth of Great Britain, will be hailed, we think, with great delight by not only the lads themselves for whom the works will be prepared, but by ali interested in the sound and manly instruction and development of "Young England." It is greatly to the credit of the youth of these Isles that they turn with scorn from the lighter and grosser literature of the day to that which is more in accordance with their own healthful sentiments; and to increase this wholesome preference will be the aim of each writer whose books will have a place in the "Boy's Own Library." The Library will be issued in

Monthly Parts, Price Sixpence Each, and will contain 48 pages of the finest paper, the matter being beautifully printed in a perfectly new type. Each Part will contain some

Twenty Superb Illustrations,

ENGRAVED BY H. NEWSOM WOODS, FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS BY THE FIRST ARTISTS OF THE DAY,

Printed with the text; and, in addition,

A Beautifully Coloured Frontispiece, FROM SKETCHES EXPRESSLY MADE FOR THE "LIBRARY," AND PRINTED IN COLOURS BY WILLIAM DICKES.

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IT

T was the original intention of the Publisher
that "THE ILLUMINATED FAMILY
BIBLE” should be published on June 1st, as
stated in the prospectuses. The elaborate
nature, however, of the ornamentation and of
the printing has unavoidably delayed the
publication of the 1st Part until the end of
July, when it will be issued with the Magazines
for August.

LONDON: S. O. BEETON, 248, STRAND, W.C.

June, 1861.

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DOMESTIC SERVANTS.

CHAPTER XLI.

2153. Ir is the custom of "Society" to abuse its servants,—a façon de parler, such as leads their lords and masters to talk of the weather, and, when rurally inclined, of the crops,-leads matronly ladies, and ladies just entering on their probation in that honoured and honourable state, to talk of servants, and, as we are told, wax eloquent over the greatest plague in life while taking a quiet cup of tea. Young men at their clubs, also, we are told, like to abuse their "fellows," perhaps not without a certain pride and pleasure at the opportunity of intimating that they enjoy such appendages to their state. It is another conviction of "Society" that the race of good servants has died out, at least in England, although they do order these things better in France; that there is neither honesty, conscientiousness, nor the careful and industrious habits which distinguished the servants of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers; that domestics no longer know their place; that the introduction of cheap silks and cottons, and, still more recently, those ambiguous "materials" and tweeds, have removed the landmarks between the mistress and her maid, between the master and his man.

2154. When the distinction really depends on things so insignificant, this is very probably the case; when the lady of fashion chooses her footman without any other consideration than his height, shape, and tournure of his calf, it is not surprising that she should find a domestic who has no attachment for the family, who considers the figure he cuts behind her carriage, and the late hours he is compelled to keep, a full compensation for the wages he exacts, for the food he wastes, and for the perquisites he can lay his hands on. Nor should the fast young man, who chooses his groom for his knowingness in the ways of the turf and in the tricks of low horse-dealers, be surprised if he is sometimes the victim of these learned ways. But these are the exceptional cases, which prove the existence of a better state of things. The great masses of society among us are not thus deserted; there are few families of respectability, from the shopkeeper in the next street to the nobleman whose mansion dignifies the next square, which do not contain among their dependents attached and useful servants; and where these are absent altogether, there are good reasons for it. The sensible master and the kind mistress know, that if servants depend on them for their means of

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