y belonged.
The principle of loyalty to the family interests was the leading
principle in the lives of the servants, just as loyalty to the daimi[=o]
was the highest duty of the samurai. Long and intimate knowledge of the
family history and traits of character rendered it possible for the
retainer to work intelligently for his master, and do independently for
him many things without orders. The servant in many cases knew his
master and his master's interests as well as the master himself, or even
better, and must act by the light of his own knowledge in cases where
his master was ignorant or misinformed. One can easily see how ties of
good-fellowship and sympathy would arise between masters and servants,
how a community of interest would exist, so that the good of the master
and his family would be the condition for the good of the servant and
his family. In America, where the relation between servant and employer
is usually a simple business arrangement, each giving certain specified
considerations and nothing more, the relation of servant to master is
shorn of all sentiment and affection; the servant's interests are quite
apart from those of his employer, and his main object is to get the
specified work done and obtain more time for himself, and sooner or
later to leave the despised occupation of domestic service for some
higher and more independent calling. In Japan, where faithful service of
a master was regarded as a calling worthy of absorbing any one's highest
abilities through a lifetime, the position of a servant was not menial
or degrading, but might be higher than that of the farmer, merchant, or
artisan. Whether the position was a high or a low one depended, not so
much on the work done, as the person for whom it was done, and the
servant of a daimi[=o] or high rank samurai was worthy of more honor, and
might be of far better birth, than the independent merchant or artisan.
As the former feudal system is yet within the memory of many of the
present generation, and its feelings still alive in Japan, much of the
old sentiment remains, even with the merely hired domestics in a
household of the present day. The servant, by his own master, is
addressed by name, with no title of respect, is treated as an inferior,
and spoken to in the language used toward inferiors; but to all others
he is a person to be treated with respect,--to be bowed to profoundly,
addressed by the title San, and spoken to in the politest of la