He is also valet not only for the gentleman of the house but for any gentleman guests as well.

What the Butler Wears

The butler never wears the livery of a footman and on no account knee breeches or powder.  In the early morning he wears an ordinary sack suit—­black or very dark blue—­with a dark, inconspicuous tie.  For luncheon or earlier, if he is on duty at the door, he wears black trousers, with gray stripes, a double-breasted, high-cut, black waistcoat, and black swallowtail coat without satin on the revers, a white stiff-bosomed shirt with standing collar, and a black four-in-hand tie.

In fashionable houses, the butler does not put on his dress suit until six o’clock.  The butler’s evening dress differs from that of a gentleman in a few details only:  he has no braid on his trousers, and the satin on his lapels (if any) is narrower, but the most distinctive difference is that a butler wears a black waistcoat and a white lawn tie, and a gentleman always wears a white waistcoat with a white tie, or a white waistcoat and a black tie with a dinner coat, but never the reverse.

Unless he is an old-time colored servant in the South a butler who wears a “dress suit” in the daytime is either a hired waiter who has come in to serve a meal, or he has never been employed by persons of position; and it is unnecessary to add that none but vulgarians would employ a butler (or any other house servant) who wears a mustache!  To have him open the door collarless and in shirt-sleeves is scarcely worse!

A butler never wears gloves, nor a flower in his buttonhole.  He sometimes wears a very thin watch chain in the daytime but none at night.  He never wears a scarf-pin, or any jewelry that is for ornament alone.  His cuff-links should be as plain as possible, and his shirt studs white enamel ones that look like linen.

=THE HOUSE FOOTMEN=

All house servants who assist in waiting on the table come under the direction of the butler, and are known as footmen.  One who never comes into the dining-room is known as a useful man.  The duties of the footmen (and useful man) include cleaning the dining-room, pantry, lower hall, entrance vestibule, sidewalk, attending to the furnace, carrying coal to the kitchen, wood to all the open fireplaces in the house, cleaning the windows, cleaning brasses, cleaning all boots, carrying everything that is heavy, moving furniture for the parlor-maids to clean behind it, valeting all gentlemen, setting and waiting on table, attending the front door, telephoning and writing down messages, and—­incessantly and ceaselessly, cleaning and polishing silver.

In a small house, the butler polishes silver, but in a very big house one of the footmen is silver specialist, and does nothing else.  Nothing!  If there is to be a party of any sort he puts on his livery and joins the others who line the hall and bring dishes to the table.  But he does not assist in setting the table or washing dishes or in cleaning anything whatsoever—­except silver.