In the history (and rank) of service, the useful man (essentially a handiman) was a male domestic worker who was treated as a person of lesser rank, never to enter by the front door, and always expected to remain as flexible, available, and invisible as possible.

In her 1909 book Millionaire Households and the Domestic Economy, author Mary Elizabeth Carter attempts to define the temperament required for this impossible job.

"He needs an angelic disposition to get along," she writes, "and deserves canonization as a saint when his earthly probation is over". From scrubbing floors to hauling coal to polishing shoes and running errands at all hours, Carter describes him as the "universal pack-horse" of the house, and quantifies, at length, his multiple, varied duties. "They usually comprise what no one else can or will do."

So useful was he, he was expected never to marry.