not too long ago I found myself at a Pagan festival in a song circle and suddenly found myself explaining "well I've met people whose totems were lions, tigers, bears (oh my) otters, eagles and so on, I found a song about a man whose totem was not an animal, but rather his clock.
I then sang verses 1,2,4 (omitting "My grandfather said that of those he could hire") and got a lot of people to think of the song in a Whole New Way.
I think the reason verse #3 is in there is that Work knew very well who was rich enough to buy sheet music-- the ones who could afford to hire servants! If you had enough money to own a piano (the badge of the middle class by 1870) then you probably also had a servant or two, and were compaining how hard it is to get good help these days. . .