Doing an H'american.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1695, 24 July 1875, Page 6 (Supplement)

Doing an H'american.

Once a Week k)S: J n America relates: ' Four years ago, I came over from New York to superintend the English business of the firm to which I belong. As my residence was likely to be a long one"', I looked out for a house within a convenient distance of London ; for I am a family man, aud I like my children to have a run of the fields when I can manage it. I hate to see them dressed up fine, and what's one of those squares to play in ? Well, I got just the thing to suit me —nice garden, farms all around; half an hour's iailway ride from my office. The rent was stiff for a yearly moderation, which was so so—two hundred for a yearly tenancy, one hundred and fifty if I took a sevenyear lease. I reckoned that I should want it for a good ten years; and so I decided for the lease, especially as the agent told me I should be ,sure to underlet it if I wanted to. When I got to know my neighbours and compared notes, I found that I was paying at a much higher rate tl an any of them were. However that did not vex me so long as- I could live there. But after two years certain changes took place which made it necessary that 1 should go to live at Liverpool. So I had to move again, and tried to underlet my house. I could not do it for some time, because I stood out for the rent I paid myself; but at last 1 grew tired of the dead loss, and told the agent to get the best he could. So he let the place for ninety, and that has been going on for four years, so that the lease is nearly up. But I never knew till last year who my tenant was. Who do you think ?' ' I cannot guess.' "' Why, my landlord. I have been paying the cuss sixty pounds a year for living in his own house all this time. It's a fact.'