ARTICLES BY "SNYDER.”

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 79, 13 December 1887, Page 3

ARTICLES BY "SNYDER.”

THE END OFI JOURNALIST'S CAREER. HIS LAST RESOURCE. (Continued.) I have got tired of this collecting business. One man says he has mislaid the account. I make out another and give it him. I call later on, when he tells me he has not had time to examine it. I’m to look in in a few days. 1 look in. He has examined it and thinks there is a mistake in it somewhere. 1 really must call again. I call again. He thinks after all the account is correct. 1 must wait until Thursday week as he has got a bill Coming cue between this and then. I wait. When I call he says he is quite ashamed to have given me so much trouble. He doesn’t pay, and doesn’t say when he will. I call upon another man and present an account. He says he has got a contra. I ask him to let tne have it. He answers and says he will get it made out. It is made out by the time I next go to him. It is three times the ainount of niy account against his. He asks for a cheque for the difference. I have no authority to do this and go away quite downhearted. But my spirits are cheered from the

past that I do get a cheque for some money which I have only called for some eight or ten times. I take the cheque and hand it to the person for tvhom lam collecting. He looks at it and tells me it Is post-dated two months on. Igo back to the man who gave me the cheque and speak to him. He says he knows it’s a post-dated cheque. About the time it is presented he will be in funds, but not until then. He said I should always look at the date or any cheque when it is given to me. Sept. Oth.—l have given up collecting accounts. It is too much for me. It is true I have learned a good deal. If lam not now able to stave off an application for payment of a debt, then have I been living in vain thia last six weeks. # Sept. 11th.—I am seeing more phases of human nature. My Registry Office for servants and employers affords me much amusement, and, be-

ing coupled with a fair remuneration, is a most interesting department of my agency business. A great deal has been said and written about what is inown as “ servant-galism,” but I don't think what has been said or written has been from the tongue or pen of the keeper of a registry office. In this part where I am living female demesnes are very scarce, and as the demand is considerably in excess of supply, the girls price themselves at a high figure and insist upon many concessions not given where they are in less request or where the market is better stocked. If maid servants are scarce and high priced and “ sarcy,” about the latter of which there can be no matter of doubt, still mistresses are too oftentimes exceedingly exigent and over-exacting in their demands. I had a lady come to me two or three days ago and ask me to procure her a house Be- ant for general work. I told her I had one on my books who might suit V.»,i Tf would null mom*

ing the young woman should be in waiting. The lady did call and the young woman was, as 1 said she would be, in waiting. After a few preliminary questions as to where the girl had last lived, the lady went on to say there were seven in the family ; herself, her husband, and five children. The girl would have to do the house Work, to wash, cook, sleep with two of the children, and take the baby and the next older child out in the afternoon. The husband was always late at bis office, did not come home to tea and therefore expected a hot supper at about a little after ten at night. The girl listened qiqptly, saying never i Word all the while until the lady had said her very last say, and that was not a little nor waa it soon over, Then the girl, folding one arm over the ether and looking quite demure and innocent-like, said, “ Ma'am, I don’t think you want me." “Why my young woman,” said the lady, “ what Is [tyou think I do want,” “Well, ma'am," said the girl, still looking quite demure and innocent, << I can't exactly say what you do want, but if I gave an opinion I should say it was not a woman, but a steam-engine you were looking out for. A steam-engine might be made to do your work, if the boiler didn't burst, but no living woman could do what you want from bee." This was what some people would call a specimen of insolent servantgalism, but the demand of the lady was, to my thinking, even more insolent than the girl's reply. Yesterday a young woman for whom I had got a place only a .week previous came to me for a fresh sitnation. I asked why she had left. She told me that her face, instead of being her fortune, had got her into trouble. She had not been to her place three days before her master wanted to make love to her. As she didn’t want to be made love to, not at any rate by a married man, she told him so. This did not please him. The morning but one after she had spoken her mind her master was guilty of a gross act of impertinence. So when he had gone to his business she gave her mistress notice to quit as soon as she would provide herself with another servant. When her mistress demanded the reason she told her right out all about her husband. Then when he came home in the afternoon there was a great row. The husband swore by this and by that he had never spoken a word excepting when he complained about the bad polish she had put on his boots. The wife believed what her husband said, told the girl she was worse than good ; called her, in fact, a name which she would not repeat and then sent her right away about her business without even paying her wages. The man had the next day met her in the street and offered a sovereign. She took it and threw it at his feet. I was quite sure the girl was telling roe the truth because, independently of her respectable appearance and modest manner, I knew that •be was engaged to be married to a young fellow a« soon as he started business on his own account. (to be cmnsrro.)