COLONIAL VAMPIRES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 183, 2 August 1879, Page 1

COLONIAL VAMPIRES.

Australian cities are not wanting in the wretches of the vampire class. Newly arrived immigrants are victims that can be easily sacked. We have recently heard statements that lead til to suppose that the following supposition may not be an imaginary case. Let as suppose a firm under the joint management of two benevolent, and therefore respectable, gentlemen. Virtually the entire staff consists of one pennileai and unscrupulous young man, and hia equally unscrupulous and salaried subordinate. The* plan of operation is as effective as it is simple and ingenious. Let A represent the unscrupulous young man, and B the unscrupulous subordinate. A walks into the office of some widely-circulated newspaper and writes an advertisement offering employment of almost any description, according to fancy. Next morning under the heading of " Servants Wanted " the advertisement appears, with a few words at the end telling iatending applicants to call early at such an office, this office being a single room hired for the oooasion. Accordingly [ at an early hour some two or three unfortunates present themselves at the ' door of this pseudo-benevoleqt institution, and here, as may be imagined, they meet with a cordial reception. Let .us follow the fortunes of Tj single individual. He enters the room, and the "manager" asks him to shut the door, and to take a chair. Then, with his hands in his trousers pocket, he (the manager) carefully explains that, owing to the expenses of advertising, £c, it 'is necessary for him to ask for payment of a certain fee before placing any information at the service of the applicant. The latter in all probability having;wellnigh exhausted himself in his endeavors to obtain work of ajay despriptioa, jinked his last few shillings in his ppok,ej lL fip(| in his simplicity thinking , that tbfttfe would be well spent in gaining appoint^ meat at £2 or £3 per week, , loth ltd leave any atone unturned, jays bit all upon the table. In return for thisiba receives a letter of recommendation addressed to B, the subordinate^ wJio assumes the role, now of a lawyer, non of a merchant, now of the head maalefe of a school, jast as m»y be. required by: the terms of the: advertisement;. The. applicant, suspecting nothing;: preterit! the letter at the given: address; . • Here he is most graciously received, though)' the, final result of the '•; interview ifa invariably the same. Sometimes he & told that bad he been fiVe minutes* earlier the appointment would" ihaW been his. Generally, however,; trivial objections are turned up. Hit hatid^ writing is too round, or it is not round' enough; he has not had sufficient '■<$££ perience in the work ; he is too <y bung; or he is too old; he has not bees long enough in the town, and it ia absolutely necessary that he should be thoftuebly conversant with local matters^ hso on, to an indefinite extent. The end of all this is always the same. The manager of the firm sweeps the fee into a drawar, and the applicant walks away^ disheartened, and, it may be, with' pat V penny in his pocket.— Sydney Mothing Herald. ' ; ,'