i88i.j Sham Employers. 471 
instant dismissal is the result. In this case the incident 
happened in a large manure works employing a staff of three 
chemists. The head of the laboratory was a conscientious, 
scrupulous, and accomplished chemist, a neat manipulator 
who very seldom erred in his results. A sample of coprolites 
was sent up to the laboratory for analysis, with orders for 
his immediate attendance in his employer’s room. The em- 
ployer, in the course of general business conversation, 
actually wished his principal chemist — offering him a bribe — 
to report the phosphate of lime contained in the sample 
3 per cent lower (phosphates were then at a high price per 
unit) : naturally his employe was staggered, and, loving his 
professional repute and integrity better than his situation, 
took the wise course, and left. He threatened to expose his 
“ Sham ” master, but the other only laughed and remarked 
the utter absence of witnesses, and also threatened in return 
to raise an action for defamation of character. Another feat 
of the same gentleman was to order a mixed manure of a 
certain strength from his foreman (this foreman had been 
several years in his employ, and had the confidence of all 
around him), and afterwards to bribe workmen overnight to 
mix the heap with gypsum and sand, so as to depreciate the 
value. After the manure went through the process of che- 
mical analysis, it was found wanting, and the consequence 
was the poor foreman had to leave with no recommendation 
for another situation. It turned out afterwards that a 
workman and he had words, the “ Sham ” having wished 
him to do some dishonest trick which his servant would not 
accede to, and his removal was effected by foul means, as 
described above. 
All the above statements are well authenticated, and many 
readers will be horrified at the amount of subtle hypocrisy 
and craft exercised by dishonest employers. Better serve a 
stern, tyrannical, honest master, who exadts duty to the 
utmost, rather than a sneaking and scheming employer 
whose selfishness has deprived him of all moral feeling. 
Some districts have more refined masters than others, and 
it is often found, though peculiarly inconsistent, that an un- 
educated master, rough and ready, is the most straight- 
forward and honest. It may be that his very ignorance 
keeps down that refined diplomatic cunning which helps a 
man, dishonestly inclined, to injure another, and yet hold up 
his head in society. 
In large chemical works, where the laboratory should be 
well stocked with apparatus and reagents of the highest 
attainable purity, so that the chemist may have a fair chance 
