HOTEL BILLS; 
0 
cook-house, from which he shortly emerges with buttered 
toast, sandwiches, and hot tea ; he is very polite, walks 
up and down the verandah, looks in and hopes it is good, 
and after it is done, ‘ Would master like any more?” “Yes, 
is the reply, and more is supplied. Our staff officer 
then goes out into the stable-yard, sits down on a 
horse bucket and smokes a pipe, after which he turns 
in and in spite of all the noise and turmoil in the 
public room, which is kept ui) the whole of 
the night, he soon goes to sleep and wakes up in the 
morning all right, which he would not have done, 
had he gone into that public room on his arrival. 
After breakfast next day, there were a great many 
departures : in fact the hotel was quite empty. Super- 
intendents coming from the bank with money sealed 
up in small bags ordering their horses, box coolies, 
and settling their bills, in some way or other ; if they 
thought their allowance was exceeded they would just 
say, without looking at the bill, “ I ’ll be in next 
month; let it lie over,” Of course gentlemen who 
settled their bills in this way were not on the staff. 
A poor staff officer would have to make some prior 
arrangement, and obtain leave to open an account. 
It is a very easy thing anywhere in the world to get 
credit, provided it is pretty generally known ,or sup- 
posed, that you do not want or require it ! How 
very strange, that when one wishes to pay his bill, 
he is told “Your pleasure, sir, but there is no hurry ; 
we can wait, prefer it even.” But if you are “hard 
nip,” and are honest enough to say so, in fact that really 
,you cannot pay, the landlord or creditor of any sort 
will insist upon your performing a moral impossibility 
and say you “ must.” If hotel-keepers were not sus- 
picious, they ought to have been, of men taking away 
bags of money to the estate, and not paying their 
bills. Why did they not -pay them? Was their ovm 
pay not also in that bag ? It was, if they had not 
overdrawn it, or had more pressing claims of longer 
standing against them. The superintendent who went 
for money, and did not pay his hotel bills, was always 
heavily in debt . 
In fact it was gross dishonesty, because the estate 
allowed him his expenses, which used to be charged 
at one pound a day ; when|he delivered over the money, 
or sent in his accounts, these expenses w^ere always 
charged, although in many instances they had not 
been paid. It may be asked how could he charge his 
expenses, when he had not taken over his hotel bill. 
Hotel bills had nothing to do with it, although it wag 
understood, when you charged your expenses, that 
hotel bills were paid. You did, insert hotel bills in 
the account, although, when we look back on these 
