AT THE ROYAL HOTEL. 
4imes, we think it would have been well for both 
proprietors and superintendents, had this been insisted 
upon, just the same as a copy of any other account 
as a voucher for the charge. What exposures ! We 
perfectly recollect of a superintendent, a neighbour, who 
was challenged by his periya durai, for charging ex- 
cessive expenses ^ Agoing to Kandy,” and was asked 
for a rough statement of particulars, and his hotel 
bill, but this would have been too great an exposure. 
He refused: “ such a demand was without precedent,” 
it was “unsual, ” tantamount to a question of his 
honesty, he would not ; a dispute ensued and he^ 
threw up his situation rather than shew his hotel bills ! 
He could not remain in the employment of one who 
was so mean as to ask to see a hotel bill. Now, when 
we think over these times, it seems what a grand 
thing it would have proved, had proprietors and agents, 
instead of allowing expenses to Kandy, insist <"d upon 
the hotel bills bein^'- charged in the accounts with 
copies attached. What a strange appearance it would 
have presented, that one who breakfasted and dined 
29 days in the month on salt-fish or pumpkin curry 
and rice, v/ashed down with a cup of tea, should deem 
it necessary to indulge in so many expensive luxuries 
when he went to Kandy. No doubt, however, the 
low diet and generally bad food wdiich w’as prevalent 
on the estates only tended to foster and encourage 
these outbreaks, which periodically took place : it was 
the re-action, the bent bow broke h^ose. Nevertheless 
a good deal of evil might have been prevented, or at 
all events checked, had hotel bills been handed in, the 
same as any other account. 
If one stepped into the Eoyal Hotel about noon, it 
could be told at a glance who was, or was not, on 
‘^the staff.” Those who were not would be busy about 
something, getting out their box for a start, coming 
in from the bank Avith money, or out making purchases ; 
those who were on ‘‘the staff” would be lounging about, 
with slippers, or wdtbout coats, reclining on the couch 
reading some old books or papers. If an arrival from 
the country took place, such as a planter riding into 
the stable yard, with a cooly behind him carrying a 
tin box, they would suddenly be all alive. Here is an 
arrival, last news from some of the planting districts. 
Perhaps some one got “the sack,” and a situation is 
vacant ; and the staff officers would begin to stir up. 
Late on in the day, a planter rode into the back, 
yard of the Koyal. He had on leech -gaiters, which, 
that morning when put on, had been white ; noAV 
they were mud colour, or in a case our readers may 
say there is no such colour, we will say coloured or 
discoloured with mud, and such mud as only those 
