PUOPRIETOItY BOLTERS. 
or he might borrow some small cash at times from 
some of the more simple coolies ; but whatever he 
did, or however he got the money, he would be 
sure to get the drink. But we will not enlarge fur- 
ther on this melancholy specimen of the immigrant 
bolter ; all of our old hands must have seen many 
specimens of them, and perhaps also a good many 
of the new. 
We need say little about proprietor bolters, be- 
cause their bolting was a different matter altogether, 
because they could not bolt to avoid pajdng their 
debts ; if they did, they must have been reduced to 
a very low ebb indeed, .because they would leave 
something behind them that their creditors could 
‘bone,’ or ‘bolt,’ only these genetlemen when they 
* boned’ and ‘bolted’ the coffee would sometimes find 
it rather hot, they could not stomach it ; and the 
hot coffee actually scalded their very hearts. They 
have found it infinitely more to their advantage, 
eventually, to have written off that sum of money as 
a dead loss, than to have ‘boned’ and ‘bolted’ the 
coffee. But somehow, if once boned and bolted, 
it could not be again ‘ thrown up, ’ it required a 
very strong emetic to produce this. If they could not 
get their principal out of the estate, why they would 
surely get its interest : they would go in for this. 
Under ordinary circumstances, a proprietor may bolt 
from Ceylon and nobody know until he is gone with a 
very easy conscience. Never mind his bills : if there 
is ^ anything sure in this world, he may be sure of 
this, his unpaid bils will find him out. In fact his 
creditors will not lose, but gain. They will prehaps 
purposely defer sending their bills after him in order 
that they may have an excuse for charging that little item 
printed in small letters amongst flourishes ; and that item 
is “12 per cent charged after 3 months’ credit.” So, 
of course, a proprietor who leaves the country in a 
hurry or forgets to pay his bills is a capital in- 
vestment ‘ ‘ Landed security ; payment on demand 
interest 12 per cent.” He may grumble and say, 
“Why did you not send it in ? How could I pay, 
when the account was not rendered ?” The only reply 
is, “Our terms of business. ” 
The man who bolts from his debts is either a great 
blackguard, or a poor-spirited fellow. Of the former 
we will say nothing, we have no need to say any- 
thing, having no wish to know him, or anything 
about him, having no fellowship dr sympathy with 
him at all. To the latter we would say. You have 
done an act from which you will never recover, go where 
you will. You may in some sense prosper, you may make 
a show in the world, even acquire the respect and esteem 
