The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-03 00:00:00

SERVANTS IN IITOTT

A curious instance of the daring conduct of servants
high life has been mentioned to us. A respectable trades-
man, who residesin tbe,Stramly had. supplied a, Baronet,
who is now upon a foreign mission, with clothes, &c:, for
several years. The Baronet had occasion to change one of
his principal servants, whose duty it was, to examine the
hills, 'and he happened to get one into his employment, who
had been in the habit of levying contributions, in the shape
of per centage, upon the shopkeepers with whom his for-
mer masters were in the. habit of dealing. The new ser-
vant, who expected his commission money; at the usual
time from the tailor, was astonished at not receiving it with
the receipt for the amount of the bill, and expressed him-
self strongly upon the subject to the tradesman ; but it
was in vain—no commission money was forthcoming,
and the servant determined to get rid as soon as possible of
so unprofitable a customer upon his master's purse. New
orders were given, but they were not long executed before
the tradesman received instructions to send in his bill. He
was surprised at this change in the arrangement of the Ba-
ronet, who had been in the habit of discharging his bill:
at stated periods ; but he (lid as he was ordered, observing
at the same time to the servant who told him the Baronet's
pleasure, that he was not at fill in want of money. The amount
of the bill was in a few minutes handed over to the tailor,who
little thought that a long time would elapse before he should
be again called upon to terve the family with articles which
he had always supplied of the most unexceptionable mate-
rials. After laving waited for many months for an order
without being noticed, he suspected that there was some
foul play, and resolved to beg an interview with.the Ba-
sonet. This the servant alluded to was very reluctant to
permit. He made a variety of excuses, but the tradesman
was not to be denied, and he soon succeeded. ,The matter
was then explained. Theservant had,it appeared, ordered in
the bill without any instructions from his master, and upon
receiving it be took it up initaste to the Baronet, saying,
" Mr. B. has sent in his account, Sir, and desired me to
tell you that he is waiting helow••for the amount." !' Wait-:
ing for the amount !" said the Baronet, " what does he
mean? Tell him net to trouble me now with his account."
—" Oh, but he says, Sir,"- oLserved the servant, " that he
must have it,. and that he will be if he'll go a yard
without it." This report of the conduct of the tailor was(
told with so much apparent indignation, that the Baronet
.never doubting the truth of it, sent a cheque
.for the amount
of the bill to the shopkeeper, and ordered that another
should be immediately substituted. This was just what the ser-
vent wanted. He soon found a convenient tradesman, who
" tipped " bins ten per cent., and made the master pay the
commission, by sending him in a considerable overcharge.
It is unnecessary to add that this flagrant act of dishonesty
wile 'punished by a discharge, and that the defrauded trades-
man was immediately employed in the usual way.

One of the most common tricks to which servants who
are dissatisfied with the commission given them by their
master's tradesmen, resort, in order to get rid of such ,eco-

nomiets, is that of " poisoning" the iiitches in clothes,
in boots, in saddles, &e. Some time ago one of the high
attendants upon an illustrious person, ordered home some
pantaloons from his tailor. The tradesman was punctual,
but the pantaloons had to past through the hands of the
servant before they reached the master; and as a commis-
sion had•biren refused, the seams were tipped at once with
aquafortis. No sooner did the master put his leg into the
pantaloons than it burst through the sides, to the horror of
the hon. gentleman, who was preparing to go to a clinker.
The servant, however, exercised no judgment in the use of
the poison, for he tipped every pair with so unsparing a
hand, that his master would, if he had walked out in such
clothing, soon have had the cloth flying about hie legs. The
pantaloons were'sent to the maker, who was ordered to ac-
count for the bad quality of the article (the cloth having
shared the bad character of the stitching.) The vile trick
wag immediately detected, and the tailor, without hesita-
tion, charged the guilty person, in the presence of his
master, with having used the aquafortis. The servant
could not deny the accusation, and was of course at knee
dismissed.

A very great alarm has been struck into the great mass
of servants of the nobility and gentry, through the coun-
try, in consequence of the exposure made in this paper
fiom time to time of the system of fraud and robbery pur-
sued by them and the tradespeople. The good rendered by
the exhibition of the various family deformities which have
thus been held out to the condemnation of the public, has
been very general. One instance, amongst many which
have been mentioned, is worth recording, The Times
newspaper, in which there appeared a description of .the
combination entered into between some shopkeepers and
servants, to 'the prejudice of the masters of the latter, fell
into the hands of a gentleman of large fortune and estates,
near Walthamstow, who has for some time kept 16 ser-
vants. He determined to examine his tradesmen's bills
more scrupulously than usual, and in the course of the alte-
rations which he found it necessary to adopt, he ascertained
that no less than 15 out of his 16 domestics were in the
habit of robbing him. He went to work rapidly. He
opened the boxes of his servants, and found some of his pro-
perty under the lock and key of every one of the " below
stairs" gentry, with the exception of the groom : out he
packed all the guilty persons; men and women, without per-
mitting one to sleep in his house another night. We do
no not know whether he learned that his principal ser-
vants were allowed a per centage upon the bills which were
annually paid, but certain it is that some of his trades-
people felt great disappointment at the change which took
place in the arrangements of the mansion, Numbers of
respectable shopkeepers' have been delighted at the unmask-
ing of the troops of domestic thieves, who have availed
themselves of the power which local ciremnstances gaVe
them over the property of their masters, and those who
have beep in the habit of paying commission-money,
,and
of course charging in proportion, are greatly annoyed at
the 'prospect of a different system. We have good reasons
for stating; that since the articles alluded to appeared, thou-
sands of pounds have been saved to- persons of affluence,
who used to place implicit reliance in their seivanls. The
following may be depended upon as an accurate list of ar-
rangements to which we have in many high families given
a complete death-blow.

THE HOUSEKEEPER.

This domestic has under her care, and at her special
command, the grocer, the butcher, the baker, the green-
grocer, the pastry-cook, the oilman, and the fishmonger.
In many families the average amount of the bills of those
tradespeople exceeds 500/. a year, to speak within a very
narrow compass, so that the lady who superintends this list,
pockets at least 10 per cent. upon 3,5001. a year, a calcu-
lation which makes her mistress of 3501. a year annually,
independent of her wages, which are enormously high in-
deed, proportioned to the expenditure of the family.