The Temple.
MY DEAR DOROTHY,—The leaving of perishable articles at houses where
they have not been ordered is a very common trick, and one which
often succeeds, because people imagine that they have incurred a
responsibility by taking them in—which they have not.
If tradespeople choose to leave butter, milk, bread, meat, or wine,
etc., which you have not ordered at your house, they do so at their
own risk, and if you do not use the articles, they cannot compel you
to pay for them, neither can they make you pay for them if you do use
the articles under the impression that they were a gift; this last is
only likely to arise in the case of wine or game being left without any
indication of where it came from.
Servant girls are often inveigled into purchasing rubbishy articles,
which they do not want, such as musical-boxes, silver watches, etc., by
men who go about selling these things on commission, and who, refusing
to take “No” for an answer, leave the article in question with the
servant, saying that they will take so much a month for it.
In a day or two the girl receives a letter from the makers saying that
they understand she is prepared to purchase the article in question by
payment of instalments of so much per month. The chances are that the
girl will be frightened into purchasing the thing in this manner; but
if she writes declining to buy the article they will try to bully her
into taking it by threatening legal proceedings, etc.
Girls who are treated in this manner should at once inform their
master or mistress. The latter should then write to the firm, saying
that their servant has no desire to purchase the article left at their
house, and that if the firm want their goods back, they must come and
fetch them.
Servant girls, especially Irish ones, are very fond of joining burial
societies. Such girls should be careful to have a receipt for every
payment they make, and should not allow themselves to be put off with
vain excuses by the collector. It is the duty of the collector to give
a receipt for every payment he receives, and if he fails to do so, it
can only be because he is putting the money into his own pocket and not
paying it over to the society.
What I told you in my former letter about bicycles not being luggage
has just been confirmed by a decision of the High Court, so that
railway companies are entitled to make a charge for carrying your
bicycle by train, although they would take a bag of the same weight for
nothing.
You cannot extend the time for paying a life assurance premium by
adding the three days of grace on to the month’s grace already allowed
you by the company. The three days of grace arise after the premium
becomes payable and are included in the extended time given you by the
company.
If you ever send in a withdrawal order to draw money out of the Post
Office Savings Bank, and then find that you do not wish to take out the
money because you have received some from some other source, be careful
to always draw it out when you get your order, and, if you do not want
to use it, pay it in again the following day.
It is most important that you should do this. If you do not do so, you
leave the door open to fraud, because a duplicate withdrawal notice
is sent to the post office named in your order, and some dishonest
official might make use of it; and, secondly, it saves any confusion
which might otherwise arise through your change of mind.
Of course I do not mean to say that the officials of the Post Office
are dishonest—I should be sorry to make such a statement—but there are
black sheep in every flock, and I do happen to know of a certain case
in which a girl lost all her savings through not following the advice
which I have just given you.
The case which I have in my mind was a particularly hard one, because
the withdrawal order was for the whole amount of her banking account.
And when she found that after all it was not necessary for her to close
her account, it was only natural that she should think that if she
did not use her withdrawal order, the money would still remain to her
credit in the bank—and so it would have been if the postmaster of the
country office had been an honest man; but, unfortunately for the girl,
he was not. By means of the withdrawal order he succeeded in getting
hold of her money and appropriating it to his own use.
Therefore, my dear Dorothy, despise not the warning of
Your affectionate cousin,
BOB BRIEFLESS.
THREE GIRL-CHUMS, AND THEIR LIFE IN LONDON ROOMS.
BY FLORENCE SOPHIE DAVSON.