Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/77

 his particular duty to which he adheres most religiously. One man will brush boots and shoes, but would not wash a plate though threatened with a drawn sword. He who cleans knives and forks would think it an unpardonable outrage to be obliged to sweep the floor; and the washer-man and the water carrier would think it equally outrageous to be obliged to do any indoor work. They are in general honest in the weightier matters of the law, but most of them will cheat a little; and not be satisfied unless they pocket six or eight per cent, of all the cash that passes through their hands. It is customary to trust the bearer with all the spare cash of the month; the master seldom sees a rupee, but keeps a running account and closes it twice a week. Besides keeping the cash, the bearer keeps master's keys, wardrobe, and almost everything else, and very rarely, indeed, betrays his trust. His washerman he will find a very serious evil, and that his pay is a trifle compared to the damage he does monthly. He will bring home the linen white as snow and dressed to perfection, but before it has passed four times through his hands it will be in rags. On inquiry into the cause, he will And that his doby washes his clothes by battering them with all his might on a grooved plank or a smooth stone, and so effectually as to ruin a wardrobe sewed English fashion in twelve months. Such