HUNTING THE DOMESTIC.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 118, 16 May 1912, Page 2

HUNTING THE DOMESTIC.

' Mrs Binks wanted a servant girl. She had wanted one for some time, and at length, driven to a sort of frenzy by the task of trying to dust, keep house, wash up, scrub floors, tend the twins, and entertain callers at the same time, she (literally tore into a bonnet and went out on the warpath, determined to run down a maid, or perish on the plain. An English, boat had just come in on which- there .were fifty; .girls in-: .tended'for domestic service. Mrs Binks made for the pier. There were about 180 fierce mistresses sitting or standing round on the wharf, each wearing precisely the same expression of ruthless determination as characterised Mrs Binks. The waiting ladies did not speak. 'They sat or stood quite still, with compressed lips, and their eyes were turned hungrily out to sea when they were not looking suspiciously at each other. Each woman seemed to be communing w.ith herselfj saying inward"This other cat nest me is here to get my servant. Over my dead body, by heayings!" After a wait of five, hours the ship came in. "~one fierce housewife -who tried to spring aboard when the boat was twenty yards off was picked up in a mussel-gatherer's net. When the ship was quite alongside, 'five mistresses went into the sea in the rush. Four of these had to receive the measures employed in the case of the apparently drowned. The £fth was Mrs Binks." She went up .the anchor chain, with her bonnet in her teeth, and was the tenth woman aboard. Otfce on the deck, Mrs Binks did not allow the grass to grow under her feet. It couldn't very well, anyhow, the deck being of mood, but we wish to insinuate that Mrs Binks was quick off the mark. She seized the first woman she saw. • "You're mine!" she. prasped. "Oh, am I, indeed?" said the other, haughtily, surveying Mrs Binks through a lorgnette. <& "Yes. indeed! I saw you first." "And what do you think I am?" "An immigrant girl,*'of course." "Excuse me, I am the captain's wife." I "Well," cried Mrs Binks,. "how , dare you take up my time?" 1 She fled, and fastened on to another woman. "I'll give you sixteen shil- , lings a week;" she said, j "And I'll give you eighteen!" re- ] plied the captive. j Mrs Binks tried once more, and 1 nearly caught one, but a brisk, little, dark woman tripped her up with an umbrella, and secured the prize. After all, the mistresses were compelled to form a sort of queue and take their turn. It would have been far better if the officials had lined the mistresses up and let the maids pick j and choose, but it came to something • like that in the long run. What barneyings there were! What tears and * protestations and j pleadings! j "I'll give you fifteen shillings a ■week, every night out. My son shall take you to every first nisdht' at | the theatre", and you can have the use of bath, gns, and piano, with a latchkey and late suppers," gasped one heroine. j She got hers, and she deserved it.

Mrs Binks had a fight with, a* large-,, ruddy boardinghouse-keeper for. a r.ed=cheaked. Irish girl. Mrs. Binks. offered sixteen shillings, and. a new hat every three months. The boarding-house-keeper offered; eighteen: shillings, and. the title of. lady assistant, with regular tips, from twenty lodgers. Mrs. Binks went to twenty shillings a week and two dresses a year in addition to the hats. "And you can say you are my sister," .she said; and the- girl' wass hers. Mrs Binks won none too soon. Had the struggle been protracted" another minute- she must have collapsed from exhaustion. The poor .woman took her prize with her. v "No," she said "I don't trust you out of my sight. One of these cats would snai> 3^ou up before Fd gone tea paces,." /' The wet, dishevelled, and wearied woman was leading her colleen along tliij pier, feeling proud and happy, despite her great discomfort, when. a yoking man waylaid them. "Excuse me/d'yeh moind." said he. "but is that verself, Norah Hogan?" v "Pis meself, sure enough. Tim M'Guire," answered the new girl. ,"An' yiv jist landed?" "I have." "An''maybe yer not married yet?" "T am not." s "Then what's V • shtop yeli marryih' ms. ma gir-rl?" "Nothin' whatever that T know of:'-'" ■■~-. ' "There's me !" screamed Mrs-Binks; "She's mine." "Bewpjin' your pardon, ma'am, she's mine," said Tim. "Will y*»li take me arrunu Norah. an' we'll look in at the registrar's?" NoraH went off with 'Tim.., Mrs Binks looked n-ter ' them in s+'irmed wonder for half a minute, an^-then the back of her head s+ruck the T>i*>i\ Sb<* had fainted.—Melbourne Table i Talk.

information they, contained, regjirdiug the treasure was authentic or riotNow, we have bee.ii iind seen.. Thc-e is no. longer, doubts We know. "For hve weeks we sojourned on the, island A it the Government to whom the island belongs accompanied us. We had toconduct. our investigations' wiM*. secrecy .... . but the directions we».« so- plain in our. papers that long ere the return of. the vessel which, by arrangement, was. to call and take :.•» back, to civilisation,, w© had co-'--vinced ourselves tlust. ours w.asno wiV* goose chase, and the treasure for which we sought was- in actual bem«r "On returning, to the mainland wesought and obtjdned an interview with the- President .of the country to wb>h ouj; treasure island, belongs. liegranted,, us a leg&I concession euxpowenng us to again visit the hsknd to take possession of the treasury Vy the terms of tlie agi-©ement the Government claims one-third of -il! treesu-re found there*. This. snx^~ ment duly witnoseed by the British Consul irqr the countjy in question, «mi.other documents have been P v amined by tha editor of 4i S jlurn?L We-jM-e not in a financial positionanother expedition to secure- theJ« • • • Perhaps there is soxrJ yacntsman, whose ve.^l may be eve-I now; fitting out for an extended cruise, who may welcome- this o^potunity to «dd zost to his contempl?^l voyage by the knowledge ttat * tn^ure- hunt, with ever/conceivabJe piospect of -success, is open to him All we oak is that we may be. allowed to join his-yacht. at the nearest port i° *t®" 2™?n^ and tlience. guide- hint to this; Elysium. "' ' -