# Short Story ID request **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-id-request/587287 "2011-06-29T18:10:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-id-request/587287/1 "2011-06-29T18:10:29Z")
In British Empire days, an Englishman is stationed to some faraway post. He’s a creature of habit, and insists upon reading his newspapers (which arrive from home in bundles) in chronological order. One day a new man arrives who upsets the guy’s routine and reads the papers out of order. That’s about all I remember. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-id-request/587287/2 "2011-06-29T18:24:14Z")
It reminds me of Evelyn Waugh’s The Man Who Liked Dickens, but that story involves books not newspapers. ---
**Author:** ![jlzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jlzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlzania)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-id-request/587287/3 "2011-06-29T18:49:21Z")
I think it was a Somerset Maugham story but I can’t put my finger on it right now. Maugham loved to mock rigid British administrators that insisted on maintaining ‘standards’ in the middle of the jungle like dressing for dinner etc. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-id-request/587287/4 "2011-06-29T18:54:14Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > In British Empire days, an Englishman is stationed to some faraway post. He’s a creature of habit, and insists upon reading his newspapers (which arrive from home in bundles) in chronological order. One day a new man arrives who upsets the guy’s routine and reads the papers out of order. That’s about all I remember. > Thanks! Definitely a Somerset Maugham story. Can’t remember the title right now. I know I have it in one of my books at home. The young employee is not of the same social class as the older one. The older one is always keeping in touch with the “right sort” of people back home (people with titles and/or money) and the young one is an uncouth Scotsman or something like that. The young man is also rude to the native servants. The older man warns him not to be rude to the servants and the young man tells him to mind his own business. Eventually the young man is murdered by a servant he has mistreated. Happens in India or Burma. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-id-request/587287/5 "2011-06-29T19:05:06Z")
Found it online! _The Outstation_ By W. Somerset Maugham [http://maugham.classicauthors.net/outstation/](http://maugham.classicauthors.net/outstation/) ETA: the setting is not Myanmar, but Malaysia (Borneo). ---
**Author:** ![jlzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jlzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlzania)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-id-request/587287/6 "2011-06-30T06:23:50Z")
That’s it. I haven’t read it for ages. The older man is a terrible snob and the younger man a callous brute.