The
Cowichan Valley Citizen has dug into its archives for a story about a 1909 hoax that caused a small army of housekeepers to descend upon Victoria, British Columbia, in response to a want ad that turned out to be a prank:
'Hoax' goes too far: Victoria's invasion of the housekeepers
Cowichan Valley Citizen
First to become aware of the invasion of foreign domestic help was V.C. Maddock, a city realtor. For days, he'd had to explain to job applicants, some of them very insistent, some of them in tears, all of them frustrated and mystified, that he wasn't the "H. Maddock" who'd placed an ad in the Seattle Times. A steady stream of women to his office, all seeking the position so glowingly advertised, had finally driven him to distraction - and the police.
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