Sketcher.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 1, 31 March 1893, Page 3

Sketcher.

A GOLDFIELDS EPISODE. {Told bt his Worship thb Mayor of ISYHRCAIiGILL.) The following incident is one of many that came under mj notice during my early days on th© Victorian goldfields. I was in business as a baker at Kangaroo Plat at the time of its occurrence. Among my oustomera was a man called “ Deffy” -so named because of his total deafness. Ho was of a most eccentric disposition, was highly educated, and belonged to a vary respectable family in one of the midland counties of England. A short tima before be ' had published a book of pOoms, but ■although very creditable from a literary point of view, they did not prove a success financially, and he settled down on the Mia Mia Flat as a fossicker. H« lived in a tent, round which ho placed a circle of high bushes stuck on end aa a break wind, leaving a small avenue as a pathway to tho tent. Inside of this was chained a most ferocious dog, and through this no one had access to the tent but old “Deify.” For the convenience of the baker he left a box on tho top of the bushes so that I could get the cart alongside and put tho loaf as required into it. I had then supplied him for about three years without payment. He had been very unfortunate. The storekeeper and butcher had long before stopped his credit, but I had continued to supply him, know.'ng if ho struck a patch ho would pay every farthing. Ho was working on a hill that was usually looked upon aa a nugget or nothing, and at last ho had a bit of luck in the shape of a thirty ounce nugget. He probably thought to himself- —“ If I sell this at the store, I will immediately be rushed,” ao he made up his

mind to bury it in the middle ofthe footpath inside the x-adius of the dog chain. He cut a small hole and inserted the nugget, making everything as ho thought, secure. Ho then went to work again but only got about 5 dwts., about a pound’s worth of fine gold. With this he purchased some articles of clothing, which he wrapped in a large sheet of brown paper (the only paper in the tent) and went to work again, but with no further success. He then decided to take up the nugget, and pay everyone their just duos. He re-opened the hole, but to his great astonishment the nugget was gone! He was utterly staggered at this turn in his affairs. Gould it bo that he lived in a land where a man would rob a starving brother. His mind became unhinged by his lose, and ha retired to his tent. A few days later I called with bread, but the old loaf had not been removed, and the diggers, noticing that he had not been at work, and that his basket and rope hung on the windlass tinused, concluded that something was wrong and went to his tent. The faithful dog stood guard in front of this, and, maddened by hunger, refused to allow a single person to approach. Some of the bushes were removed from the back of the tent, and a hole being cut the party entered it, and found poor Deffy lying dead. Tho authorities were told of what had happened, and the troopers were soon on tho spot. Some writing was discovered on the brown paper in which Deffy had placed his new suit. It was headed “Man’s inhumanity to maxi,” and told how >nd why he had hidden tho nugget, and how he had been unable to fijjd it again. He excused himself to the baker for not being able to fulfil his obligations, and added that the nugget must have been stolen, that lie could not live in the same world as a man who could be so heartless as to rob. a poor fellow mortal, and that ho had determined to destroy himself. Ho cursed the wretch who had, as he thought, robbed him, and prayed God to forgive him for taking his own life. The poor follow also stated that he

felt his mind giving l way, and then came a blank—the pencil must have dropped from his fingers. During the reading of this pathetic memorial the little party in the tent were moved to tears as they pictured the late occupant of the tent in his loneliness and grief. Examination of the ylace showed that he had wounded himself with a knife, and slowly bled to death. The hole in which he had placed his hard-won nugget was noticed, and one of the troopers, taking out his knife, dug a little deeper than Deffy had gone, and struck something hard. It was the nugget! The old fosaicker, in his feverish haste, had failed to go deep enough on returning to look for his treasure, and there it lay—where he had placed it, but found all to late to serve him. The authorities took possession of the nugget, and every on* of the old man’s creditors were paid in full, but it was many a long day before his tragic fate ceased to he talked about. How little did he dream that there were only a few handfuls of clay between him and freedom from debt and difficulty. How applicable to his case are the words of Burns — The beat laid sehemes o* mice and men Gang aft a-glej; And leave ui naught but grief sad pain For promised joj.