INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A JOURNALIST

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 152, 11 August 1883, Page 11

INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A JOURNALIST

By Nxito. ■JYb. XV. — IHpc-clay Punching v. Reefing — A.ucJc' land in Extremity — Hiorrn and Sunshine — a Retrospect— £loo for a .Pair of Slack Eyes — A Gambling Fever- -Gaming Melts — The JBanh Rsbbed — Revivers mid Bcnoiis — The JBallarat Riot. Afteb the curious matrimonial adventure narjrated in the last chapter, I made my way back to the Indigo, by way of Beechworth. Seeing no • prospects of taking" up payable ground, I worked .for wages for a few months. The mining operations, as they proceeded lower down the leads, liad got into deep sinking, the work had thus become expensive, and the claims were rapidly -falling into the hands of capitalists. I remember -one day going to look at a quartz reef which a party of Germans had opened up on one of the spurs. Accustomed only to shallow sinking, or "pipe-clay punching," as it was called by experienced miners, and having no idea of the enormous richness of some of the reefs in the Western districts, many of us regarded these Germans as little better than lunatics, engaged in a quixotic and unprofitable occupation, and we made very merry at their expense. I do not know how the reef turned out, as my stay on the diggings soon afterwards ended ; but the contempt with which some of us regarded quartzminiDg at this time is a very good instance of the -way in which |men undervalue things they do not understand. I remember when poor Walter Williamson ■exhibited the first specimens of quartz from the Thames in a small room in the old British Hotel, ■which was crowded to suffocation, how he stood on a table and harangued the crowd, while the - lumps of stone were handed about and critically scrutinised. The quartz had a hungry appearance, and was not at all like what old reefers had been accustomed to see in Australia. Auckland was ■suffering from, frightful depression ; a soupMtchen had been established to relieve the •starving poor ; a poll-tax was talked of ; hundreds of men roamed the streets vainly in search of employment, and clamoured at the doors of ihe Superintendent's office, or left their wives •and families to shift for themselves, and went out to the gum and flax fields to get bread. There ' had been a great noise about a new flax-scutching snaehine, invented by Fraser and Tinne, on which the hopes of all people rested as a means of averting ruin ; and an association had been formed by Mr Griffin and others, who have long since joined •the majority, to work the flax fields on the cooperative system, with the assistance of Auckland capitalists. But just at this crisis there was a c ;ir,~- I--- • ' rk clouds which hung like a crth. There came mystoriILeovcvles afc tH TfaaihjJ form aud shape. Mr Cg|Hg (iTtfpit ■' I~ -kad- ■ I?)': ■- '.\"1~ ' TiW I of coarse, uuggeity gold, .. . - ■■=/ nt t.bh Superintendent's office' ■ , , „ &M&^'-&-' x ' l & ? ' A ti'-'''- a sam. Ihe look ot '^S^bomVadeti away from their faces. Tlio bustle P^nQueea-strc-et- was rc-suinod. The niters, the bankers, and the merchants held meetings, and the newspapers gloated over the brightening prospects. \But the mass of the people could not realise •their gc>od fortune. They were stunned by misfortun'J and poverty. Suffering had made them liopel/ess and suspicious. It was " a storekeepers r\isU} f said some— a trick of the merchants and ijKpitfflists to rid the town of the unemployed, dnd avert a possible bread riot. It was just at /this critical juncture that Walter Wiiliameon [exhibited his lumps of quartz in the old British /"Hotel, in the presence of a struggling and excited j crowd, filling the room to suffocation. Old Aus- / traliari diggers scanned the rough boulders j thro'.tfjh. magnifying glasses, and, detecting ■ .!,,-.';-. specka in the stone, contemptuously 33 ; "-on-, . sliced them "inundic." They were strung •:•.' i .igh. pitch of excitement. In their fierce ■'■so-, -^ur they were desperate and dangerous, and would -have laid rough hands on anyone who ■r &?■,>•* fco trifle with their hopes. ■:" K<i\v quickly nature falls into revolt, ' V/Uen gold becomes her object." ;•...•.-.* vwere whispers of lynching; but Walter Vi'tiiiatiison was not the man to flinch, and knew *c-;i '-«r t/han the wild excited crowd what those ■'-•■h -nd specks were. Sometimes a dozen men , v ; walking at once ; but gradually the excite--aion^ cooled down, and it was agreed to await ''..-' 'the rssult of an assay. That assay showed that """ while v^he mineral was largely impregnated with :flilver atnd other interior metals, it was unmistakably anti indubitably GOLD. Then the heart of the* people gave :i great leap ; they knew that Aucklam? was saved. But I akt digressing. I had a little stroke of luck on the Indigo after all. Meeting with some •old mates one day at Chiltern, they " laid me on," as the phrase\ went, to a piece of spare ground between two tflairus that were turning out over an -ounce and a-liu s lf to the tub of wash-dirt. As--sured of their moral and physical support, I went and taped off tlii? ground aud took possession. Of course. I had to; uphold my title to the ground by main force, and in doing 30 I got considerably - knocked about by a tall, raw-boned Scotchman, who was rather inure rtian a match for me ; but at the critic. .'. point, Mr Commissioner Gaunt and Murphy, the "mining surveyor, made their appearance, acc A rapap ; rJ. by \ couple of mounted troopers, and the piece of ground was awarded to me. I sold it to one of tlie adjoiuiog claims for ..£IOO cash, and they put on [tin extra man on ■wages, s« that I was exceedingly well compensated for a pair of black eyes and (a few other minor bruises. ', It was about this time thai an extraordinary mania set in, which . spread rapidly all over the Indigo diggings, aiid seized upon all classes of the community. ,-A gang oi: sharpers earoe "up from Melbourne tvnd commenced operations in alavge marquee, about half way down the old Indigo Lead, on the left-hand side. Their piedys- ojjerandi \vu-' as fallows j — A raised semi-,-iircie of scarlet/ is placed on the side of a rff billiard-table, encl - 'up one of tlie pockets, at --which eat the baukv The outside of the semicircle -was called "3= >-i do" (or "roundo," as it v&aa .commonly pronounced), and- the inside

*' Coolo." The gamblers staked any amount from five shillings upwards on either side 61: the semicircle, receiving a ticket or a slip of paper representing the amount staked ; and when, the stakes on "rondo" and "coolo" were equal, or the banker, as he was bound to do if necessary, made up any deficiency out of his own funds to equalise the respective stakes, a man stood at one corner of the table, and, placing his open hand over nine marbles, rolled them diagonally towards the pocket at the other corner. If an even number of marbles went into the pocket, it was " roundo," and the gamblers who had placed on that side handed in their tickets and received back double the amount of their stake, less ten per cent, banker's commission ; if an odd number of marbles was pocketed, those who had staked on " coolo " won. with a similar result. Any bystander was allowed to roll at the discretion of the stakers. It was said that some men had acquired dexterity in manipulating the marbles, so that they could roll either a " roundo " or a " coolo " as they chose ; but, from close personal observation, I believe the game was purely one of chance. It was played with great rapidity, and enormous sums changed hands. The game spread like wildfire. Every publichouse or tent where a billiard-table could be got, was converted into a roundo and coolo saloon. All work was suspended. The diggers crowded into the gaming-houses by hundreds and thousands, jostled each other at the tables, while notes and sovereigns passed from hand to hand, or lay in little piles on either side of the bank. I saw over a thousand pounds staked on one occasion. The excitement was at f everheafc. Men made or lost fortunes in a single night. I knew a barman who won £800 in a few hours. Men sold their claims and all they could lay hands on in order to raise money to gamble with. Industry was neglected. In the frenzy of avarice they were blind to the fact that the apparent riches and prosperity were a mere simulacrum, that they were living on their capital instead of producing, and that the fruits of their labour were passing into the hands of rogues and sliapers. Violence and robbery increased", dissipation and profligacy were universal, and there was a spirit of reckless abandon everywhere rampant. I was in the principal one of these gaming halls one night, and, "seized by the prevailing spirit, had staked a few half-sovereigns and won. The room was packed with a miscellaneous crowd, comprising all sorts and conditions of men who make up a mining community. The atmosphere was murky with clouds of strong tobacco smoke, and stifling from the fumes of strong drink. Curses and blasphemy mingled with laughter and exclamations of joy. Ever ! and anon there was a hush of silence and the sound of rolling marbles, followed by a shout of "Ronndo!" or "Coolo," and a forest of outstretched }i:hkl? to receive the stakes; and then the little ■■•■'■'. sb...i-e»vclo would again be speedily (•.!•.■:.••:;() -It!; :;Oi(^, iroki, uncl silver. Suddenly lyiv.i\; v;-u6 <■ shrink <v ys:-s frjt!- i.l:o bunker, vlnlp Wruericfsrusr'icvl.. " l ]^4i! !J ° v > "" u v ' ith Y'O"^' 1 revolver*, barret ogrer^^&ayi ruY ' •"-■'• n ! - f! instant oibcv re I . olvrr.r. runl ki;ive ; ; f >isi."u t '-\v*" 5 ynu n.cn gta.ivd savagely ?n o-tcii oihev's fact;*. The baol:--;r — ». i'.ll.'ifW 'Onihtv. >vi* a a Munched face and flashing oyefa--- ::*;nx<.l or. s.hv. ta.ie \ ill? \ a revolver in his hand, and ihumu-iV!! oui, • " The bank's robbed ! Don't rii.-vt- boys ! j The first man that tries to scoot I'll shoot dead. Every son of a (she-dog) will be searched, and the skunk that's played this trick's got to be lynched. You hear me, boys !" The pocket in which the banker kept his money had been cut clean away. There had been brisk play for hours, and it must have contained some hundreds of pounds. Every man submitted to the search, some with rather a bad ; grace ; but though many had considerable sums j in their pockets, the banker admitted that the search had been a failure. It was surmised that while the excitement was at its height someone had crawled in under the table, snipped off the pocket with a sharp knife, and escaped in the crowd. The gambling was, however, soon resumed, as if nothing unusual had happened. But the demoralisation increased to such a pitch that the authorities felt it incumbent on them to interfere and prohibit the game, and the gambling dens were broken up as if by magic. At Cbiltern I made the acquaintance _of a digger who had been a prominent actor in the Ballarat insurrection, but I must reserve his exciting narrative of that memorable crisis in the history of Victoria until the next chapter of this series. (To he continued. J

i . — I Very pretty vases and bowls in Dresden and old chinaware are now employed' for growing bulbs for table decoration. The surface is covered with, green moss, and the bulbs shooting through this make an attractive ornament. Silver jewellery is becoming more and more worn, especially necklaces, as these can be worn with simple evening dress. The Henri 111. necklace consists of small balls of silver placed side by side and joined by thin silver rings. The Elizabeth necklace is also of silver, very handsome, ornamented with large plates of metal. Serpent bracelets are as much worn as ever ; also silver bangles, though these, unless richly chased and unusual, are no longer hatU ton. Some of the serpent bracelets are wonderfully pretty, wide and long, and all articulated and supple ; the two heads in the richer varieties, which tip the bracelets, are ornamented with red or green stones. Among the alterations in dancing with fashionables at home, it is now said that the polka, the schottische, and the waltz are to give place to the German livndler and the polonaise, as dauced at the German court. A dance called tlie cournelle, which has been a favourite dance in Ticnna, has also been introduced at the English court ball, and is expected to become popular. As regards Americans, they want a change. They say^at anything fehat displaces the wild and reckless hullabaloo of the racquet will be welcome . Of all dancing it is the most barbarous, and if a stately and respectable style of dance comes in again, it might take away some of the fun, excitement, fatigue, and immorality of the wilder dances, but 'it will substitute temper and grace. Both of 1 them are now needed in the average balli-roona.