MELBOURNE IS

West Coast Times, Issue 2569, 15 December 1873, Page 4

MELBOURNE IS

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.) We are looking forward now to the opening of the Alfred Graving Dock, at Williamstown. Its immense dry oblong basin, all of smoothly wroujibt stone, is capable of taking the largest vessel afl at, save tbe Groat Eastern ; hut to look into the dock, anyone might aupp >se it able to swallow even that monster. The Ceiberus and Nelson, it is said, will he put in at the same time. Both must he- pretty, well barnacled. In the Supreme Court library there is hanging a plan of the new Law Courts, at West Melbourne, from which it would appear that they are to be on a huge scale. Tbe ground floor shows a maze of about two hundred apartmen's, among thim being eight large courts, as follows : — Two Nisi Prius, Banco, Equity, Insolvent, County, Practice . nnd Spare Court. Judges' chambers, jury-rooms, waiting rooms, effices of all kinds, a great library, and quadrangles, occupy the rest of the space. On the first floor plan there is a . gallery for each court, which fact may help to indicate the dimensions of this palace of justice. The Bourke-street drapers. have been lately making such an advancement, in the way of palatial fronts and rich stocks, as to threaten the supremacy of Collins-street altogether. We see now sometimes late in the afternoon, a double row of luxurious carriages drawn up oa the north side of Bourke-street, for two thirds of the way up to Swanson-ftreet. In the mitfdle of the road" is the St. Kilda cab stand, and there is only room for ore vehicle to piss between this rank and the carriages. Under these circumstances there is getting to be quite a crush at the fashionable hour. In the Melbourne General Cemetery there is a Mortuary Chapel, erected to tbe memory of deceased Roman. Cahmlic priests; and a. visit to this place raises very strange feelings in persons who are impressionable. Descending by stone steps, the visitor finds himself or herselt in a cemented fault, lighted by a lamp from the ceiling. On the floor are eight or nine corpses of priests, each enclosed in a number of coffins : the outer one of copper, hermetically sealed up, with the name . of the deceased clergyman upon it. Jewellery of oxidised silver is coming into fashion here, the same a 9at home. Ear-rings and bxw cbes of this -material arcbeautifully frosted They look bqst on blondes. Tiamond rings, of huge price, abound in the jewellers' windows, and gaps ~-«S-tifi-Utde_velvetcushionß, ticketed over with, perbapg7 T nßl2o7 v l)r-' < -140^ 1 Ti lay1 ay indicate that winnings on the races have Caused expensive lots to move off.

The large amounts realised for Melbourne property have caused much to be placed on the market within the last few months, and the way in which it goes off astonishes even the auctioneer". Absentees ire noticing the set of the tide, and extensjve powers have lately been received from England to sell. Those who are authorities in mch matters, however, expect signs of a glut.

One of our fa hionable photographers in Collinr -street exhibits in his show frame the photograph, Isrge size, of a pretty and devont young lady kneeling at a Prie Dieu chair : with a CburcH Service open before her oa the ledge, her hands clasped, her, eyes uplifted reverently to heaven, and her lips half opened in prayer. A very taking ■tyle. "

The. Presbyterian Assembly held its sittings in a disused church called the Assembly Hall Collins-street. Nothing about the proceedings took my attention so

much as an old rciMdhell <i"'d for s'uniuoning thememb'Ts to «aik in !t wns lent for. t-hi* nn r.V"«?« h'-jt l^ 1 R. •■•. T . '••''•iJi'T- "•■»'> \"■ '■ '•".■ ■■■ '' K~ !;. „ : ' <• , "' I A.OIIiI . ii.> -. i.;;C I . '"i: '•■ ■•■ ' •. „m,v, . 'l worn a good deal, iUsis we *• 'Victoria Dei GratTse " on a well-used piece' of money. The inscription, as nearly a< I could copy it, was "Mr Daniel Combel, Minister of the Gospel in J^ilnncb,al,,of Glasrie. 1694." Truly a wonderful relic ! Combel, I suppose, is the old style of putting Campbell. No doubt Mr Daniel Combel was a vigorous disputant in his time, and would prove a' tower of strength to the Cairns and Cameron party could' he be resusiitated. Bl«ck Swan, undefvthe'euphonious name of Colonial Goose, is an article on 'he bill of fare at .-Melbourne-Dining rooms. In the con-se of a recent trial at the County Court j where a young . Rbirt-cutter sued a manufacturer for overtime, v it • was stated that hundreds of girls slaved in Melbourne clothing manufactories very long '.hours-Tor wages ranging: trlirn 8s- t > 11s a week. : , A blindmari, whose stand is ; -outside the Colonial Bank in Elizabeth-street, holds open before him a. large New , Testament, with 'raised letters, which he-reads with his. finger ma conversational tone, only stopping to pocket coppers. V: .'■■'■■■ The fashionable Melbourne parasol now is an. article of may, flounces, und a istout knobby stick.. When the parachute is down, the short piece above it, is; Used;iis the hnndle, while the. part we. nsual'y, call the handle is duly shod as the toe. In fact it is a case oof'f f ' Reverse Arms." For the electric r telegraph along the Northern-Eastern line of railway, -the Government are erectin.; light and' graceful pos-s of galvanised irori t hollow,^ and hardly theker than a bamboo. They are exactly like pitc s bfSviiter-pipe. There are rumors about an enlargement ot the A«re newspaper.-" The Christmas Pantomimes 'his j'ear will be : — Theatre Royal : The Old Woman tf'ho Lived in a Shoe; Opera House' • The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood. Already crowds of little boys and girls swarm round the stage doors every day, for rehearsal or engagement. At the Royal about a' hundred children are being drilled of mornings at their marches with all sort's of intricacies, in and out of a monster painted shoe on the back scene. At a clap of the band or stamp of the foot by the balletmaster, the -youngsters- run into ; varying kaliedoscopic phalanxes, eacli member of the army as solemn as a little judge. All are eager for Boxing night, when they will appear in fantastic suits and nicely rouged faces. Amiable people of the Charles Lamb tutn of mind, who like such out-of-the-way , things, can pick-up outside the stage door, little men and maidens of eleven or twelve • who hive been in the Pantomime every I year since th^ey were able to toddle. They I have been fairies, pixies,- mushrooms, fishes, oysters, little courtiers a la Louis Quatorze, kings and queens <>f England, sprit*, s, l Worthies of tvvery Nation, sailors, soldier*, | Lilliputians, and horribly ugly Big-heads of diabolic pattern, to set other children laughing, wondtring, and dreaming. Amongst the queer little performers of so many experiences there may be -nursing an Australian "Dickens, Wilkie, v Keari, Rachel.

John Chinaman is rather impudent sometimes, when the- mistress of the house doea not j?hoose to buy his "cabbagee, callots, wegatab." Fact this : A housewife tbe other day informed Johri, in a stately manner, calculated to be very impressive, that she never bought anything at . the door. '• Aha," says John, showing his ivories, " What, you buy at the window, eh?" . . .'■.'" ■

The latest London novelty has been a Beard and Moustache Show, at the Woolwich Garden?. Mr Holland, lessee of the Gardens, took the fir.«t moustache priz , with a marvellous and unapproachable Napoleiiic wired out, nine inches from point to point. The big bearded competitors in the other deparment were very bashful, each having to appear on a stage in the concert hall and face a jury of ladies. One gentleman sent a note, regretting he could not come ; but enclosed a sample hair, red, over 40 inches long. Honor ible . Mention However, the Illustrated Di ut«-che Zielung, published in Liepsic. gives an engraving, taken from a photograph, of JHe.rr Kerpsen, of Chicago, U.S., who has a beard»more than s£ft long. He carries it slung over his arm, like the tail' of Mephistopheles. . ' . ! < Sothern, the actor (Lord Dundreary), was lately seized with a fainting fit while in a bank in San Francisco ; the cause bein« a spasm at the heart, through a rheumafici affection, under which he labors, and which kept him in bad health during "almost his whole stay in America. Let us hope he' wifl make up his mind to an Australian recruiting trip. Looking over the Paris Charivari the other day, I saw a very good thing, under the title of " The First Strawberries of the Season." It was one of those little pictures such as Leech used to draw, and such as Dv Maurier and Keenenow supply London Punch with. Two hearty old' gmtleman have met in a fruit «!ibp, and are laughing with much »usto, when Mademoiselle in attendance plucks one of them by the sleeve and points to a little son he brought in ; the which youngster has his fist in a plate of straw berrie on the -cu- ter, while the stretch of his cheeks give 3 evidence of deslution. Sayn- Mademoiselle: "Pardon me sir, but Mhile you have been talking, your little boy haa eaten fourteen strawberries at 5 francs apiece !"