Page:Banking Under Difficulties- Or Life On The Goldfields Of Victoria, New South Wales And New Zealand (1888).pdf/73

64 better, and finding he would not fight, gave him a tremendous thrashing.

21st March.—“Tom the Bellman” went round the town to-day announcing that “Mr. Business had strayed away, and that twenty pounds would be given by any of the storekeepers for his recovery.”

We had our celebrities in our little town. “Tom the Bellman”; “Yackandandah May,” a drunken old woman, well known on the diggings in Victoria and New South Wales; the “Singleton Chicken” and the “Tumut Bruiser,” two of the leading townsmen, nicknamed as above, through having a fight in which neither of the combatants distinguished himself; “Old Hoss” (Carmichael), landlord of the Empire Hotel, a really good, jolly fellow, with any amount of fun in him; M‘Donough, a bush lawyer; and several others, those named above being the principal.

For the first few months, in fact until we got into our new quarters, we spent our evenings in card playing, drinking, and smoking; this was about the style of thing. Mollarde, the landlord, would ring the bell for the waiter, on whose appearance he would say, “Gentlemen, I am just going to have some whisky hot, and shall be glad if you will join me; Isaac, take these gentlemen’s orders.” Some would order one thing, and some another; hot drinks were the general thing. This over, a game of cards would be proposed. As a rule, we played for drinks “for the good of the house,” the losers paying for all hands. No sooner was one game finished than another was started, so that in the course of an evening perhaps half-a-dozen games would be played, which meant half-a-dozen nobblers for each man. Six say in the room, and there were seldom a less number, would be 36s. for the landlord; it did not matter whether you drank your liquor or not, at the end of each game your nobbler would be brought in and paid for. A refusal to drink when asked by a digger was looked upon as an insult, consequently one oftentimes had to drink when he had not the slightest inclination; in fact you could not meet a friend, or go anywhere, but the first thing was, “Let’s have a drink.” I was ordered to Lambing Flat on the 2nd July, for which place I started on the 8th idem. I was fourteen months at Kiandra, during which time I saw more low life than I ever saw before, or have seen since. Up to the time I left Castlemaine I may say I had not left my mother’s apron strings, and to be transferred to a place like Kiandra was a change indeed.

Talking as one who has had a long experience (thirty years) on the goldfields, I consider it a great mistake for any bank to send a lad to a new rush, where everything is rough, and one must necessarily mix with all classes, and in all sorts of places. If a young man is inclined to be fast, there is everything at a new rush to encourage him in his downward career—bad companions,