The Stores At The Diggings Are Large Tents, Generally Square Or Oblong,
And Everything Required By A Digger Can Be
Obtained for money, from
sugar-candy to potted anchovies; from East India pickles to Bass's pale
ale; from ankle jack
Boots to a pair of stays; from a baby's cap to a
cradle; and every apparatus for mining, from a pick to a needle. But
the confusion - the din - the medley - what a scene for a shop
walker! Here lies a pair of herrings dripping into a bag of sugar, or a
box of raisins; there a gay-looking bundle of ribbons beneath two
tumblers, and a half-finished bottle of ale. Cheese and butter, bread
and yellow soap, pork and currants, saddles and frocks, wide-awakes and
blue serge shirts, green veils and shovels, baby linen and tallow
candles, are all heaped indiscriminately together; added to which,
there are children bawling, men swearing, store-keeper sulky, and last,
not LEAST, women's tongues going nineteen to the dozen.
Most of the store-keepers are purchasers of gold either for cash or in
exchange for goods, and many are the tricks from which unsuspecting
diggers suffer. One great and outrageous trick is to weigh the parcels
separately, or divide the whole, on the excuse that the weight would be
too much for the scales; and then, on adding up the grains and
pennyweights, the sellers often lose at least half an ounce. On one
occasion, out of seven pounds weight, a party once lost an ounce and
three quarters in this manner. There is also the old method of false
beams - one in favour of the purchaser - and here, unless the
seller weighs in both pans, he loses considerably. Another mode of
cheating is to have glass pans resting on a piece of green baize; under
this baize, and beneath the pan which holds the weights, is a wetted
sponge, which causes that pan to adhere to the baize, and consequently
it requires more gold to make it level; this, coupled with the false
reckoning, is ruinous to the digger. In town, the Jews have a system of
robbing a great deal from sellers before they purchase the gold-dust
(for in these instances it must be DUST): it is thrown into a zinc pan
with slightly raised sides, which are well rubbed over with grease; and
under the plea of a careful examination, the purchaser shakes and rubs
the dust, and a considerable quantity adheres to the sides. A commoner
practice still is for examiners of gold-dust to cultivate long
finger-nails, and, in drawing the fingers about it, gather some up.
Sly grog selling is the bane of the diggings. Many - perhaps
nine-tenths - of the diggers are honest industrious men, desirous of
getting a little there as a stepping-stone to independence elsewhere;
but the other tenth is composed of outcasts and transports - the refuse
of Van Diemen's Land - men of the most depraved and abandoned
characters, who have sought and gained the lowest abyss of crime, and
who would a short time ago have expiated their crimes on a scaffold.
They generally work or rob for a space, and when well stocked with
gold, retire to Melbourne for a month or so, living in drunkenness and
debauchery. If, however, their holiday is spent at the diggings, the
sly grog-shop is the last scene of their boisterous career. Spirit
selling is strictly prohibited; and although Government will license a
respectable public-house on the ROAD, it is resolutely refused ON the
diggings. The result has been the opposite of that which it was
intended to produce. There is more drinking and rioting at the diggings
than elsewhere, the privacy and risk gives the obtaining it an
excitement which the diggers enjoy as much as the spirit itself; and
wherever grog is sold on the sly, it will sooner or later be the scene
of a riot, or perhaps murder. Intemperance is succeeded by quarrelling
and fighting, the neighbouring tents report to the police, and the
offenders are lodged in the lock-up; whilst the grog-tent, spirits,
wine, &c., are seized and taken to the Commissioners. Some of
the stores, however, manage to evade the law rather cleverly - as
spirits are not SOLD, "my friend" pays a shilling more for his fig of
tobacco, and his wife an extra sixpence for her suet; and they smile at
the store-man, who in return smiles knowingly at them, and then glasses
are brought out, and a bottle produced, which sends forth NOT a
fragrant perfume on the sultry air.
It is no joke to get ill at the diggings; doctors make you pay for it.
Their fees are - for a consultation, at their own tent, ten shillings;
for a visit out, from one to ten pounds, according to time and
distance. Many are regular quacks, and these seem to flourish best. The
principal illnesses are weakness of sight, from the hot winds and sandy
soil, and dysentery, which is often caused by the badly-cooked food,
bad water, and want of vegetables.
The interior of the canvas habitation of the digger is desolate enough;
a box on a block of wood forms a table, and this is the only furniture;
many dispense with that. The bedding, which is laid on the ground,
serves to sit upon. Diogenes in his tub would not have looked more
comfortless than any one else. Tin plates and pannicans, the
same as are used for camping up, compose the breakfast, dinner, and tea
service, which meals usually consist of the same dishes - mutton,
damper, and tea.
In some tents the soft influence of our sex is pleasingly apparent: the
tins are as bright as silver, there are sheets as well as blankets on
the beds, and perhaps a clean counterpane, with the addition of a dry
sack or piece of carpet on the ground; whilst a pet cockatoo, chained
to a perch, makes noise enough to keep the "missus" from feeling lonely
when the good man is at work.
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