Melbourne is very full of Jews; on a Saturday, some of the streets are
half closed.
There are only two pawnbrokers in the town.
The most thriving trade there, is keeping an hotel or public-house,
which always have a lamp before their doors. These at night serve as a
beacon to the stranger to keep as far from them as possible,
they being, with few exceptions, the resort, after dark, of the most
ruffianly characters.
* * * * *
On the 2nd of September, the long-expected mail steamer arrived, and
two days after we procured our letters from the Post-office. I may here
remark, that the want of proper management in this department is the
greatest cause of inconvenience to fresh arrivals, and to the
inhabitants of Melbourne generally. There is but ONE SMALL WINDOW,
whence letters directed to lie at the office are given out; and as the
ships from England daily discharged their living cargoes into
Melbourne, the crowd round this inefficient delivering-place rendered
getting one's letters the work, not of hours, but days. Newspapers,
particularly pictorial ones, have, it would appear, a remarkable
facility for being lost EN ROUTE. Several numbers of the "Illustrated
London News" had been sent me, and, although the letters posted with
them arrived in safety, the papers themselves never made their
appearance. I did hear that, when addressed to an uncolonial name, and
with no grander direction than the Post-office itself, the
clerks are apt to apropriate them - this is, perhaps, only a wee bit of
Melbourne scandal.
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