AustLit

Colourful article on the fears of Mother Shipton's predictions re: 1881 in an age of science. (PB)

A businessman's partiality for Scots lead to Mark Sinclair being engaged to chase loss of money from a safe, and the businessman's lack of suspicion of his housekeeper and her idiot son. A case of small fry crime but humour and pathos thrown in, with an incompetent absent-minded partner and a worried clerk. (PB)

Humorous account of the dread process and the assortment of articles caught in the hair. (PB)

A penniless widow, abandoned by her rich father, gives up her infant daughter for adoption. When the adopted mother dies fifteen years later the girl's adopted uncle tells her the truth and she determines (as he intended) to earn her own living. She meets her mother again, riches are restored, and marries her adopted cousin. Pleasant romance. (PB)

A premature engagement between cousins brings unhappiness over a summer when they both discover they love their new neighbours, a brother and sister. A horse accident and the poet's near-death bring the truth to light ... Pleasant romance set in England.

Three different ways of telling someone he has lied. Uninspiring. (PB)

A negro meeting corrects one its members for arguing at the market over Judas' age rather than paying attention to earning a living. (PB)

A college duel is reluctantly agreed to when George Jasper's friends ostracise him rather thna support his decision on principle. His opponent's courage is shown to be a sham. Thin. (PB)

A doctor's suggestion to a dying benefactress results in a legacy of £2000 to a woman struggling to support her consumptive husband and children - rescuing her from slow death. Simple tale. (PB)

Anecdote of the English politician John Wilkes and his presence of mind when being arrested. (PB)

It is Christmas Eve near Killarney, Ireland and Old Mike is visited by a young girl seeking magical information and a charm. After he sees the good food she brings, he promises what she wishes to hear - and since it is his own son she loves it comes true. The woman he wished his son to marry is in Australia and writes to say she is marrying a squatter. Vivid portrait of Ireland's superstition and charm with wryly cynical portrait of Old Mike. (Sad end for the woman in Australia). (PB)

Seance in Little Rock, USA, is exposed by a violent visitor. (PB)

Account of the tricks played on April 1 each year; includes anecdote of an old lady who recovered her wallet because everyone thought it was a trick. (PB)

A US railway conductor's reminiscences of the night he and the engineer mistook the planet Venus for an approaching train. Character humour. (PB)

A man is visited by the ghost of his fiancee on the night she dies, while he waits aboard ship in a gale. Slight. (PB)

A poor girl jilts the man she loves for a rich older bachelor, but in seeking to recover her letters which he refused to give up, discovers she truly loves him. Light romance with a touch of humour - hiding in closets etc. (PB)

Anecdote of a German collector of door stones and a costly mistake. (PB)

An inheritance spells the end of an engagement between Emma Jane and the humble mechanic Tom. But a mother's sagacity and a pretended loss of fortune restore true values. US romance. (PB)

A Victorian gentleman-jackaroo falls in love with the station proprietor's daughter. When three years training are up he goes to North Queensland to manage a run of his own and dies of fever, leaving Jeannie to mourn his memory. Plain bush tale of romance and death. Brief. (Tone of reminiscence and colonial frontier becoming much rarer in 1880s; much more American, smooth.) (PB)

A governess rescues a burglar's boy and sends him to school without betraying him to the police. Fifteen years later she is ill and old and unable to find employment and he gives her shelter in his home. Sentimental theme well-contained by the understated, realist tone. (PB)