AustLit

A Valentine is sent to the wrong woman but the outcome is no mistake. An older businessman is momentarily infatuated with the grand-daughter but marries the daughter of his business associate after he discovers his mistake. (PB)

A fortune-teller i srevealed to be in league withi his actress mistress to rob his client as they leave his house. An ex-felon and convicted murderer, he kills the wife he abandoned years before when she recognises him, he tries to escape via Sandridge, being crushed by the railway engine. Interesting comments on astrology. (PB)

On St Valentine's Day Molly Aylward receives a photograph from Travers Mortimer, recently jilted by another girl. Her sister counsels caution but that night he proposes to her, on the strength of her photograph which he received that day. They discover they have been victims of a forward girl's hoax but it brings romance to them. Pleasant domestic and social tale; light-hearted. (PB)

Change of costumes on a train reveals the tavellers' true sexes and their roles as thief and detective. Anecdote. (PB)

Humorous sketch of an Eagle newspaper editor and his ready 'answers' to every phrase that falls from a visiting lady on a spiritual quest - frustrating her entirely. (PB)

Anecdote of a wife who uses a boot-jack to relieve her husband's toothache. (PB)

Tale of pioneering settlers and explorers. John Crawford leaves his Lachlan River Station to open up the hinterland of Australia for other prospectors, his only companion a canny, faithful ex-convict. His wife and daughter await him and when he does not return as promised, ask his brother-in-law to search for him with an Aboriginal tracker. After long waiting a Bathurst squatter returns with sad and happy news ... (PB)

The eccentric Lord's joke with the valet of a neighbouring nobleman - fetching him a beer before revealing his identity. Humour? (PB)

A fascinating city belle comes to spend a few weeks with her newly married cousin and her husband in the country. He becomes infatuated but she quickly stamps on it, leaving hurriedly and telling him she feels insulted and that no man is trustworthy. He confesses all to his wife, is forgiven, and the belle remains single. Oddly interesting though often predictable. (PB)

A man proves he can gather a huge crowd over nothing by simply pointing his cane fixedly at a muddy cabbage for 30 minutes. (PB)

Narrative of John Grigg, a London thief transported to Van Diemen's Land in the 1830s who refused to abide by the terms of his 'ticket of leave', served time in Victoria, escaped from his chain gang and murdered his former master in the bush. He escaped detection til the 1850s when he became a gold robber and bushranger and was eventually shot by police. Factually based; competent but not vivid. (PB)

The eccentric King of Bavaria's insistence that water pipes be turned on to simulate rain during a private operatic performance. Humour. (PB)

Mock romance set in a Victorian country town in high summer. A butcher falls in love with a lady who scorns him and he becomes morose. He saves her from drowning but her highborn perfidious suitor takes the credit and is believed, leaving the butcher to find peace in his own sausage mincer. Broad humour, diverting in parts, often overdrawn. (PB)

Anecdote. Sheridan uses his wit to obtain a shinbone destined for a duke at his favourite London chop-house. (PB)

Philip Granger is left an inheritance by his uncle which separates him for a time from Isabel Irving who believes he took it as the cost of the natural heirs. The misunderstanding is eventually cleared up, the natural heirs shown to be well provdided for, and romance blossoms. Slight; probably US. (PB)

Common scenes of life's sorrows: a drunken son; a daughter driven mad by overwork; a wife forsaking motherly duties for gaiety; a tyrannical husband; etc. (PB)