AustLit

Travelling home for Christmas on a US train, a poor man sees the train involved in an accident, his rich neighbour killed and thousands of dollars in his own hand. He impersonates the dead man whose body is mistaken for his, marries his beautiful fiancée, is exposed as a forger, counterfeiter and murderer. He is hung - woken from his dream ... Slight; well told for such a familiar genre. (PB)

Boy's friendhsip. A street urchin in Melbourne champions a small boy against a bully and friendship grows, the boy often sharing his food with his hungry ragged companion. At Christmas the urchin steals some food for a feast but his friend tells the tale of Jesus and awakens his conscience ... Very strong characterisation of the urchin, at least early on when the narrator described him affectionately 'nothing human [is] foreign to myself', but weakens with the introduction of the boy's deferral to the refinement of his new friend - and becomes sentimental with the subject of Jesus. (PB)

Juvenile. A little girl's dream on New Year's Eve of the hours, minutes, seconds and minutes which made up her years: kindness to her brother, punishment, illness, a fall in the stream etc. Like a fairy visit. Slight and sentimental in part. (PB)

On the benefits of allowing boys to be knocked about by school and the world - helps them to find their own natures/level. (PB)

Moral. On good intentions and those actually carried out - especially swearing, drinking, profanity, feeding the hungry; attending church. Includes how the resolves are carried out. (PB)

A newspaper writer in New York buys a hungry newsboy a Christmas dinner and gives him a quarter. A few months later the boy returns the money and asks him to buy another newsboy dinner with it. Human sentiment. (PB)

English clerical family tragedy. A canon turned his daughter out of home when she ran away to marry the man the canon considered unsuitable. She returned several months later, pregnant, to ask his assistance for them both but he refused if she would not leave her husband. She cursed him, hoping that he too would one day be refused assistance by one he loved. Some months later, next Christmas, he is called to her deathbed - and finds her husband too has died of starvation. He adopts and raises her newborn daughter, but one Christmas when she is 25 and he is ill with bronchitis she goes mad and he dies gasping for breath and her help ... Father-daughter-granddaughter theme; elopement; estrangment; rejection; remorse; retribution; death; madness; and Christmas. (PB)

A man refuses an old woman charity on Christmas Eve but when remorseful he tries to find her, and he fails. He resolves to seek her the next day but learns from the paper that she and her husband are dead. "I had better far have given to a thousand unworthy applicants than to have turned that one away." (PB)

Lively tale of an 50 year-old English businessman and his 25 year-old wife of whom he is increasingly jealous. He makes a wish one Christmas to grow younger every day - and does so until she is 60 and he a boy obsessively compelled to play marbles etc. Predictable 'dream' awakening conclusion - but descriptions of conflict between mature man's wisdom and boy's desires are very amusing. (PB)

Adventure/romance in Argentina, South America. An Englishman in Argentina to learn stock raising from his uncle rides to Buenos Aires to bring his orphaned brother and sister to his uncle's ranch for Christmas. Brigands attempt to rob him and his two cowboy friends at an inn, and when foiled they shadow the youth around the city, especially to the bank. The Englishman is captured with one of the cowboys on the way back - and eventually they are beaten and walled up in a cave to die. An old woman, a beautiful young girl and reinforcements help save them - and all return for Christmas. Romance blossoms [very thin thread.] Slight; pace and narrative strength varies. (PB)

A bereaved mother's words of consolation to another - saves child from life's storms; takes away fear of death as await reunion after death. Moral sentiments. (PB)

Marriage, estrangement and reunion. A mechanic and inventor marries happily but takes to drink when one of his inventions fails, eventually deserting his wife and child. He reforms after an illness but fears to return until he discovers a message in the Christmas turkey for his boarding house which encourages him to go and seek her. Slight. (PB)

A US merchant's son sent to look after his father's tea interests ventures too far into the country's interior - trespassing on the territory of local merchants. He is sentenced to death as a spy and endures several days crossing a bamboo bridge above spikes, onto which prisoners are successively dropped through trapdoors ... He is finally released, the lesson taught. Well written. (PB)

A ship's captain's discipline is so strong that a steward waiting on a dinner will not pass a lady bread as he is "told off for 'taters". Humour, brief. (PB)

Marriage. A young married couple's first quarrel over which of their relatives are to be invited for Christmas is mended. But not before letters are mixed up and an old harridan is offered kisses and the young wife told her husband will deal with her no longer. Confused communications. (PB)

An orphan tempted onto the icy roof on Christmas Eve to see children dancing freezes to death - in the arms of Lullaby - but not before she has saved a neighbour's baby from being burnt to death. Pathos/fairy sentiment. (PB)

The narrator, an eager young police constable at a country station with Prosser, discovers a wanted murderer near the hut of a paralysed man. He is wounded while spying on him, and nearly killed when left for dead in a cave with the corpse of a young Melbourne forward girl who would have betrayed him and his Irish lady. Some sympathy for criminals here - shown to have loyalty. (PB)

A father humorously asks his children not to give him presents that are too useful - to themselves. Family humour. (PB)

Melbourne romance set on the beach at Sandringham; a villa in St Kilda and at the Melbourne Cup at Flemington. Rumours of a gambling escapade seem to have destroyed Arthur Milford's chances of marrying Lilian Carr. At least until Arthur sees her disapproving father collecting his winnings at the Cup and a private arrangement is reached. Arthur also wins £5000 in a sweepstake. Light humour. Entertaining. (PB)