AustLit

At London's Euston Station a traveller is told a story at the bar by a burglar, of an apparent lady's maid who offers to help him gain entrance to a duchess' room for £60 - and later resolves herself into the duchess herself, an American who wanted to prove to her husband the Duke that security was lax. Light. (PB)

English society tale of a Lady B. married to a brutal drunken husband who attempts to force her to invite a disgraceful friend to their home and to allow their attractive governess to attend dinner with guests. She loves and is loved by her cousin but will not leave her children. The governess flirts with Lord B. to persuade him to force his wife to allow her to attend dinner so that she may be on equal terms with the infatuated noble suitor who has wrangled a hunt invitation for himself. She leaves Lord B. alone in the garden when they have arranged to meet - and when he finds her with her suitor in another part of the garden threatens to expose her plotting. She thrusts a stool in his drunken path, he falls, and kills himself. The governess' suitor rejects her as a traitress and a murderess. Well written piece of fiction on the whole; male violence and abuse; female manipulation - but sense that governess need not have been so bad ... (PB)

A servant cleans a lobster so thoroughly that no meat is left for her salivating master's dinner. Humour. (PB)

Domestic. A wife answers the question her husband couldn't - on why Japanese read upside down - to avoid being taken in by patent medicine advertisements. Very brief. (PB)

Australian tale of an ex-convict turned farmer whose love for his daughter is threatened by a fellow convict from his past. The man threatens to reveal the father's murder of a convict overseas if he does not give him his daughter for his wife. She loves another and hates the blackmailer so her father chooses to die, killing his fellow ex-felon rather than give her away or spoil her memory of her father. The bodies are found in a prospector's mine shaft at Swampy Hollow, and the daughter marries her true love. Convict years are carefully shown to be due to participation in a rebellion for political independence [Scotland? Ireland?] not as a result of crime. Still important to maintain distinctions around convict origins even though some appear to be no longer shameful. (PB)

A youth endeavouring to recover from his infatuation with a pretty girl is passed by her travelling at top speed along a country lane in the latest women's knickerbockers. He has his revenge when he comes upon her sitting helplessly near her bicycle with a punctured tyre. He denounces her clothes and says he will help but is waiting to be asked. She cowers in her bike costume, finally admits her ignorance, asks his help, he fixes the tyre and flushed with superiority he kisses her. Interesting for the by-play between kind, honest, snubbed young man and the advanced woman who finds herself humbled and in need of assistance. Sexual dominance asserted though some of her clothing is very successful - and once she has made submission he approves it, no longer calling her a "saucy, impudent boy." (PB)

London society. A clever theft is achieved at a society ball by a man impersonating a detective who offers to substitute a false diamond bracelet for one worn by Lady W. and thus catch the thief. Elaborate hoax involving the supposed thief and the return of the bracelet - only it is the false one. Sub-text - Lady W. is unknown but beautiful wife of Lord W. and all society is anxious to see and judge her. Who is what they seem in society? Slight. (PB)

Irish romance. A Kingstown young woman avoids a confrontation between two suitors - one a fat and repulsive English cousin, the other a handsome honest gentleman - by disguising herself as a fat old woman. Her cousin insists on accompanying her to a party at which her other suitor will be present - she treats the cousin cruelly - with the help of her favoured suitor's irreverent younger brother, receives a proposal which she accepts from her handsome suitor, and finally teaches her cousin to understand that she does not want him. Humorous lively romance with touches of Irish character and spirit. Light. (PB)

Domestic. A husband determines to teach his wife a lesson for sitting up to wait for him and sneaks into his house late one night through a skylight and pretends he has been in bed for hours. He enjoys his wife's bemusement enormously. Humour, of sorts. (PB)

A rush to a newly proclaimed NSW diggings proves to be short-lived but in the meantime the array of goldfields characters settles in. Old time diggers reminiscing of Bendigo, 'skimmers' who took the cream of others' work, Sydney amateurs etc. Includes tale of an old prospector given to alcohol, Byron and Bobby Burns who falls in love with a plain morose woman, competing with others (for 'love' was sweeping the diggings) until his gold runs out and her husband turns up. Laconic, lightly cynical piece - sketch-like. (PB)

Humour. Reprinted from the Albany Printing Pressmen's Union souvenir dancing orders. Outlines tasks of each, eg: reporters, proof-readers, compositors, editors etc. Concludes with short joke about editors. Jerky one-liners; brief. (PB)

Episodic narrative of two mining mates in Victoria in 1845. They appear not to have done well but leave one night without farewells. A dead man being licked by a dog and a drunken digger's confession of a murder through greed for gold complete the tale. Style of some interest. (PB)

Mexican detective tale. A murder of a purported sea captain in a village is traced to the captain himself. A set-up by a thief expert at forgery who would cash money orders/cheques for large amounts drawn on an American company for whom he had worked and then disappeared. Slight. (PB)

A small bar and roadside accommodation is owned by Mary Grogan, an attractive young Iirish woman, who is visited by 'Old Cauth' in search of her absconded husband. He is Mary's purported husband and runs off when she confronts him. He attempts to murder Cauth and fails, but in ignorance returns to find his lost wallet. He shoots a policeman waiting for him and is accidentally hanged. Cauth feels some pity and lives with Mary who marries again. (PB)

Melbourne crime tale. The narrator, working odd jobs to support his family in the days of crashes after the land boom, is injured by a fallen load of bricks, and is witness to a card game in which a man is drugged and the contents of his bag exchanged. Two newspaper reports, the latter of a merchant charged with forgery, identify the crime as forgery and the victim. He reveals what he knows, criminals are caught and the man rewarded. (PB)

Melbourne tale of romance and women's work and friendship. A short sleep and dream in a young female friend's room where she learns of the girl's love for the handsome young man who has proposed to herself, convinces the older woman to refuse him. Her love must be for her work for she refuses to make three of them unhappy. Tale of women, society, sophistication and innocence and loyalty. Subdued tone of reflection, self-abnegation, service, faith etc. (PB)

A silent MP is stimulated to a brilliant speech by a lady's note on Balaam's ass. Brief. Humour. (PB)

Humour. On the history and uses of umbrellas, particularly in society and romance. (PB)