AustLit

A mild man's complaints to a grocer about inedible butter - ironic and indirect. (PB)

A train breakdown near a small Victorian township elicits a tale from a traveller, ostensibly a Melbourne detective, of a case of money disappearing from a post-office till each night. A grocer's somnambulism and money lost in the purchase of a hen prove to be the keys to the mystery - and save the lady postal clerk from registration. Final ironic twist supplied by the apparent detective robbing one of his audience while telling the tale. Detective work, crime and humour. Small town atmosphere well evoked. (PB)

Naval reform of the nautical doctors' qualifications results from the press-ganging of the Duke of Northumberland one night on the London docks. (PB)

A poor young English doctor on the eve of emigrating to Australia earns a reputation and patients by saving a duke's life. (PB)

A sailor meets a stranger and tells the tale of his daughter drowned at sea ten years before. He returns to church and faith that day - and then is reunited with his daughter who had been saved and taken to England. (PB)

A practical joke played upon a friend by a group of young men backfires when they place a real instead of a counterfeit 10 pound note in a packet of cigarettes. Based on a cigarette advertisement promising purchasers the chance to win the ten pounds. (PB)

Mr Pippitt attempts to extort several thousand pounds from a railway company for the death of his father in an accident on his arrival in England from America. He nearly convinces the jury at the trial when his father appears in court - released early from a Louisiana gaol and eager to help his son. (PB)

A Melbourne football captain refuses to throw a game which will allow his team to win the premiership - thrashing the Jewish money-lender who suggested it in return for wiping out his debt of £50. He is instrumental in winning the game and a supporter gives him £100 - a share of the wager the latter had won. Anti-semitic schoolboy flavour; a sense of Melbourne's devotion to the game; and the footballer reforms. (PB)

A Victorian farmer shoots the philandering married artist who woos his innocent, slow youngest daughter she visits her mother's grave and then transfers his attention to the elder beautiful self-absorbed daughter -inducing her to promise to run off with him. The father confeses but receives only six months' gaol; the elder daughter goes mad dying in Kew asylum and Mary sickens and dies - joining her mother. (PB)

A conman offers news of the stars through his telescope - but it is pointed at hotel windows and human doings are observed despite the patter. (PB)

A comedian at St Petersburg is imprisoned for daring to speak to the Tsar Nicholas. On his release he requests only that the emperor never speak to him again. (PB)

An old sailor in a lower George Street tavern recalls a mutiny of convicts bound for Norfolk Isalnd from Hobart Town in 1846. The face of evil, a tender chord in a hardened criminal, a Christian-hearted doctor, and the hanging of all 27 on arrival are the main elements. (PB)

The Austrian king bids an honoured officer retrieve meat from a lion's den for a wager. The king gains the meat but loses the service of his officer who resigns after the deed. (PB)

A woman bravely refuses to scream when she detects a burglar in her room - and he steals nothing when he identifies her as an ex-love by a ring she keeps. (PB)