372 A HISTORY OP THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



To turn from this distressing phase of the new-comers' experi- 

 ence, a glance at the streets of Melbourne in the summer of 1852-53 

 presents a picture of the wild excitement which had turned the 

 heads of so many thousands of Fortune's devotees. In the first 

 year of the goldfields individual successes were, of course, far 

 more numerous than later, and on the flying tongue of rumour 

 more strongly accentuated. So easy had been the winning in 

 many cases, that scores of the lucky ones, when they had secured 

 1,000 or so, rushed down to Melbourne to enjoy a little dissipa- 

 tion, believing that they had only to go back to renew their 

 successes. And Melbourne laid itself out to receive what the 

 tradesmen called the new aristocracy, whose reckless expenditure, 

 indiscriminate hospitality and contemptuous indifference to the 

 minutiae of change in settling their accounts ensured them effusive 

 welcome in the shops, and more particularly at the bars of the 

 public-houses. Unhappily, it was in the latter that their inclina- 

 tion generally landed them, and too often the fascination could not 

 be overcome until all their money was spent, when the landlord 

 generally severed the tie. The Bacchanalian orgies of some of 

 these men are scarcely credible in more sober days, but there is 

 undoubted evidence that hundreds of pounds were spent daily in 

 reckless waste of champagne at from thirty to forty shillings per 

 bottle, ordered for the consumption of strangers and the bar-loafers 

 who congregated in the track of the fuddled spendthrifts. Bar- 

 counters have been washed down with expensive wines as a pre- 

 liminary ceremony to ordering "free drinks for the crowd," and 

 with an imbecile idea of ostentation the poor fool has excited the 

 plaudits of his followers by sweeping all the glasses off the counter 

 with his whip to make a bill worth paying. The number of public- 

 houses in Melbourne was out of all proportion to requirements, and 

 excited the wonder and often the indignation of new-comers, for 

 they seemed to be in possession of nearly every street corner. 

 The profits were enormous. Many of the bad old type of land- 

 lords, who had graduated in the art of "lambing down a shepherd," 

 put the capstone to their fortunes by selling out their interests at 

 prices which carried the purchasers into the Insolvent Court when 

 the passing Saturnalia gave place to a more decent order of things. 



