THE CONFUSION OF 1852, 1863, 1854 373 



The harpies who prowled in the track of the squandering diggers 

 made the streets of the city unsafe after nightfall. They were 

 badly lighted with a few oil lamps, only the most frequented 

 possessed footpaths, and within a hundred yards of the garish light 

 of the thronged bars there were pitfalls for the unwary dens of ill- 

 repute and darkness. Official returns show that 282 inquests were 

 held in Melbourne in 1853, and of these nearly one-third were on 

 strangers, about whose belongings little could be ascertained. 



But when the summer sun gleamed down with fierce ardour 

 upon these streets they were lively enough. From early morning 

 till daylight failed there was an incessant loading up of drays and 

 waggons for the goldfields. Crates and barrels, bales and sacks 

 cumbered the roadways, and long teams of bullocks camped in the 

 streets awaiting their turn to get to some specially busy store. 

 The coming and going traffic raised clouds of penetrating dust, for 

 the days of smooth roadway and neat pavement were not yet. The 

 pedestrians who thronged the city formed a strange blend of the 

 shabby and the picturesque, the adventurous and the timorous, the 

 hopeful and the despondent. The lucky digger, if of colonial 

 origin, would generally be dashing about on horseback, with a gait 

 worthy of a Pawnee Indian. If he was a runaway sailor, his in- 

 clination would be towards a cab, hired at 6 or 7 per day, in 

 which he would treat his mates to a wild career through the 

 crowded streets that illustrated many points of intricate navigation. 

 A phase of the startling orgies of 1852 was the prominence given 

 to the festivals with which the weddings of some of these exuberant 

 spirits were celebrated. There were designing landlords who kept 

 comely barmaids always ready to snatch a chance in the matri- 

 monial lottery if the bribe was sufficient. There may possibly 

 have occasionally been some such haphazard selection that proved 

 enduring and satisfactory, but it was an open secret that some of 

 the enticers had figured as brides more than once. For it fre- 

 quently happened that the wedding dissipations were kept up until 

 the coin ran out, and the bridegroom had perforce to return to his 

 toil to replenish his purse. Often he had not the means to take his 

 wife with him, and more often she had no inclination to share his 

 hardships and uncertainty. She would come to him when he was 



