KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



235 



these insane, would-be-rich gentry, are ex- 

 posed on landing. Their loose cash is soon 

 expended, and they become — helpless 

 vagrants ! " Dig they cannot — to beg, they 

 are ashamed." 



A short time since, we went to view the 

 Panorama of the Australian Gold Mines. 

 Here we saw very accurately delineated, on 

 canvass, the life and employment of a Gold- 

 digger. Half his time is spent in standing 

 up to his middle in water to wash the alloy 

 from the gold ; and the other half, in digging 

 to find the gold that is mixed with the alloy ! 

 We asked Mr. Prout (the Lecturer), several 

 pertinent questions about the prospects of 

 our young clerks ; and his remarks were 

 quite in unison with what we have said. 

 " Imagine them," said he, " if you can, thus 

 employed." We could not imagine them 

 so employed. One single week would make 

 cripples of them all. 



We have thus shown, how foolish it is to 

 cherish the fond conceit of " happiness " 

 being procurable by an excess of wealth. 

 A contented man is necessarily a happy 

 man. He wants nothing beyond what is 

 within his reach, and enjoys what he earns. 

 There is a very great pleasure in earning 

 one's own livelihood. It creates a feeling of 

 independence, and keeps the mind in a 

 wholesome frame of undisturbed repose. 



Our Poet Laureate has a nice idea of hap- 

 piness ; and beautifully she has expressed it. 

 She drops the crown upon the head of " Con- 

 tentment," which she justly places at the 

 head of the Christian virtues. A mind like 

 hers must, we will venture to say, be 

 " happy " anywhere. Happy, too, must 

 they all be, who live in the healthy atmos- 

 phere of her happy smiles ! 



ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. 



A Cat nursing three Rats and two Kittens. — 

 There is now exhibiting here, a curious sextette 

 — viz., a cat nursing three rats and two kittens. 

 They are all "sweetly affectionate." The cat, a 

 fine animal, was in the stables of the Shrewsbury 

 and Birmingham Railway Station, Stafford-road, 

 when (in May last) she gave birth to five kittens. 

 Three of these were drowned. The disconsolate 

 mother, finding her family reduced, discovered a 

 rat's nest, killed the parent rats, and five of 

 their young ones — appropriating to herself the 

 three that were left. These she conveyed to her 

 own bed, suckled them, and brought them up. 

 All this " curious lot " is now to be seen in one 

 cage, " happy and glorious." The cat, let me 

 add, has three legs. — J. L., Wolverhampton. 



Cruelty to Animals. — No one, my dear Mr. 

 Editor, need ask you twice to raise your voice in 

 behalf of ill-used animals. Your pen, like your 

 heart, is ever " ready " in so good a cause. 

 Horses, cats, and dogs, seem to have their natu- 

 ral protectors; but he for whom I now plead 



seems to have " no friends." Therefore do 

 they " hit him hard!" I speak of the meek, 

 quiet, submissive donkey. Not long since I was 

 at Gravesend. Here, as no doubt you are 

 aware, donkeys abound— donkeys of all sorts. 

 [You are right, Mademoiselle.] On the out- 

 skirts of the town, are a number of these poor 

 animals, saddled and bridled — their drivers, 

 bludgeon in hand, waiting for customers to 

 mount. Now, Sir, would you believe it? I 

 have seen people from London — really respecta- 

 hle-looking people, get upon the backs of these 

 donkeys, and tell the drivers at starting, to " cut 

 into them," and make them " go." The other 

 day, two well-dressed girls, apparently quite 

 respectable, took it into their heads they would 

 have a ride. When seated, the first thing one of 

 them said, was — " Do, boy, give my donkey a 

 good knock, or he won't keep up with the other." 

 The word was given, and the bludgeon fell 

 heavily upon the hind legs of the doomed ani- 

 mal; which in the agony of its smart, reared 

 furiously, to the intense delight of the " two 

 respectable girls, and the passers-by !" " Ah, my 

 man!" exclaimed I, " if you are so unmerciful 

 to your poor, harmless beast — what mercy can 

 you expect for yourself?" The idiotic look of 

 the man, and the vacant silly looks of the riders, 

 haunt me now. I might just as well have spoken 

 to a stone ! These barbarities, I am told, are prac- 

 tised daily. Whence comes this feeling? It seems 

 all but universal. There must be something 

 wrong somewhere. People are not cruel by chance, 

 any more than others are honest by chance. I agree 

 with you, fiat it is all the fault of a bad early 

 education. If the tree is not properly planted, 

 and if the boughs are not properly trimmed, the 

 appearance is ever unsightly. We should never 

 say of such — '• Woodman ! spare that tree." 

 The sooner it is removed, the better. I told you, 

 on a former occasion, that we could never get 

 your Paper regularly. The same difficulty still 

 continues. Tales of murder, seduction, suicide, 

 and the like, are overflowing the town — you 

 therefore are, of course, regarded as "an 

 enemy" to society — for trying to establish a better 

 order of things. Hence, your being so carefully 

 excluded from our shops! I know, however, of 

 one " honest" newsvendor down here, who sup- 

 ports you through thick and thin, and of whom 

 Our Journal may be regularly obtained — his 

 name is Caffin [We will immortalise him by 

 printing it], Sidney Street, near Mile-end Gate. 

 —Jane W., Mile End. 



[Jane ! you are a hearty, dear, kind soul. 

 We know not how sufficiently to thank you y for 

 all your zeal in behalf of Our Journal. Do 

 not flag. We are going a-head, against wind 

 and tide. The poor donkeys you speak of, are in- 

 solently called by the Londoners — the"Gravesend 

 donkeys ;" and are spoken of familiarly as being 

 " used" to the barbarities you so feelingly depre- 

 cate ! We marvel that, among the inhabitants 

 of Gravesend, not one humane soul can be found 

 to assist in punishing the offenders by bringing 

 them before a magistrate !] 



The Dahlia. — Having been a very successful 

 cultivator and exhibitor of this fine autumn 

 flower, for several years, and the size of my 



