


2 feet. 
stick out at the door, which has a very droll 
SMO CE. yo 5 6) 0) « 
We have sold our boat for a very good 
sum, and I took her to Geelong (40 miles) 
When he turns in, half his legs 
the other day. It is not at all safe to go 
out after dark without arms, especially 
between this and Melbourne. I have bought 
for £5, from a new chum, a first-rate eight- 
barrelled revolver pistol, and this I carry in 
my breast, loaded, when out at night-time, 
which is seldom the case... ... 
Well, here I am again; sitting, not on a 
rail, but on my bed, with my desk on my 
knees—not the most comfortable position in 
the world for writing. Tired I am, very; 
after a hard day’s washing. Washing is 
heavy work here. Shirts get so confoundedly 
dirty ; but it’s 9s. a-dozen saved. We had 
some “ jolly rows” in the tents last night, 
“ Murder !” being screamed out by men and 
women very often, and one man shot in the 
head, somewhere close to my tent. My 
8-barrelled friend mounted guard all night 
on full cock ; fully determined to defend his 
WMASUEL. 2). ss 
How true I have found ’s words! Tell 
any young man you may know who thinks of 
coming here, to think well before he leaves 
England, and ask himself if he can submit to 
work like a common laborer, or act as porter 
or shopman, sleep under a tree, and put up 
with every sort of hardship and privation. 
Lf so, let him come; uf not, for God’s sake, let 
him stay at home. Thousands of “ gentle- 
manly young men”’ are next to starving, and 
would gladly return. I fear the finding of 
the great nugget at Ballarat will cause another 
rush from England. I hope not; jor none 
others are wanted here but workmen. I start, 
I hope, for the mines on Thursday. I don’t 
think you would know me in my present 
rough dress, long beard and moustachioes, 
and sunburnt appearance. 
I expect after six months at the diggings 
to return as yellow as gamboge and dry as 
a mummy, as is the usual appearance of the 
diggers. Had Ibrought abook on Electro- 
biology out with me, and some discs—so as 
to get up a lecture, I could have made a 
fortune. As it is, knowing something about 
it, I am pressed to give a lecture. I can 
get an engagement as comic singer at concerts 
at £6 per week, and have been advised to 
accept it. -If I find the diggings a failure, I 
think I shall accept the offer. 
This simple array of plain facts, ought to 
make fools wise. If we were to tell all we 
know about the sufferings that are being 
endured abroad, by acquaintances of ours, 
who would leave comfort here for expected 
affluence (!) there,—we should want a whole 
JOURNAL for the purpose. 

KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 


311 
cud of meditation,” ere they quit certainties 
for uncertainties. 
The love of gold has been, and will be, the 
ruin of millions. We shall preach this doc- 
trine up whilst indulging in the harmless 
festivities of our coming Christmas. How 
many will sigh, and sigh vainly, for a peep 
at our English holly; our English misseltoe ; 
our English lasses; and the delights of an 
English carpet! They will remember when 
they used to “trip it on the light fantastic 
toe:” and no doubt would gladly return (if 
they could), again to mingle in our humble 
but innocent gambols. 
GOLD cannot buy innocence ! 
THE DOCTRINE OF “FORCE,” 
A WRONG PRINCIPLE. 
We find in “Hogg’s Instructor’ for 
November, something which is quite hetero- 
dox , and ours being a “ Journal of Nature,” 
we hasten to set the crooked thing straight. 
A correspondent, signing himself T. T. T., 
says :— 
i whey ‘taken by force,’ there is nothing yields 
sliss 
With ‘one’ sweet exception—and that is a Kiss !”” 
Oh, fie! sir. Can you look any young lady 
in the face after this confession? A kiss, 
taken by force, is. worth, in our estimation, 
just nothing. It is like picking a person’s 
pocket ofa purse; then going to dine sump- 
tuously at his expense; and afterwards 
calling the victim “a jolly good fellow.” 
No, no, Mr. T. Let the ‘* kissee” be at least 
a half-consenting party; else is the “bliss” 
you speak of une félicité imaginaire. Now 
thank us for setting you right. No doubt you 
are yet in your teens. A few years more, 
and you will be able yourself to give us an 
impromptu headed—A Re-bus / 

CANDOR,—WITH AN “ EXAMPLE.” 

We dearly love candor; and whenever we meet 
with it, we rejoice torecord it pro bono. Surely the 
following, by Dr. James Johnson, editor of the 
London Medico-Chirurgical Review, is worthy of a 
place in Our own Journat ! He says—“ I declare, 
as Iny conscientious opinion, founded on long 
experience and reflection, that if there was not a 
single physician, surgeon; apothecary, midwife, 
chemist, druggist, or drug, on the face of the 
earth, there would be less sickness and_ less 
mortality than now prevail !”—No doubt the good 
Doctor is quite right. If people were not ‘‘fan- 
ciful”’—and would only lead regular lives—drugs, 
chemists, apothecaries, &c., would be positively 
useless. But as this will never be, we can injure 
nobody by thus speaking the truth. Dulce est 
desipere im loco. Without an occasional joke, 
we should not be able to get on comfortably! 
However, let one | The fanciful public can “afford” to be joked 
speak for all; and the dissatisfied “chew the | with! 

a 
et a) 

