A DIGGER'S WEDDING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 159, 21 January 1854, Page 10

A DIGGER'S WEDDING.

A successful Australian digger—successful not only in sittings-and washings, but bearhiJ the title and its best credentials, of a "nugo-eu ter"—came down from the Forest Creek lately and took up his abode in a new lodging-house in Little Bourke Street, Melbourne. The " nuggetter" had been a common labourer, and the house was full of men of this class ; also of runaway sailors, some of whom had returned very successful from the diggings, and were spending their gold as fast-as they could: in fact, they had come down for a week or two, expressly for that purpose. The woman of the house had an impudent, vulgar, fat, flashy daughter, who would have been downright ugly, but for a pair of great leering eyes of considerable brilliancy, with which she had already charmed half the gold away from several sailors in turn, each of whom had made sure of marrying her. But the "nuggetter" cut the,m all out. He displayed hisba<>of nuggets ; and next morning, displayed his bundle of ten-pouud Australian notes; and, after a brawl, a fight, and a drunken row of a few hours, he married the girl, and took her to furnished lodgings, nominally at only five guineas a week, but the people were sure of getting double or treble that sum out of the newlymarried pair. The lodgings were very little better than those of the house they had left; but in a better street, and they had a room all to themselves—a priceless advantage at this time in Melbourne. Here the digger began to lead a life surpassing anything he had ever seen in a dream. He was not a " new chum," but an old colonist—a Vandemonian ; and some said he had had a free passage to Van Diemen, on account of unlawfully digging for gold in pockets at home. But perhaps this was only said by unsuccessful diggers of both countries. He had many old friends who came to renew his acquaintance, and to make merry on this festive occasion, and many new chums were also admitted to the orgies. In short, his object was to treat everybody who came near him, and would drink; and neither he, nor his wife, nor any of their circle, were ever sober from the day of their wedding. They ate, they drank, they smoked, they shouted, they brawled—they made riot half the night—they slept half the morning; and about noon they drove about the town in open carriages, for each of which they paid about two pounds per hour. First, there was the carriage with the bride and bridegroom and a male and female friend—the woman being dressed in the most expensive satins and silks, and flying ribbons, and the men in scarlet mining shirts, with short pipes in their mouths. Two other carriages followed, full of parasite friends and associateslseveral of whom had been " engaged" for the occasion to amuse the company during the drive, and in the evening especially. Then comprised fiddlers, dancers, ventriloquists, and sailors who could sing jolly songs ; while the clown from the circus, in his clown's dress, say in a fourth carriage, the back seat of which he bad entirely to himself, partly as a mark of honour, and partly to give him room to perform an occasional antic or gesticulation as the procession rattled through the*streets. When the bride was sober enough to walk pretty well, she would go out shopping ; and no silk or satin that cost less than a guinea a yard was good enough for "the likes-of her."* As soon as she could get a new dress made up, she sailed out to market, and bought fish in red velvet, and went to the butcher's in lavender satin, or pale China crape. All this the writer has seen. How the lady dressed in the evening he does not know. At last the money was all gone, having lasted not quite a fortnight. The digger had come down to Melbourne with a good deal, but 'somehow or another,' he said, scratching his head, ' there was an cml on't. But what "matters ?' He has now jr tM)e buck to the diggings, and his wife has no place to go to. A common occurrence, ;i!l these mud weddings, believe me. — Household Words.

Aabncm on A»vßiiTisiNG.^/n his paper Sributed to " Freedly's Practical Treatise on Einess," the celebrated and successful Barnum s—" Advertise your busij/ss. Do not hide Mr light under a bushel. Viiatever your occuHion or calling may hf, if it needs support Mm the public, advert/se it thoroughly and ■ipiently, in some shape or other, that will ar■t public attention. I freely confess tliat what fficess I have ha<2 in life may fairly be attripled more to the public press than to nearly Sftotlier causes combined. There may possibly that do not require advertising, §X, I cannot well conceive what they are. Men jp-biisiiirss "ill sometimes tell you that they Kyeivie'l advertising, and that it did not pay. Sjis is only when advertising is done sparingly ■d grudgingly. Homoeopathic doses of adverEing■■will not pay, perhaps. It is like hall'a Htiori of physic—making the patient sick, but ■ecting nothing. Administer liberally, and the ■re will be sure and permanent. Some say, Rhey cannot afford to advertise; they mistake, fey cannot afford wot to advertise. In a ttnntry where everybody reads the newspapers, Be man must have a thick scull who does not we that these are the cheapest and best media Brough which he can speak to the public, ■mere The is to find his customers. Put on the ppearanceof business, and generally the reality mil follow. The farmer plants his seed, and Jhile he is sleeping, his corn and potatoes are jfeowing. So with advertising. While you are jfceping or eating, or conversing with one set ■ customers, your advertisement is being read m hundreds and thousands of persons who Ifever saw you, nor heard of your business, Atad never would, had it not been for your adiyevtisement appearing in the newspaper. '^|,Hob and Nob. —What is the origin of these terete as verbs, in the phrase " Hob and Nob," /wjbich means, as I need not inform yourrea"d^rs, to spend an evening tippling with a jolly ■CJ^npanion ? What is the origin of " nob ?" -.Ag§d is either of these two words ever used *JBne ? [This phrase» according to Grosse, originated in the days of-good Queen Bess. When great chimneys were in fashion, there was at ekch coiner of the hearth, or grate, a small elevated projection, called hob, and behind it a •eat. In winter time the beer was placed on the htib to warm ; and the coM beer was set on a 'Mnall table, said to have been called the nob; "t<f that the question, Will you have hob or nob? •eems only to have meant, Will you have warm outsold beer ? i. c., " beer from the hob or beer frpm the nob." But Nares, in his '« Glossary," ffV Habbe or Nabbe, with much greater reaMjjp, shows that Hob or Nob, now only used "jijohvivially, to ask a person whether he will have •fglass of wine or not, is most evidently a corruption of the old hab-nab, from the Saxon i»bba», to have, and nabban, not to have; in ISfoof of which, as Nares remarks, Shakespeare 4jls used it to mark an alternative of another feind:—" And his incensement at this moment Wso implacable, that satisfaction can be none E^«t by pangs of death and sepulchre ; hob, nob 6 his word; give't or take't."— Twelfth night :ict *"•> sc. 4.] — Notes and Queries.