TASMANIA.

Colonist, Issue 133, 28 January 1859, Page 3

TASMANIA.

The following specimen of Tasmanian eloquence is quoted from the Hobart Toion Advertiser. Mr. Balfe had been addressing a meeting at Flight's Bay, when, at the mention of Mr. John Davies, a man known as " Barroobie Jack," and said to be a native of Sydney, mounted a stump, and thus delivered himself:—"ls this Jack Davies from Bathurst, you means ?" (addressing Mr. Balfe, who nodded assent.) "Well, I'm the boy as knows him, and no mistake. He need'nt go to nobody else for a character but Barroobie Jack. Does any ou yees know him? Did any on yees ever set eyes on him? Well, look here! Now I ain't handsome. (Laughter.) Did you ever see such a darn't brace of squinters ever set in a skull as these'n?—(pointing to his own eyes.) (Laughter.) They are not pretty, is they? (Laughter, and cries of " No, no !") Look at my hair—darn'd a comb or brush has seed it for twenty-five years. (Laughter.) Now I arn't handsome. (Laughter.) Well then Iso a beauty, when stuck alongside Jack Davies, the darn'd old pot-stick trap from Sydney. (Loud laughter.) I'se a master of genteel ceremonies when compared to Jack. (Laughter.) Just feel the top of his ugly nob—there's a hump on't as tough as a Jew's heart. (Laughter.) For-all the world one would think old Fagan tried his nob to batter in the pannels of plate chests, or to punch out bricks in the flues of narrow chimlies. (Great Laughter.) I'se the boy as knows Jack Davies. (Cheers.) Let Mr. Hall send for Barroobie Jack, and he need'nt send no communications to Sydney to pick Jack Daviess character out of the old police dunghills. (Laughter.) I wish I had a seed the old darn'd trap when he was a pitehin' ifc down here. (Cheers.) I wish 1 had a seed his pal, Kirvvan. (Cheers.) Let them come down again, and darn'd if I don't bring Tom Hefon and Ben Thompson from Lady's Bay, to play such music in their ears as they arn't been used to. (Cheers.) What does the ugly old trap, and that parchment looking grimier Kirwan, care for us ? (Cheers.) No, they hates old Balfe, because he hates humbugs and tyrants, and is the poor man's friend. I'm the boy as knows Jack Davies and can speak to Kirwan; and blow me if they comes down agin they'll hear and see more of Barroobie Jack than they'll like." Barroobie Jack concluded a very animated and characteristic address, by making some cabalistic flourishes with the hands, which were understood to refer to a fraternal process of strangulation, and which was loudly applauded.