INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A JOURNALIST.

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 147, 7 July 1883, Page 258

INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A JOURNALIST.

•'" . *■ By Nemo. ' .JSot JG". — Fatalism anil Bad LueJc — A Suffering &A3& iEschylus, the sublime master-spirit and ■ genius, of Greek tragedy :,." Things are as they aK©> and will be brought to the. issue doomed" ; and .Euripides, that poor hen-pecked, woman'- , Hating, tragic writer, : " .Whosoever strives against " -h^aren - j-ent' calamities,, .his. striving is folly. What must be, no oneVill ever make so that it be- not 1 ." Arid yet again, Homer, the king of epic poets, makes one of his heroes in the llliad exclaim, "K"o man can antedate my doom ; though I am aware , that no • one can escape his fate, neither the coward nor the brave, as it has been determined at his birth." Fatalism was a favourite belief of the. ancients., . The Greeks and Romans believed there were three Parese or JFates, who' arbitrarily 1 controlled the birth, events, and death ever/man. They dwelt in tfredeep abyss of Demogorgon " with unwearied fiSttgei'3 drawing out the threads of life." Many mtiderns have been fatalists. Napoleon was one o£ fche niost noteworthy. __ I am not a believer in fatalism or predestination, though many powerful arguments might be adduced ou the other side : I never could quite reconcile iv my own mind the anomalies of life ■wifch the belief in an over-ruling omniscient and Jusfc Providence. At beat, some of the problems of life are uiysteries beyond our comprehension, and belong to the domain of faith. Why do the • "wicked prosper, and the good too olteu have to bear coiuuruely, disappointment, misfortune, and poverty ? Why there so much oppression under the heavens ?, Why do the down-trodden and oppressed, the captives in chains the outraged women, mxd the brutally-beaten men lift their menaclecl hands to tb.c) blind sky and cry m vain •*-x£¥"4s' T si-.tnc6 ? t.know" that the parsons and tb.e goody -goody people', We, always ready with the same old .stereotyped answer. It is the inscimfcablo ways: of Providence; whom the Lord lbveth he,eluMstenelh ; it. is the trial of our faiih, ajad a golden -crown awaits the faithful; it is a pttnishmeut for our fcins, or the sins of our forefathers. Why brie who loves us; should subject n» to, misfortune ; whether 5 a' golden crown 'could nob be conferred., in some other way ; and why \re should be punished for.siris hfttjof our doing, — these are some/of 'tine .^things, which I never Jcould clearly 'understand." ''^pf I'course,1 'course, that is owing to lay stupidity. ; oti.xmbelief/and.for this also I am, „ ittey tell 'me, ! ,■: . .. In th c " letters i arid memorials" of poor; Jane Welsh Carlyle, who led a mutilated- existence, her . "heart and life desolated ( by v a Jack of, Jove, tenderi iiaas aud dare 1 , and 'her life sacrificed to the insolence of : a inan' whose philosophy. ..and genius •wei'9 overshadowed, by* the intolerant selQahness o£ a frigid a^dp ( efc|ila|it,. pedant, she says in cjne of . liar letters to? a 1 ; col*i|s^)pndent who expressed a viiah he cOula ace what God intended her. for :~ri '**■ It- would be a 'sa^isfaefcion/to know at: jit is "'sxiseiy a kind of impfotr to^peak of Gfoorlsdf He were, with the best intentio'i.s, always jinfortunate. ■ -'"'<- jiiSSfrer t hrf just whai :< €K?d inf<n?c!ed' J ine for, or -God cannot carry, out his intentions, it wouic seeuQ; ay.: in that case I Tor one solilfc- > i .jdividual cau't worjhip Him the least in the \\ . .-••!." And '■ ifr'vrtwthis "orie solitary iriui'-iiiiml " vrho, in a letter to her husband, s»u! that, thn kisses and loving words' of a n old Haddingtou nurse bad made her happy for the first time during many xnowbhs. .' r .Thfero:are hundreds :.nd thousauds of men and women in every community who bare the sam» tague ideas of God's ways as Jane Carlylo. •' •'■"JT*hlire;are p'edple'Vho' porsisteutiy tA\- lie that there ie nq as " Luck," that- the prizes o£ wealth 1 , rank^ andratne'are' llie natural, rewards '• '-of self-denial, thrift, . iridust'i'y, arid ' cleverness. TIW; may be true in a sense, but it does not icewer the whole ground. I want to know what. t&ese terms mean. Self-denial is too of(en| only 1 another name for sordid mennness, and a denial •ofi everybody else ; thrift and industry, are , greed and covetousness ; and cleverness is overnCaeliing roguery nnd chicanery. It is always tfeo men who have won prizes in the race of life ■ wjEtO tell you that there is no Mich thing us 'luck. lib is an indirect kind of self -praise. •. As. an old digger I still retain ti vague belief in lack, and I know that the great majority of .miners, especially gold-miners, have a sneaking veneration for the word. You may, as I have more ttan oncu clout 1 , kave sunk a shall right clown between two " golden-holes " from which the precious metal was being taken out by the pound weight. You may, as I have dove also, hare driven and driven, and prospeofeil, put in E'drives, cross drives, adits, and done everything that industry and skill could do to find tluit run of gold which must come tbrough your ground somewhere, only to Giu- out fliut il. Jiud oil Kke a dog's Jiind leg. to the right or left,- I'mm the claim on one side.ol: you, and a! ter passiiiL-: thi;ough what you h-td sujijiM-^d to he rank dr.f-Vrs and outsiders, come back into fche claim on !'"■ other side of you. No stor-nofypad moral yn.r-. iins or texts vfill no away with that. if luck !i .>! been oa your si le you would have disrcgiird i dveryfrhiag thnt'youi jurlgmpiit an-1 uxperti?):'-^ fc.-mght jou was right, would havescoruml iiiiltist ■• . thrift, and all the rest of it, an^ inpfen/1 of sinki.ii; on the Ihio of the lead, right between t!io?e m-o rich claims, you would have gone au.-iy uff lin- run of g.old altogolhfr on the hiU-s : /!e, oiul -si ■•^ijerded nutil you saw w'lieh sv.->y ; ! v. .nt. ,';'': a you would have been lucky and ■ iu.-hu- i foiMu,..'. On this very Indigo lciul ivy parly ]><>'■ 'own >i s&aft, undev the forty feot rules, miiu! .nd not the frontage, ■ij^f.^ni, r'gli<-. '•.>{-.. .vn tv.\, .-.Jaints that wpve .-^sliinff ovit ibre? m\\<i'*'.x '.r 'ft.ub, be9klea 'f p^||w.t? " <>? r « !n s<u^' thnt produced mere then a pound weight to I In* dish. f sm.\v 45 ozs one day p:i i>iur< J i-iV i\'>'»i, • j 1 1» disj: i'washdirt We went through a jjoo'd deal of '••■•oionf,,-floatin'^pipe-cJay. and false boHo-m, :n . • nided >ion sandstone, -will: a" t l^'. l.'w ->!" .n • ■ »1 c<m- * taaning only the biir-- '• ooloiir." ; We y.-< >y f . ;i |j I round oui'bouudary. jut ■!'>".< •■_■£:■'. -v/y-' -'I- omI" corner where the !"■!■! '■■>v\p. in. m^iiv^ a . vridV. . bend, and t'lei.i fonpd that we ha/ 1 a " shicor. ' We aolfl it- to OhinaniiTi, what they did with ii. J. never knew. aud. w. nfc , further aueld down towards Chiltern v.h^re moderately. -well, •

making from £10 to £12 a week per man. , This was rather a change of luck; but it did not last long. Our subsequent (experience on: the Indigo was one series of disappointments and failure?. We literally riddled., the- country side with "duffers," on the Scotchman^, . Kincar,clinshire, Skeleton Gully, and other places. Luck was "dead agin -us," as one of tnj- mates expressed it. ' ' There was a aix-foot -Irish, irunrigraut who came all the way from Melbourne, just as the old Indigo Lead was getting .worked out. ;1 forget his surname, but of .course, his other name was Pat. He was a great • brawny-looking, shockhaired fellow, with large flapping s eavs,' a red pimpled face, confused whiskers, and a superfluity of nasal appendage. He .had wheeled all ; 'his household belongings and a baby 1.7.0 miles, while his wife trudge^ along beside him. She was one : of the first batch of women who penetrated into that wild region, and we gave her a reception, went to her "mi-mi," be,at nail cans, cheered her to the echo, and made up a subscription for the baby. Some gave notes, and others little nuggets, and " The Little Nugget " became the .name of the youngster. Within three weeks that Irishman had fallen in' with a party of '" townies," bottomed a golden-hole, and made £2000. They had taken up an old abandoned shaft, sunk through a false bottom, and come down upon a rich gutter. Like a sensible man, he saved his money, and went back to Ireland with the avowed intention of buying a farm and becoming' a " squireen." Luck had smiled on that man. Then there was another man named Rosa, if I remember rightly. He was a big bottled-noso man, always throwing Yankee grab, shouting for all and sundry, and wasting no end of money. He owned a claim on the Suffolk, at the Junction, and kept men working for him on half shares and •tt'ugee. He cleared £20.000 ; some said £4.0,000, but the point is immaterial ; gave a great champagne supper ; and went away on the box-soat ot' if rank May's coach (the Cobb and Co.), amid the tumultous cheers and warm-hearted good wishes of his friends and admirers. He was « generousnearteu soul, and much liked. He never saw a man " hard up " if he knew it. He had been known to pull out a handful of notes and distribute them amongt men " down on their luck." But he had neither thrift, industry, nor cleverness. He was a spendthrift and a ne'er-do-well, but luck smiled on him nevertheless, and, he went away with a Bank of Victoria draft on Melbourne for £20,000 (I was one of the privileged few who were favoured with a r sight of the precious document), declaring his intention to go to England and see life. He got as far, as Melbourne}, and found that he could see as much life there as his money would buy, fell among thieves and sharpers,., blacklegs, Welshers, jockeys, loafers, harpies, and a few months afterwards came back stona-broke. [Xuck had deserted him for the nonce. But "his friends" gave.him a. show ■". in another ebini. aud in a few months more l)e had mad? another little I "pile." Luck 1 had'eofhe back to him. 3ueh oi'3 j. some, of , the vicissitudes of foriAiiie ine:;UM\t;.\i k> !' tHe life of a diggr Don't toll me -hat :.hero are ,no such. things as ; land bad luck. • L .have had "'ba'd 'luck a ]L^^^X'-