NOTES BY THE WAY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 161, 9 March 1871, Page 6

NOTES BY THE WAY.

(3y our Vagabond Reporter.) Now I dare say you think that T am going* to give you the conversation which took place at the old Bendigo parlour between the local worthies, whom I found there on my entrance ; — no such thing. I might travel that way again. The tall man would be a queer customer, and the sallow gentleman in spectacles has a farm and some knowledge of chemicals. No, Mr. "Times," you won't get rid of me so pleasantly. Besides, I may tell you confidentially that they all three looked a great deal, and evidently thought much, but ne'er a word did they speak. I sat down. The tall man rose, stretched himself, whistled about half a bar, and went out. He was evidently military, or quasi so, as one could see by the habitual sidelong glance practised by our defenders, in the way of avoiding their swords getting between their legs. The sallow-faced man with the specs scowled horribly at the paper he was reading — which I am sorry to inform you was the valued production of your office — took a pinch of Bimff, and himself off. I was left alone with the not very lively looking gentleman with the tight suit and hair. "Fine weather for the crops," said I. " Pasture very bad; all eiten up, w hit there is, by those confounded droves <.f cattle from Tuapeka; they ought all to be pounded." " Have you that gl >rious old British institution here V said I. " Yes, and a good thing too, or we could not make a living w ith su many infernul small cockatoos about." A squatter, thought 1; first genuine specimen I have met — don't look very desperate either ; no trampling upon the people's rights in those slim legs and thin-soled boots— what a very mild specimen of Shepherd's monsters. A door opened. A voice called "Frascr." .He went. I had seen and conversed with a live candidate, un«l had not asked me if I had a vote. I shook my head. This man will never do for politics. Depend upon it, I said to myself, he is trusting in his fond delusion to the common sense and honesty of the Ject<.rs, and to the, alas ! too deceptive ballot box. I sat and mused upon the vanity of things hitman in general, and electoral in particular. Then I took up the Tuapeka Times, thrown down in disgust by the sallow man. Usual leading article upon the Hundreds Act and the iniquiues of iMacandrew ; locals devoted to the deification of Brown ancl Hustings, and the general extinction of Mat the .r Hay and Donovan; hospital meeting, Oddfellows' meeting, Town Council meeting — Bastings in all the chairs ; police cisc or ihree columnsDonovan again ! I confess I yawned. Enter a heavy-looking man with a slight stoop. I looked, ] saw, I recognised the dear old Hoos, the father of the Council, the political Vicar of Hray, ornament of successive Governments, and mainstay of the " How-not-to-do-its." He looked flurried and hot, and there was a slight bruise mark on his noble forehead. "How's it with you, John?" said I. " Lor bless ycr," said he, " is it you ? Why, who'd ha' thought it." "Yes," says I, " you behold a weary pilgrim in the cause of knowledge, half dead with whisky and experience, and pretty tolerably politically awake." "1 don't understand poetry," saj's he, " and am regularly knocked up. Such a row down the street just now. You know Buster, a cockatoo down about here 'I " I nodded. *' Well, I just gets oft' my 'orse and goes into his parlour, when who should come in but Tiger, and three or four more, J, ' Tiger, old br>y, how <iru you ? ' Says he, quite friendly like, ' Kight as ninepence — what's your tipple I ' We sat down for a chat, and some things came up about Devonshire, and ho talks veiy big about the Mt. Edgcumbes, the Cliffords, - and the Drakes Says f , ' You comes •froinPiddlecom.be, doan't yer?' Says he, turning a bit red, % Yo^, a' unit there,' 1 ~goe'a on quite innocent like, for I only just recolUctrd 3:im, ' Lor bless yer, I've often a seen yer driving yer mother to mavkf fc.' Lur. i didn't mean to annoy him. The man thought T was working round him for Iris vote. He jumped up in. a regular rage, stamped and swore, called me all sorts of names, and when Donald tried to interfere, ho knocked our heads together." Poor old llous ! this was his sad tale—a warning to people not to know too much, or to be inconveniently of an excellent memory. He went on to tell me his further troubles. He had been got up from Dunedin to contest .the seat by emissaries of another candidate, who sought to make use of him as a vote-splitter, in order to get their man in. ■ The squatters did not see him, and the miners wouldn't have him at any price, lie had lost everything, even a portion of his honor (the t>sat). I quoted Horace to him about " r-'uKS in arJuis," thinking by lyric philosophy to snotli his grieved spirit. He spat in the" fireplace, and said he didn't understand French. His mind was evidently giving way. I recollected David and Jonathan, so raug the bell for the landlord, and requested him to see the stricken politician to bed, and to play the fiddle over him till he slept. He -vent peacefully, and v/as seen no more. 1 walked out. Mobs of three or four at the door of every public house. There are twenty-three on one side of the street and twenty-four upon the other, I counted them late at night, but this is near the mark. Election evidently the subject of discussion. Loud orator at the corner proclaiming the virtues of Shepherd ; excitable little man offering three to one upon Fraser; placards posted everywhere with the usual complimentary allusions to the rival candidates. Stout gentleman, hi a Scotch cap, beckoned me into a doorway. "Haven't I seen you in town?" says he. "Probably," says I. " Have a noggin 1 " shvs he. " Right," says I . I followed him into a snug parlour. The '"John Stuart" was produced. It suddenly flashed across me who my entoriainor wms.. I clasped his hand, "Do I not see the great Macpherson," I exclaimed, " the • clofcnder of the people's rights against squatting aggression and capital intimidation ? " (I make you a present of this sentence for your next leader ,on the Hundreds Act). " I'm your man," says he, warmly, " I never gave in and I never wuil." Here he broke into poetry. " Didn't Bell wonder at this game when the Diui3tan voters came and upset his little game J" "How's the election to go?" says I. "Fraser's my man," he says ; " but that d — d J. C. is moling about the district somewhere, and I'm afraid it isn't all safe." "You should have stood yourself ," saidl, agreeably, fie aaked me to take more whisky,