MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2671, 24 August 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

(l'llOM OUII OWN' (IORIiKMI-ONDENT.] A Mil,!) form of boycotting was proposed by a Mr Grant one night la.-t week at a meeting of the Trade:., , Hall Council. MiGrant proposed that the vaiious inarmf.ictnries, employing Union labour, should be " reijnested'' to stamp their goods with the " Seal of the Council," and that all Trades Unionists should bo " requested " to pnrclrise goods thin marked in preference to those made under the sweating and starvation wage system. It is easy enough to see the meaning of such u proposal. Ibid it been oirried --which it w.-s not-—" gentle pressure," under s motion of tliii Trades' Hall Council, would have been first applied to the manufacturers, and their goods, once branded with the seal, or "Hall Mark, 1, customers upon whom the same -ort of intl :eijce could be brought to bear would be expected to buy them. Thus, the thin end of the boyeoit system would have been driven home under another name. This proposal did not pass, hoivover. Mr llar-Aoo I moved, aa an amendment, that "This Council is of opinion that all goods in the colony of Victoria should be legibly and properly stamped with the manufacturers address, so tint the. public may see. the class of goods they are obtaining, and where they are manufactured." This amendment was r.nrried, and what Mr ilarivood proposed is what every manufacturer of any note does already. A stupendous beast called I'hillips, a wharf labourer residing at S mth Melbourne, has been qualifying himself for a lengthened residence at I'entridge. Unfortunately the method adopted by this brute to draw attention to his candidature for ptnal servitude is only too common amongst his class. Only, Phillips has pushed his claims a little further than men of his type are generally disposed to go -not because the will is lacking, but beeuiso the courage is wanting. The creature, has a wife and three little children, and is sufficiently well off in the world to keep a "servant girl. There was a quarrel over some household matter last Saturday week, and this fellow knocked his wife senseless by a blow upon the head. While she lay upon the door, unconscious and bleeding, he kicked her repeatedly in the abdomen, and as wharf labourers do not walk about in light slippers one can judge what was the result. The poor woman was fearfully bruised, ami in a day or two she became so bad that she asked the man to send for a doctor. This he. refused to do. Last Friday, however, as his wife was apparently dying, Phillips called in Dr. Owen, who, recognising her dangerous condition, gave information to the police. H-.-r dying depositions were taken ; she was removed to the hospital, and the man was locked up. Cases like this cry aloml against the absurdity of the exit-ring law. Fines for wife beating, or even lengthened imprisonment, are altogether inappropriate punishment for such brutally inhuman oll'cnccs. Men who commit them are criminals of this blackest dye, and are only once removed from murderers. For many of them would commit murder only they have a too tender regard for their own worthless necks. I would abolish both line and imprisonment for ::iich cowardly crimes, and substitute a whipping-post and a c-ito'-nine-tails, of the- good old orthodox pattern in lieu thereof. And to these posts I would tie up men of the Phillips' type, and the hangman should lay on the lash until they bellowed like the cowardly ruffians they are. No cant about degrading the " human form divine" ought to screen I them. Nobler animals than these are I whipped every day, only they are whipped j between the shafts of a loaded dray, and I by just such callous monsters ;:s this I brute I'hillips. A'ld I contend that the only lilting punishment for them is to ! in:'.ko them feel such pain as they inflict I upon others. Of course, .after such brutal i treatment, the poor woman died. Death divorced her while the fellow was before i.liu magistrate on Saturday morning, lie is now to be ciiareed with wilful murder. Bar he will not be Irmg'.-d. There will be the cxtcuuatiiigeireiimst.uii ei-s and all that. J Mr Woods iris not yet be.-n disilluM- | onised upon the unemployed question. i His protoge-i cithev cannot or will not I perform i-iHi work t> r. the [f;irbo<ir Tru-t ;on oU'-r them. Xol: nm) in ten of Mr I Wood-' ima'ri'.rivy .-turviiijj people apply i t'or wrk. Oi' tiio-o w'.i:) apply, and are j f.:ikcn on, not one out, of three go to look • at ill" work ; and of Ui.-i-e -.vho really put ! in an appearance not one third stick at j the job! .Ah! says Mr Woods, when I the-e di.-.(:oiii'iigini' f.ir-t.s reach bis cats : — j "Ah! yoiisiuuld set them to cut fireI wood." The lion, goiitleiii.-.n li.'is ap- ! p-.iMitly jumbled (he terms "unemployed" iii'd " firewood " together, and i;oth have .-eUied on tins brain. A very j .;on,l r, T .!y to Mr Woods \v;'S furnished !byMr SI "isiirril.nii. He .-aid that, fi:o con- ! r--;..-t,,r.H IV Ih.'direul. railway to Ballaraf j 1 v,vn; pivpir.-d to find employment for oOf) men on their works, but they had nor so !'ii succeeded in inducing the unemployed to go into the country. That is undoubtedly where the shoo pinches. Melbourne possesses attractions which si rough and tumble country lite does not. " Work by ail means ; but do us little you do can ; and take care that the little you do is pei-f run din pleasant places." There is appaivniiy somn truth i:i this doctrine. 'There is something truly magical in the effect that the word " bargain " has on tho mind of a, woman. There i< no < nd to tho trouble f-lio will take, nor to the fatigue she will undergo for the sake of yetting - a " bargain." This ha.s been proved in thousands of instances during , tin) last week. Anglo for custom, ami bait your book with "a bargain" worth half a, crown, iind you will land a dozen customers with fat purses, the contents of whieh may become yours in exchange lor goods upon wliieh you will realise all round the ordinary amount of profit. Advertising is sure to pay if you advertise judiciously, and can affonl to do it upon a sufficient large scale. But lam net now .-•.lludiii. , .' to tbo huge standing- ads. of our .Melbourne shops, which appear all tho year round in the metropolitan papers. I refer to tho half-yearly fair held at Mark Foy's place in Smithstreet, Collmgwood. The system is to lay out tens of thousands of articles upon long rows of tables, end sell at about a liftli tho usual price, Say the enterprising shopkeeper determines to sacrifice £1,000 in this way—and that figure \-\ probably below tho actual sum. Ho thus puts into tho hands of thirty or forty thousand persons one or two small articles which their experience tells them they have to buy at five times tho price in the ordinary way. People will go, and during the week hoei' gone, in uncomfortable- crowds attraetidby these small baits, and come away laden with lingo parcels of goods purchased at a inero trifles below tho usual price, many of wliieh articles tlir-y havo no immediate occasion for, and which would not have been purchased under ordinary circumstances. But it is the " bargains " which have drawn them. Foi , instance, many hundred boxes containing nine collais and nine pairs of ladies'e^'l'.-have been sold for f;n,-lcen-l>l ,:,T a box. The usual price, lam told is six or seven shillings. Hundreds of people have gone for the s-.nke of these thineM. The time u'.i.-.lc-i 'ih-l tho money fpent in travelling coiii!!. fur nothing in .-.•icli ca-e;,-. i'nt, if i'i.- public; aro satisfied. I'oy and have no reason to be otherwise. Five t.ho'K.a:id pounds have been taken on an opening day of the ■' fair." and it h'.f-f i a foruight. Of course things are sioVn, and occasionally a bona fide purchase i-> carried oil' without payment — opportunity offering, Then, again, a lady is sometimes eased of her purse, lint these are mere incidents. V\ hat I want to point out is that this .-..:■■', (■! i lii-t-.r pays, if i'oih! in ;>. spirited \v:\Y. The public are decided gainers : the shopkeeper also gains, because, although in: may spend a thousand pounds in ;>,'■!verti ; :in/, he will more; thnii treble hia profits.