The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 45
Cole's Book Arcade
Cole's Book Arcade.
This establishment, although not so pretentious in size as the other arcades, yet has many points of excellence which cannot be overlooked, and every sightseer in Melbourne should take the opportunity of visiting it. Visitors from America (the land of notions), England and the continent of Europe, affirm that it is unique of its kind, nothing like it existing in either of those places, although each containing cities five times the size of Melbourne. It contains an immense variety of books new and second-hand, books on almost every conceivable subject, which are conveniently arranged and classified in the shelves, and underneath them in upwards of a thousand drawers distinctly labelled for the ready convenience of the selector, who therefore can find almost any book he wants at a moment's notice. 'A place for everything and everything in its place, appears over head in large letters, and this time-honored maxim the proprietor has certainly fully carried out. One feature of this arcade of the intellect is, that to a considerable extent, especially of an evening, it is made a convenient place of meeting or waiting for friends, who, while they find it respectable, find it also exceedingly easy to while away an hour or two looking over the books or, music and listening to the lively strains of a piano which is always played from 7 to 10, while they can keep appointed time with certainty by the large and somewhat astonishing clock, of the establishment. Bourke street, with its market stalls, its arcades, its vestibules, its hotels, its restaurants, its shops, and its shows, is always collectively a lively place at night, but the Book Arcade, as a single establishment, with its red-coated attendants, rainbow signs, its rows of lights, rows of drawers, and rows of intelligent, well-behaved, interested readers, is certainly the finest, most curious, and most encouraging sight to be seen in that street after dark.',
The Book Arcade contains 20,000 sorts of books.
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January.
" Britons Never Shall Be Slaves."—The way they work is this. They get hold of those people whom John Bright called the "residum"—the people who will sell their souls for a mess of pottage, who will sell their votes for a glass of beer. They sometimes get the clergy to help them, and they would like to drive the Alliance and the friends of order out of the field. I read in John Morley's education essay that a respectable publican said, "If I have 21 men in my Bar on the day of polling, I can make sure of distributing 20 pints of fourpenny, and have done it. and can do it at any time." Tnat is the way the publicans proceed, and yet these men will go staggering about the streets, singing "Britons never shall be slaves." Why, they are the most wretched slaves of a great vested interest that the world has ever seen—slaves of men who have grown rich upon their poverty and powerful upon their weakness—slaves of men who climb into place and power upon the degradation and demoralisation of their countrymen.— Sir Wilfred Law son.
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February.
Sir W. Gull's Opinion.—A gentleman asked Sir William Gull, "How is it that you prescribe wine for other people, and don't take it yourself?" He said, "I will tell you how I manage, I begin in the morning, directly after breakfast, to see patients out of doors, and again I am called to see critical and difficult cases, and to consult with my medical brethren on them. I come home tired, as you may imagine, and wearied, in that condition when one feels one has not strength to eat; and ask my man what is the first thing I do when I come into the house." The man-servant replied, "You always ask for a glass of water;" and, added Sir William Gull, "I consider that the best stimulant."
Drunkenness In Burmah.—Mrs. Ingalls, a missionary lady, in a letter giving an account of her visit to Upper Burmah, savs that they have one or two laws which Christians might do well to follow. "The first crime of drunkenness is punished by the offender being paraded through the streets by a procession of Stote ministers, under golden umbrellas, who strike a golden gong, and read the crime at the corner of all the streets, and lash him with thongs. He is then taken to the high court, where he has more severe blows, and then sent to his home. If he is found guilty the second time, he is taken out in the same way, and then banished from the country "