he passed over to the Gazette, and thence his motto was "Excelsior" until he left the colony the reputed possessor of a handsome competence. one of "The Children of Israel," prior to coming to Melbourne filled the office of Chief-Constable in N e w South Wales. A chubby, red-cheeked, dark-haired, unmistakably Jewish-visaged personage, he had a whole foundry of "brass" in his face, and was not only self-assertive, but cheeky. Though comparatively illiterate, he owned other gifts to m a k e up the deficiency, could scrape together readable paragraphs, and as a collector of news scraps was invaluable. It would be hard to find a better general intelligence forager, and at a time when the few officials in Melbourne were insolent and overbearing, no m a n knew better h o w to overawe them with his bluster. H e was employed on the Patriot and Gazette, and having a turn for the stage, was much mixed up with thefirstand second theatres, established in Bourke and Queen Streets. There.was one queer sensation piece—a great favourite with the habitues of the " Pavilion " — i n which the most grotesquely horrible impersonation was a resurrectionist, or " body-snatcher," and in this Davies was unapproachable; so lively, or rather deadly, did he go through the disgusting ordeal of grave-opening. coffin-breaking, and tugging up the corpse effigy by the head. T h e "house" used to be brought down; and as there would be loud calls for an encore, Davies would turn round, "grin horribly a ghastly smile " at the gaping and clapping audience, and roar out " Don't you wish you m a y get it." H e was a deft hand at securing theatrical benefits for himself, and so well able to beat up for such an occasion, that he never failed to have a bumper. There was an unexpected greatness stored up in the future for Davies, for after a lengthened sojourn in Melbourne he transferred himself to Tasmania, and soon grew into a m a n of mark in Hobart T o w n , where he entered the political arena, was elected to the Colonial Parliament, and established the newspaper known as the Mercury. Though not a genius in himself, M r . Davies had the knack of knowing well h o w to select the most suitable implements, h u m a n or mechanical, to work with ; and to the judgment manifested by him in this way, m a y be attributed the success with which his new venture was attended. Davies died several years ago, leaving behind a journal, n o w one of the leading organs of public opinion in the City of Hobart. JOHN DAVIES,
G N F N was a slow-going Scot, and during several years reported for the Herald, Plodding, prosy, and painstaking, he contracted an unbreakable habit of indulging in lengthy, involved, and inexplicably confused sentences—a chaos of clauses without head or tail. It was only the exigency of the times, and the difficulty of obtaining any person capable of doing anything in the newspaper line, that rendered it possible for such a person to retain the position in which he was. Kerr, wishing to pay off a grudge, would cowardly publish a paragraph about F n's periodical weakness for strong drinks, and he nick-named him " Little Sobriety ; " so whenever he felt disposed to start his enemy on the loose, all he had to do was to side-head a paragraph with the sobriquet. The pitcher, however, was carried to the well once too often. H e contrived to get established in a retail business, abjured alcoholism, and did fairly well. In a few years he started two small periodicals, which did not live long, and he was at one time a Corporation Inspector. H e has long since gone the way of all flesh, but members of his family survive. T o those w h o knew him, he seemed an upright, conscientious, and well-intentioned man. O n the Press, at the time written of, he was out of his element, but as a private citizen, was all that could reasonably be desired. had the longest connection of any of his contemporaries with the early Press, and continued during his journalistic career, on one newspaper, the Herald, to which he was attached more than thirteen years, and left only tofillan appointment on the clerical staff of the Legislative Council Department. Arriving in the colony in his teens, and fresh from school, crammed brimful of Greek and Latin classics, but little else, he amused himself by dashing into the excitement of the Civic and Legislative elections, wrote some squibs in prose and verse for the Herald, was spotted by Cavenagh, and appointed the successor of F n. T h e Herald, therefore, though deprived of one " Fin," secured the other " Finn," the n e w comer taking to the newspaper as a fish does to water, and was soon quite at h o m e in a congenial element. A contemporary
EDMUND FINN
