Chapter XVIII.
THE CASINO—MECHANICS’ INSTITUTE AND LIBRARY—SHOWS.
THE CASINO.
IN early days the two rival places of entertainment were the Casino de Venice in Prince’s Street East and the Victorian Hotel and Concert Hall in Rotten Row, behind Williams’s pharmacy. The former completely out-paced and overshadowed the latter. Mr. Dobson, Provincial Engineer, remarks in his Reminiscences, that in those days “Charleston was a very busy place, especially at night-time, when the miners were in town, which consisted almost entirely of public-houses and stores. There were two large dancing-halls with good orchestras. These halls were licensed and did a big business, the proprietors providing partners for their patrons. Each dance cost two shillings, and each man was entitled to two drinks, one for himself and one for his partner.” Yet, old-timers say that seldom did a Casino girl become intoxicated—they kept a tally of the drinks paid for but not consumed by them, and received their value in cash from the proprietors, a system that suited all parties. These girls were brought in groups from Australia, but were carefully selected by the senders, not picked up haphazardly—bright, vivacious, good-looking, and neither too fast nor too slow. In a community of which probably five-sixths were males and mateless, these girls had many suitors, and married more quickly than their employers could replace them. Here let it be said that the majority chose their life-partners wisely, and became respected wives and mothers. They made money; but it costs a pretty penny to clothe a pretty figure—they aimed at being the most expensively arrayed and to set the fashions. Moreover, though
150
