Cirrus@Austlit

This new advertisement for an accounts clerk for the Sydney Gazette newspaper office is dated 3 September 1838. It was first published in the 4 September 1838 issue of the newspaper. It is substantially revised from the advertisement, dated 1 September 1838 and published on the 1 September 1838, for a temporary accounts clerk. The Sydney Gazette's 'Chief Clerk', John Montgomery died on 3 September 1838 and a death notice for him appears in the 4 September 1838 issue. This event may be linked to the advertisements.

Advertisement for the benefit performance for the actor Mr. Grove at the Royal Victoria Theatre, Sydney, on 8 September 1838 to include ' for the first time at this Theatre, Coleman's admired Play of the Mountaineers!' with the character of Octavian played by 'Mr Charles Faucit of well known celebrity on the London Boards, who on this occasion, will appear before the Australian Public for the first time, having just arrived from England ...' ; '... to conclude with for the first time in this Colony, the celebrated Operatic Drama, of Masaniello'. The advertisement includes a description of the scenes and a list of the actors and the names of the characters they portray for each play.

A short paragraph on a meeting of the shareholders in the Colonist newspaper.

This short paragraph was first published in Bent's News and Tasmanian Register, 17 August 1838. It announces to the readers of Bent's News that the newspaper is contemplating 'securing the services of a gentleman well-known to the colonists, whose literary character is established, and whose situation, as a Magistrate and a gentleman, stands unrivalled.' This is probably John Morgan who had arrived in Van Diemen's Land in late 1834 from the Swan River Colony (Perth) in Western Australia. Morgan became the foundation editor of the Hobart Town Advertiser in 1839 and worked as a journalist, editor and founding editor on various early Tasmanian newspapers and magazines.

Advertisement for benefit performances for Mr. [J. H. S.] Lee at the Royal Victoria Theatre on 11 September 1838 to include a 'Drama, founded on Sir Walter Scott's celebrated Novel of the "Talisman," called Richard Coeur De Lion; or, The Crusader and His Dog' and the 'popular and interesting Melo-Drama, called Raymond and Agnes, or the Bleeding Nun of Lindenberg '.

J. H. S. Lee was an Australian actor, actor manager, 'utility man' (an actor who plays many small parts) and comedian. According to Philip Parsons and Victoria Chance he was the 'first to work regularly with performing dogs and one of [the] first to sing blackface minstrel songs'. Parsons and Chance mention that Lee introduced "Jumping Jim Crow" 'a blackface minstrel act' in Hobart in 1843. This was not the first time he performed the work,The advertisement for his September 1838 benefit announces that 'Mr Lee, for the first time, will Jump Jim Crow'. He also seems to have been an exponent of stage fights as the advertisement mentions a fight scene from 'the celebrated Roman Drama of the Horatii and Curatii' as part of the varied entertainment for the benefit. The advertisement includes a description of the scenes and a list of the actors and the names of the characters they portray for each play

Source: Parsons, Philip, with Chance, Victoria. Concise Companion to Theatre in Australia (Sydney, Currency Press, 1997): 157