Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-11-09

! tiuiihil experiences can rcmemDefy very
few private houses where the mcn0ge
expenses gave evidence of exceeding .c5,
600 year OF course / exclude expen-
diturc in the qualification of special
tastes. do not reckon in the mcnagc n
passion for rare wines at any cost, q taste
for bric-n-brac or for pictures, n mania
for gambling, or the maintenance of n
large racing stable. But include in my
estimate all things legitimately and nor
mally domestic - hospitality of the usual
Australian freehandedness, equipagos,
education and dress. l would exempt, of
course, purchases Of jewelry and such
unwonted expenditure as the cost of n
great ball given to all the social world on
the debut of n daughter. There are many
ways in which the Australian, like the
rest of us, can siittle Gown his money.
He may take poor Sir William Don's plan,
and use .c10 notes instead of the ham in
sandwiches. He can get rid of it more
surely still by taking shares in gold mines.
He can pile his years income on the
wrong horse in the Melbourne Cup. He
can lose e10, 200 in n night at cards in the
little room not far from the Melbourne
Treasury Office. He cai buy an over
stocked sheep station just before year
of drought. He can attest with his purse
his belief in bogus Lord. But if lie
would preserve the decorum of the con-
ventional .justc milioI, he cannot easily
spend much more than f6, 900 or Ct, 900 a
year on his pure domesticities.
There is one exception, perhaps, to this
domestic thrift of the Australians. They
crave for fine houses, and do not count
the cost to get housed to their mind. Nor
is it handsomeness and roominess merely
in the structure that they desiderate
they will have elbow room about it rs
well, even when they have to buy the land
at crazy figure by the foot. Thus it is
that the suburbs of the capitals stretch
away for miles outside the focus of streets,
and that there are separate outlying mu-
inequalities in which there are not per-
haps two dozen houses that do not stand
inside their own pretty verdant and floral
grounds. There is no expanse of water
in the world whose shores are studded
with so many picturesque and pictures
quely situated mansions as are the beau
tiful broken edges of Sydney harbor.
A weakness of the Australian character
is the hunger after titles and decorations.
Toward the close of the Seryian war, so
cheap did the Russian officers hold the
Servian decoration of the "Takovo Cross"
that they used to tie the bauble round
their dogs nccks and have the animals
trot behind them thus adorned. The
sc. NJ. G. seems to me about as cheap a
piece of trumpery as the Russian officers
regarded the "Takovo Cross" But the
Australian, though while he is without it
he affects to sneer at the &C. NJ. g." and
| links the initials to dcrogatory legend,
grasps it and wears it when the Colonial
Office throws it to him. He would in-
triyue for it yet more eagerly than he
does if only his wife could be &c. NJ.
c." us well as himself. But as in Heaven
there are many mansions, SO there ore
successive grades in the titular Elvsium
of the Australian. The sc. NJ. c." is
recognized as but the first rung of the
ladder. Its utopian apex is baronetcy,
but that 4 stinction is very rare of at
tainment. A knighthood or the X. G.. NJ.
&. is, however, within reach. The latter
is the reward of the politician who has
held office sufficiently long to have ma
tured by courtesy into statesman. For
the knighthood there is an understood
tariff 1t comes as the result of gift OF
coo, ,000-a larger sum will make the thing
a greater certainty-for the behoof OF
some meritorious public object. The
surest mark for such donation is the
Colonial University shot OF equal
picture gallery has been known to miss
fire. But it is worthy of note that these
much-covoted distinctions carry with then
little intrinsic weight. Sir This and Lady
That may be in society, but not because
| ,f ti, lo, .1ln 10 NJ, n;r if tbn,- ~,
not within the pale on their merits no title
will open the wicket, any more than mon
eywill
Australian ladies' have n characteristic
bright airy piquancy. They sparkle a'
perhaps not even the American lady
sparkles. Their "manner' find,
one asking oneself bewildcredly how o.
whence they get it-for you will find it il
the damsol of remote bush township n
graceful, frank, debonnairc and winsomc
as in the Melbourne girl who may hav,
spent half dozen years in European
residence and travel. One of the fines
ladies l have ever met, i'll every shade ol
infection of that term, was never outside
the colony Of Victoria in her life, excep
for short visit to New Zealand Aus
tralian ladies' read. am happy to sa,
that / never met bluc-stocking in Aus
tralia but have had the honor o
converse with many Australian women o
high culture and deep thought on sub
iects, superficial thought on which il n
the cracking Of thorns under pot. Bu
| you do not find yourself oppressed b,
, untimcous volunteered frankncss of thi
sort ; you have to seek that you may find
, To sum up with curtncss and rougl
, generalization for which apology is due
4 Australian ladies' are fairly accomplished
e in modern languages they arc somcwha
| weak; in music very good, occasional
G exceptionally so. They all sing, an
n many sing well. The most exquisite flow
. cr painter know lives under tho Souti
Q crn Cross, and her gift is real genius
= Victoria can boast Of an amateur actres
G in whom also / yenturcd to rccogniz
o something Of the sacred fire. In ply
. slque, they are taller, slighter, more lithC
: shGpelier, than their cogeners Mt home
k their color, save in Tasmania, is seldol
@ brilliant. The expression is full Of vivaC
v ity the eyes nearly always good, an
G the head and feet shapely, although no
O as are those of American ladies', exceI
1t tionally small. They dance divinely.
l. Australian gentlemen are manly, co
|. dial fellows; more pronounced and les
y reserved than are our people at HON,
y The tone is trifle more brusquo, but
r has the genuine ring in it, think, pc
l. haps, that they have even more preiudic,
n than we have-I do not mean pcrsoni
1t prejudices and they are certainly fre
y spoken in the enunciation OF them. The
1f are wholly without one attribute that is
le discredH to 80 many Englishrnen-the n
e. fectation of being idlers because of &
Of absence of necessity Of being worker
" Have you leisure class?' asked {
ut Englishman of an American. "What
t, that, anyhow interrogated the citizen
le the Union. "a class who can afford
in have no avocation, explained the Brito
Sc "Why, certainly" responded the Anne
It. can, with alacrity, "Wo cal them ramps
ny Ii is much the same in Australia. Il