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


Jntcrcs,ing Fact. and Imprcs.ion. by
oWghly British, but with Marked
Individuality Social Life.
[Archbald Forbes in the Nineteenth &c injury for
., October.l
y The Australians are British in thought,
tord and decd. Their British-hood man
Tests itself in things big and in things
little. jot down n few at sheer random :
III the accent of the lower classes, which
is glutinous Cockney in the slow heavy
ish walk, save i'll Melbourne, where the
Americans of the golden age" have left
their impress on many habits lu the
fondness for the potent spirits and heavy
beers oS 'old-country readiness i'll the
teeth Of hostile climatic conditions, and
in the custom of making merry in song
and chorus over the deliberate glass, as
contradistinguished from the American
habit of "takiug the poison" at gulp-
and that poison cunning concoction of
cocktail or iulep in the full side-face
whiskcrs, which of late are becoming old
fogcysh at home i'll the sporting tastes
and the fine keen manly fondness for ath-
lctics in the active habits of the women,
who are rs good pedestrians as and better
walkers than, their British sisters and
who are as keen on lawn-teunis with the
thermometer 100 in the shade Ms our girls
are when it marks temperate )" in the
universal truly British preference of COM
pnrtment carriages in railway travel, and
the addiction to being accompanied in the
compartment by portmanteau, hand bag,
n bale of rugs and great coats, and fas-
cine of walking sticks and umbrellas !; in
sectarian intolerance on the part of the
clergy, with fine keen nose for intestine
hcrcsy in the atmosphere of steady,
somewhat narrow conventional decorum
among the middle classcs-thcre are no
upper classes in Australia in our sense Of
the term in the burning zeal for writing
letters to the newspapers, on personal
petty grievances, on abuses which the
American curses at while suffering and
forgcts the moment they are over, and on
trifles generally that nevertheless evolve
display of great indignation, long words,
and the old :. old quotations in the in
tensely Brit "form' of those newspa-
pers themse 3es, with their rotund Eve, y
their hSmatically three -paragraphed
leading articles, their fine, manly, wood
en- holding aloof from a certain vein of
news which no doubt would be interest
ing and indeed useful, but which might
incur the rel roach OF trenching on the
personal
I can picture q good many English
readers smile with supercilious humor
of incredulity at the notion of "Society'
in Australia. Among our many interest
ing traits, there is probably no smugness
in the world comparable to the compla-
cent smugncss of our insular Ignorance
i'll regard to people and things as they OBJ
tain in the Australian colonies. 1t is not
very long ago that heard an Anglo In
dian lady, ombarking at Suez on q mail
steamer that had come from Australia,
call in shrill accents to her ayah "Take
my children imme lately out from among
those wretchcd convict brats y
saw an envelope the other day. ad-
dressed by the editor Of a well-known
London illustrated paper to his special
artist : "Sydncy Exhibition, New Hea-
land" Ma Cuipo 1 can claim to
have been no less ignorant than my
noighbors. For months after had grown
familiar>with the geography of Australia
by dint of the experience of travel il
that continent, every mail brought me re-
current shame and confusion of face, be-
cause of ,an envelope, the legend oil
which, copied from the address had left
behind nc on leaving home, ran thus
Care Of .iigus Office, Melbourne, Soutl
Australia" The genial scoffer at the no
ton of the existence Of Society" in Aus
t1alia las never been there supercilious
ness cannot be the attitude of the travel
or who has enjoyed the graceful cordially
of Australian hospitality, who has hat
the honor Of familiar acquaintance will
Australian ladies in their own beautiful
homes, who can reckon Australian gen
tlcmen among the most valued of hi
friends. Socially, money vii
do very much in America judiciousl,
expended think it will do even more il
England; in the way Of sheer purchas
of social recognition it will do curiougl
little in Australia. There was, indeed,
time there when, in social sense, til
monoyed man WAS regarded with actua
suspicion. And for this there were som
grounds. The original moncycd ma
might have had unpleasant antcccdcnts
of which time had not yet cifaced til
memory. But now there is vast nun
Der OF moneyed men in Australia, and til
means whereby their wealth has come t
them are known MS reasonably sayor,
They have, therefore, ceased to be re
gardcd with suspicion. do not thin
ptODic Nv loiIic nave uliN llea now larR
fortunes are in Australia, and how man
OF those large fortunes there are. One
in South Australia | had occasion I
speak of friend who had come from tht
colony and taken up his residence in LoI
don. Ispoke of him as very rich MAJ
"Oh, no" was the answer, che is vei
well off, but we don't reckon him veI
rich man. "Why" said I, ~ unde
stood him to be worth quarter of mi
lion T. "Well, [ hope he is little bett,
than that" said my interlocutor, "bl
still we don't reckon him here as vel
rich" l am not going to compile roll
Australian milionaires, because, for OF
thing, it would take up too much spac
But this may affirm, that two-thirds
them are not in society, nor nourish NJ
hope of ever being admitted within th
pale. If you find one of them inside
he has not crossed the palisade on Il
golden ladder he entered the gate
virtue OF his social attributes If the
are unsatisfactory, you will find him OF
side among the nettles or, again, it nj
be, far away in the bush, man conte
with himself, and caring for none of the
things. For it must be said that in Al
tralla there is no universal aspiration aft
the flower garden of society. But t
moneyed asplrant will not find that |
wealth gives him social prestige. The
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