The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-06-04
THE AUSTRALAsIAN BUGGY.
An Irate Traveller Vents his Spleen Upon
an Apparently Harmless Vehicle.

an Apparently Harmless Vehicle.
The Australasian buggy! ! hope that
! am not committing high treason.
writes George Augusta Sala, when ! say,
not for the first. nor perchance for the
twentieth time, that | hate the Australia
sian buggy and all that belongs to it;
yet, even rs give utterance to the as
piration, am guiltily conscious of that
which in colonial eyes can not be con-
doned. ioathe the buggy. 1t is
four-whecled atrocity which seems to
have been built with special and iicnd-
ish attention to two purposcs-lirst, that
you should not be able 10 get into it
without difficulty, and next, that you
should not be able TO get out of il with
out dolor, and without danger to your
shins and garments. In wet weather
its wheels bespatter you with mud; in
dry weather il raises Sahara dust
cloud around you. Its precise shape /
decline TO define. The uncomfortable
shandrydan may be best classified as
what provincial folks Mt home call a
conveyance. dare say that it is
suitable to colonial roads. have not
the slightest doubt that it amply iuliills
the ordinary colonial requirements of
locomotion. Still, being free man,
am entitled should think, TO repeat
that abhor the buggy. Why do hold
il In dctestationp Because the Australia
slams seem to have buggy on the brain.
They not only rcvel in riding in it them
selves, but strive to inilict it on the
stranger within their gates. You arrive
in township after wearisome journey
by coach or by rail. So soon rs ever
you reach your hotel somebody's buggy
Is waiting to drive you TO some place
miles away. perhaps, in your seeing
which somebody takes the keenest of
interest, but for which you do not care
two-pcnce half-penny. You want to
rest, TO change your attire, to read, to
write. No; that Internal buggy is at
the door; and if you put your foot down,
and resOlutely decline TO be driven. you
know not WHITTIER, by you know not
whom, 1t is certain that you will give
| grave Offense 10 some local magnate,
and that you will run considerable risk
of finding yourself denounced in the 10
cal newspaper as n "snob" and lead"
as one who "gives himself airs" and
"puts on side" All because you have
| refused to be driven To McKOckey's gully
or Ben Bandicoot's jump in II buggy. |
grant that the Australasian buggy is Il
thoroughly democratic vehicle. The
gig was, sixty years ago at home, the
vehicle peculiarly affected by the middle
classes. "lie was Il respectable man. e
drove gig" deposed one of the wit
nesses at the trial of Thurtell. The
tradcsman, the bagman, the farmer, the
country merchant, drove n gig. But at
the antipodes everybody who can drive
anything drives a buggy-the wealthy
squatter and tho village storekeeper,
the bush publican and the police
magistrate, the member of the
legislative council and the "cocka-
too" farmer. The rich man may
have numerous vehicles of different de-
sigls-but there is sure to be a buggy
among them. / believe that there are
bu sgies with hoods, but the majority of
those which have seen were uncovered.
Finally, do not care whether am stig-
matized us n calumniator or not when
say that, Just as the final cause of fort
ress is to be captured, the final cause of a
buggy is to be overturned. The buggy
rider may exult for long time on his
four wheels, but he comes to grief at
last. wish that some one of the Stats
teal societies which flourish out here
would publish an annual list of the
buggy accidents which take place. The
figures apprehend, would be appalling
Yes, know very well the retort to which
expose myself ] know all about the
dreadful railway, tramcar, omnibus, cal
and cart casualties which occur every
year in London. But you will at once
/ venture to think, be able to read be
tween the lines of what l have writer
in re buggy. The vehicle is. dare say
eminently well suited to the purposes Il
which it is turned in the hemisphere
There is no kindlier-hearted people OF
the face of the earth than the Australia
slams, and it is in sheer good-naturt
that they attempt to hoist visitors from
the old country into their tOrture-cham
bers on wheels, and drive the said visi-
tors out of their minds. They forge,
that many of these visitors are averse
from being bothered with hussv-ri,lins
They forget that the buggy may become
to the stranger one of the direst of bores.
l have lived long. and have been the
prey of innumerable borcs. will not
be bored any more if can help it,