Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-10-11
BLACKS OF AUSTRALIA.
SOME OF THE DANGERS OF LIFE IN
THE BUSH.

bl0w Progress OF CIVILIZATION among ING /
Natives - Wounded by Revengeful
"Gin"-Courtsilip Among the savages.
The Schools of Australia
ut surprises me that your blacks all seem
SO civilized They appear to work just like
white people, lsee that they all wear clothes,
and some of their women are exceedingly
smart in their attire
Mrs John R. Reid, of Townsville, New
South Wales, Australia, rested her hands in
her lap and looked at the reporter with pair
of eyes as black as her velvet robe. About
the collar of her gown was massive neck
lace of South Australian gold. Her dark hair
curled in little rings over her forehead, and
her white teeth showed ever so little through
her red lips. She is a handsome brunette,
the very embodiment of health With her
husband and fourteen year-old daughter, Mrs.
Reid has been visiting relatives on Fullerton
avenue Born in the bush of New South
Wales, this is the first time that Mrs. Reid
has beheld other than Australian shores
The place of my birth is upon the John
son river" she said my father was the
first settler there. He has great plantation
on the banks Of that stream He is ninety
years old now. and no one could get him ia
so away from that country, And it is a
beautiful country we have. You people here
know rs little of u.s. of our ways and customs
as we do Of yours. 1t seems strange, for we
are each such great countries We have a
beautiful land, too, much Iovelier, think,
than America, and | have been from San
Francisco to Boston since came the states.
!.
looked on no scenery here to compare with
ours.
DANCERS OF THE BUSH.
MY fathers house was seven miles from
that of our nearest neighbor Of course, we
had cottages for our help, which, with the
stables, made quite little settlement But
it was in the wild bush where grew up,
| peopled by wild natives If YOU could see
our blacks you wouldn't wonder that I'm
| astonshed when | behold folk of that color
who behave like human beings. We have
been able TO accomplish very little toward
eivillzing our natives. Yet they are far
better than when | was a child. Then we
were obliged to keep a continual guard against
them. At any moment they might fall upon
| the settlers and murder them. Do YOU see
| this SCARF tpointing TO one near her eye.) 4
| gin gave me that. What is 'ginr The
| black women are called gins She drove a
| knife into my head one harvest time. You
see, at harvest time the natives loitered on
| the outskirts of fields, stole I'd near to the
| stables and watched all the time to make eft
with corn as fast as it was garnered Work
they would not Do You think one of these
| naked savages would 50 demean himself
| 7
| of the barns packed full of the newly gath.
cred grain. From ont a low growing clumT
of brushwood up rose a big gin She beck,
oned me to her. More fearful to turn thar
to face her, l advanced. When neared heI
she drove the knife into my head. Then she
ran. Ny father sent men for the nearest
physician and for squad OF police. The
knife STAYED in my forehead till the doctor
came and pulled it out Luckily the point
was imprisoned. The police shot seven Of
the blacks in the bush then, for whenever any
depreciation is committed all in the vicinity
are shot on sight like rabbits We dom
adopt the lenient policy toward them that
learn you do toward your Indians.
sOur blacks are different in+r4e from tn,
African Their hair stands up, wiry anC
bushy. like that Of the Circassian women il
} your dime museums In the bush they wea-
no clothes, but when they come in town tn
authorities compel them to be clad. Tn
gins object most strenuously TO clothing. l
you give gin gown she viii seldom pu
but one arm in a sleeve, letting the carmen
hang from her shoulders and displaying on
side of her bosom. The blacks find an abund
ance Of food, and there is thus no incentiv
for them to accept civilization and learn +
work The country swarms with kangHroos
walvar5ies tan animal similar to the kanga
roo. rabbits and birds. Then the black
make . large part of their diet Of snakes an
worms. Worms they eat raw, just as the
dig them from the earth. They eat snakes c
all kinds
SAVAGE COCRTSHIP.
"The blacks are not prolific, couple Sc
dom having three children. The women, {
course, are brutally abused by the males an
kept in the most degraded state of servitud,
When a black wants wife he falls upo
some young gin chokes her 50 she cannc
| cry ont and runs with her into the busl