Los Angeles herald., 1892-08-28
AUSTRALIAN PROSE WRITERS.
The Elder Men OF Letters on
the South Continent.
The Merciless Wit and HumOr of a
Stranded Yankee.
Marcus Clarke and the Story of "His
Natural Life'-Fergus Hume
and His "Romance of
Hanson Cab"

During my wanderings about the old
est portion of Gods footstool, it was my
good fortune to come across several Aus
tralian newspaper men whose acquaint-
ance was a genuine treat. True, their
manners are different from ours, but
their hearts are in the right place, after
all. And that's country where news
paper man has a chance to get on if he
is anywise brainy. AS an instance of
that, will mention the case of Mr..
Dodd, of
THE WEEKLY LEADER,
Which is the weekly edition of the Daily
Age, there being no leading newspaper
there whose weekly edition is called by
the same name as the daily. The mar
ket reports, racing intelligence, financial
and commercial, all the more important
kilograms, and the non-political editor
ial articles, are lifted bodily from the
daily forms. All the rest is written
expressly for that edition. Mr.. Dodd is
now minister of agriculture for the col
ony. The subscription price is five
dollars per year for the Aus
tralasian, which is the weekly
edition of the Melbourne Ar
gus, which is deemed the eighth
most valuable piece Of newspaper prop
erty in the civilized world. The Aus
tralasian pays it's American racing cor
respondent two guineas per column,
which is good deal bigger pay than
most American sporting writer's receive.
Ali the other weeklies are circulated at
four dollars per year, postage extra; for
postage has been very important item
to Australians until Victoria entered
the postal union. The weekly edition
of the Sydney Herald is called the Sgd
ney Mail; that of the Sydney News is
called the town and Country Journal
that of the Telegraph is called the Illus
trated Journal, and that of the Brisbane
Courier is called the Queenslander.
There are many clever writer's over
there, and some of them could hold
down an editorial chair in any Office
within the civilized world, so far as ripe
scholarship is concerned. The great
trouble with
THE AVERAGE EDITORIAL WRITER.
Both in Australia and England, in
prolixity. They never have but one
leading article in single issue, and
that ia generally from a column to q
column and half in length. My belief
is that no editorial writer should write
an article over half column. If he
does 30, it is an even bet that it never
gets read. Short, sharp and incisive
paragraphs are good deal more in the
line of the reading public OF today. Most
of the leading newspaper men OF Mel
bourne are to be found at the Yorick
club, which is situated at the corner OF
Collins and Swanson streets, over
Haigh's celebrated clothing establish
ment. Haigh was the London tailor
who, during the lifetime OF
Prince Albert, put up. sign
of "Breeches Maker to Her Maj
esty' over his door, which led the
people of England to believe that the
pleasant-faced German prince was hen,
pecked. The sign came down, and
made fortune, but the laugh remained
in England just the same. Up stairs
was the club whose membership was
almost exclusively composed of journal
lists and actors. was introduced there
by the late "Augur" (Mr. E. S. Chap
MANI, whose death from that most fear
full malady, insomnia, shall not cease
to deplore for years to come.
STRANDED AMERICAN,
Named Joshua Pickersgill, was one of
the fixtures of the club, and it would be
hard to find cleverer man at repartee.
To me there was always something
awfully solemn and epitaph-like about
an Australian joke and Pickersgill's
crisp Yankee wit, though as bitter, at
times, as draught from quassia cup,
always had q champaigny sparkle to it.
One morning at breakfast, young fel-
low named Finlayson, who had just
come into an inheritance of 975,000,
lifted his monocled right eye from the
columns of the Argus, with an exclama-
tion:
'Bah Jove, the Reverend Mistah
Crokah has been appointed bishop OF
Ballarat."
II am very glad of it," replied Pick
ersgill, che is very worthy gentleman.
and deserves all he gets"
ssYa-as, but just think of it, the living
OF Ballarat is worth e5000 yeahl"
$50 much the better" answered old
Josh, - she is man who will make no
bad use of any such money. The poor
will be the gamers by this change"
"Ya-as, but the idea OF paying man
such an enormous sum OF money, SIM
ply for being good"
''My dear boy" said old Josh, laying
down his knife and fork, "this is a
curious world, and one in which COM
pensation cuts no figure. Some OF us
there are who get paid in this world for
being good. There are others of uswho
have to be good for nothing-an the
most of US are!''
ON ANOTHER OCCASION,
AT the breakfast table, when | was sit
ting almost opposite the old chap, two
young fellows at the other end of the
table got into an argument, and one of
them proposed to back his opinion to
the extent of ten pounds. The other
replied:
''Get thee behind me Satan-I never
bet"
'sDo you know the origin of that quo
tation ?" asked Mr.. Pickersgill, looking
in the direction of the speaker.
"Aw-yes-aw; you mean its place in
the Bible?''
"The Bible is very good as far as it
goes. "ssreplied Pickersgill; 'the great
trouble with the Bible is that it only
narrates one side of the story. Would
Won like to hear the other side?''
.sMaost hawpy, assuah you, my deah
sir" =,
There was . man in Jerusalem who