New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1893-12-13
IN THE ANT CITY.

years, being young and hopeful was as
positive about being able to do this as
felt about her love and fidelity.
Five years look quite long enough
to young man of 20 to turn himself
about in a new country and make for
tune for the girl he loves; quite long
| enough to ask any girl, no matter how
| constant she may be by nature, to wait
patiently and keep herself select for,
while as for wedlock it would just leave
and young enough to begin to enjoy the
life before lis.
So with these hopes and philosophical
reflections [ said goodby to pretty and
gentle Maud Davis and began my adj
ventures.
Brisbane, Queensland, was the port !
set sail for, as it was the newest colony
at the time and the most doomed up IN
the papers, so that had lots Of compa-
ny to take make the passage cheerful
all fortune hunters and nearly all as
hopeful and impecunious as I was my
self. t~n
We were not taking much among us
to the promised land, but felt a blind
confidence that we should get all we re-
CURED out of it and go home again to
enjoy ourselves with the proceeds,
which is very common state Of affairs
with immigrants to Australia.
Most people know pretty we'll from
books if they have not seen it what
Brisbane is like at the present day-as
noble and prosperous a city as any one
can wish to settle down in. At the time
| landed it had the site and markings of
the fine city it has become since with
it's magnificent winding river and nu
merous hills, but it had good deal OF
building to be done about it and great
amount Of capital to be sunk in it be-
fore it could be boosted about as a city,
while the worst OF it was that most of
the Inhabitants had rushed to it in the
same condition that myself and ship
! mates were in, the. natural results of
| which were that while the laborers were
many tho masters to employ them were
exceedingly limited, in consequence Of
! which saw more tatterdemaliOns hang
| ing about the streets hard up and idle
on my first days march than I had seen
before in my life.
For full week | rushed about the
different workshops and yards with q
crowd of applicants seeking vainly for q
days work. | was modest at the time,
and there were more desperate hunters
before me, So I found myself ousted on
each occasion and at last gave up the
! attempt of staying in the coming city.
So picking up what few articles I con-
sidered strictly needful | sold the re-
mainder of my stock at sacrifice and
| went on the tramp.
laid in d pickax and spade, with a
! good steel hammer and a double bar
relied gun, and struck toward the north,
resolved to exist the best way [ could
in the bush while l tried my hand at
gold digging. | had no experience at
the business, but was ready to take ad-
vantage of anything that turned UP,
which is the proper way to tackle the
, colonies
For the first year wandered about
by myself, living pretty much like a
wild man Of the woods, until [ was as
brown in the face as an Indian and as
: hard as a bachwoodsman, while my
clothes were as bepatched as Joseph s
coat. | did not discover any gold, but
J | gained a great deal of experience and
bush knowledge which served me after
ward
At the end Of the first year | took a
! situation on back station as stOckman,
and he1e put in another year, getting
fair wages and writing home hopeful
letters to Maud, who replied to them
atfectionately, assuring me Of her faith
and fidelity, which were great comforts
to me in my lonely and hard life.
Then l struck out again gold seeking,
! this time with three experienced mates,
who put mo up to many lodges con-
nected with the soil and earth signs,
an,l with whom I wandered far inland
prospecting, with Indifferent luck. Still
we managed to jog along and indulge
in an occasional visit to the different
townships, where we disposed of our
tiny nuggets and laid in provisions fcl.
! another spell of the BUSH .= IT,.
The five years slipped away in this
way, and at the end Of them 1 was in
about the same condition of worldly
position as before. We had not struck
upon the lucky claim, although we had
often seemed close enough to it to have
a week OF so OF excitement and to keep
me hopeful in my home love letters.
But Maud Davis had grown tired of
hope SO distant, and in one of her let
! tiers, the last that received from her,
she told me- that she had become wea-
ried of wasting her time any longer and
was about to be married to the village
baker, so that need not bother writing
any more, unless cared to return her
! letters.
/ That kind Of settled me so far as any
! hankering after the old country was con-
cerned, so after reading all her letters
over again, and l am ashamed to con-
fess wetting few Of them with some
womanish tears. ! packed them up, and
getting the few small nuggets had left
made into brooch sent them home
to her, with the brooch as wedding