The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-04-08

rules of the white settlements required
them to do so, and because they were
given to them They ate food, because
with it they were kept alive. They sought
shelter from the night and from storms,
because that too prolonged their miserable
existence.
But the instinct of preservation, the
first law of nature as we understand 1t,
had no such place III their lives as in ours.
They had one. and only one, reason for
desiring to ward off death, and That great
reason was-grog! Enforced prohibition
in that region would quickly result in the
total determination of these miserable
wretcheS, who would do nothing to ward
off their doom if their beloved rum was
taken from them. Nearly starved today,
gorged to the very verge of Illness toneor-
row. exposed to all possible c!lmate
working for it they are entitled to all
the grog they can coBsume-and that nav
ing obtained il they are in possession OF
civilizations principal and only important
blessing! They are utterly worthless at
labor, at which they can be kept only SO
long as is necessary to procure the price
of a drink Only on a hunting trip or
cattle roundup do they show any real
signs of life.
AS is often the case where the edge of
civilization is encroaching upon the ter
ritory of a savage people, found the
savage a rather less unlovely being than
his semi-civiliZed brother. AS he wore
fewer clothes, and bathed oftener, he was
certainly physically much sweater, If not
/ more wholesome morally.
The aborigines are a black-brown peo-
pie, with hanging lower lip, prominent
! check bones, high but narrow foreheads,
/ fiattened noses, and very long, coarse
/ black hair. The latter chara cteristic is
their chief difference from African ne
| was warned that ''spearing white men"
! was the principal enjoyment of these saw
/ ages, and / was led to believe that 10
/ attempt to live so close to them as to be
able to observe their habits would be sure
Yet there, as often elsewhere, I found
that the Golden Rule was an excellent
/ safeguard and ''Cpen sesame and that
it was but necessary to once impress
upon them my kindly intentions and
willingness to share food with aboriginal
visitors. to assure me fair treatment.
In one small community, then dwelling
! temporarily on the bank of drled-uT
stream which, when running, empted int
4, the salt marshes of the interior, / had the
! good fortune to be able to speedily cure
a lad of a bad thorn wound in the les
I that would not heal; also to remove some
! snag-lite teeth from two of the old n4er
and one of the women. These little acts
Won their confidence as no amount of colo
"A Well-nigh useless thing to theln-couls
\ have done. From that time was as mucf
one of their community as l could en-
i dure being.
i The trying climate with its long per
iods of drouth, and the absence of any
Of the Runlinat or cattle tribe, must al
! ways have made the lives of these Aus
! tralian aborigires more difficult, and have
subjected them to greater hardshlps thar
ha& been known elsewhere outside o
the polar zones; The kangaroo is ma
lures attempt to replace the missing
cattle in that region, but the creature is
so feet Of foot, and has. so little flesh o.
il when killed, that it is a poor substi
tute for our milk-giving and burden
bearing source of food.
The scarcity of food has given rise t.
a degree of selfshness at meals that il
far worse than anything to be observed
elsewhere. was a witness to how thi
shows itself one Gay.
had strolled over TO their camp jus
after sending them a wallaby 1 had shot
SO eager were they for food that the,
: had not stopped to more than half cool
the flesh, and when l arrived they wer
already at the feast
The four men and two youths were sit
ting huddled closely together, tearing tn
more toothsoule hits of meat from tn
] bone. AS soon as a bone was half picked
they carelessly threw it over thei
shoulders toward where the five women
of the party sat together.
Tie women scrambled for each bon5
Z and when they were done with it Their
was not a great deal of flesh remaining
Yet What remained was expected to suf1ic