Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1894-01-02
IN THE Ant CITY.

When 1 left Maud Davis. my engaged
wife, and told her that would be home
again to claim her in less than five
years, being young and hopeful was aa
positive about being able TO do this as I
felt about her love and fidelity.
Five years look quite long enough
to young man of 30 to turn himself
about in 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
us old enough to know our own minds
and young enough to begin to enjoy the
life before us.
So with these hopes and philosophical
reflections i 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 was my
self.
We were not taking much among us
to the promised land, but felt blind
confidence that we should get all we re-
quired out of it and go home again to
enjoy ourselves with tho 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 tho present day-as
noble and prosperous a city as any one
can wish to settle down in. At tho time
landed it had the site and makings of
the fine city it has become since, with
its 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 boasted about as q 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 the masters to employ them were
exceedingly limited, in consequence of
which l saw more tatterdemalions hang
ing about the streets hard up and idle
before in my life.
For full week rushed about the
different workshops and yards with a
crowd Of applicants seeking vainly for a
days work Twas modest at the time,
and there were more desperate hunters
before me, SO found myself ousted on
each occasion and at last gave up the
attempt of staying in the coming city.
s4I-s e.,
sidered strictly needful sold the re-
mainder of my stock at sacrifice and
went on the tramp.
l laid in a pickax and spade, with q
good steel hammer and double bar
relied gun, and struck toward tho north,
resolved to exist the best way could
in the bush while tried my hand at
gold digging. L 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 tho face as an Indian and as
hard as a backwoodsman, while my
clothes were as bepatched as Joseph 8
coat. did not discover any gold, but
/ gained great deal of experience and
bush knowledge which served me after
ward.
At the end of the first year 1 took
situation on back station as stockman,
and here put in another year, getting
fair wages and writing home hopeful
letters to Maud, who replied to them
affectionately, assuring me of her faith
and fidelity, which were great comforts
to me in my lonely and hard life.
Then struck out again gold seeking,
this time with three experienced mates,
who put me up to many lodges con-
nected with the soil and earth signs,
and with whom 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 for
another spell of the bush.
The five years slipped away in this
way, and at the end of them l was in
about the same condition of worldly
position as before. We had not struck
upon the lucky claim, although we had
pften seemed close enough to it to have
a week or 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
ters, the last that 1 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 neednot bother writing
any more, unless cared to return her
letters.
That kind of settled me SO far as amy.
hankering after the old country was con
cerned, so after reading all her letters
over again, and I am ashamed to con-
fess wetting few of them with some
womanish tears, / packed them mp, and
getting the few small nuggets I had left
made into brooch / sent them home
to hex. with the brooch as wedding
present, and then turned my back on