The Irish standard., 1914-05-23
IN AUSTRALIAN BUSH
TRAVELLER WRITES OF CHANGING
ORDER OF THINGS. 1
Men Once identified With the Opening
Of the Country Are Rapidly Paso. {
lne-Mueh Like Our Own
West.

During the decade spent wander
ing to and fro on the face of tropical
Australia saw the old order slowly
changing" writes Bishop Frodsham In
the Cornhill. 1T has not yet quite
gone. but one by one the old hands
are crossing the great divide'-to use
their own metaphor, with its faint
aroma of the gum trees on the noun.
tain ranges that once separated the
colonists from their land Of pastoral
promise. The successful men die In
their southern homes-for as q rule
these leave the North to build them.
selves mansions near Melbourne, or
homes by one of the landlocked inlets
Of Sydney Cove. t,a
"The unsuccessful ones do az they
have often done before. They start
out alone on their last journey. The
busy workers who follow in their foot
steps quickly forget the men who
found and blazed the track. When
they read in the papers that such and
such an early citizen died at the local
hospital or was found dead in his soil.
tary camp they remember for while
and then again forget. Yet the bat.
tered old derelict was not infrequently
one whose name will live in the no.
;menclature of mountains, rivers, lakes
and plains.
"The story Of Australian exploration
holds alike old men from the chin.
ney corner and children from their
play. 1t is record of men who knew
how to face failure, and, when neces.
sary. to die with dignity.
1T is strange thing that gentle
men. like women. when they fall, seem
to 20 under ompletely-irretrieva
One blazing summer noon I met
rough-looking man in the gray shirt
and mole-skin trousers so character.
istic of the bush. I remember that I
was similarly clad. He was leaving as
was entering, bush hotel We
recognized each other at sight, al
though we had not met since the night
when sat next him at his regimental
mess. asked him to come and see
me at Bishops Lodge, and told him he
could use any cognomen he liked. But,
with the smile remembered almost
painfully, he refused. He had forgotten
how to behave, he said, and all
could urge did not shake his deter.
mination. There are many such. They
meet their fate, as they met their dis.
grace, with nonchalance that is not
the least valuable asset of gentle.
man.
There are lower depths for gentle.
men than boundary-riding under an
assumed name-depths more abysmal
because more hopeless. A man who
Is above the average gets on in Aus.
tralia far quicker than he could do
normally in the old country. Such q
man may retrieve folly. even a dis.
grace. and build up again an honor.
able name. But what about the feeble
folk who are sent abroad to relieve
their friends at home of their pres.
ence, with remittance paid regularly
upon one condition-that they them.
selves do not return? The late Mr..
Whymper used to say that the hardest
task of all in mountaineering was
helping weak climber. The same is
true Of these poor derelicts of family
life. What is the frame of mind that
makes fathers send such-sons Of
their own begetting-to the outposts
Of civilization? Is 1t the same short
sighted optimism as that which makes
their boys so little capable Of distin.
gushing between dreams and reality
castles in Spain and the squalid actu.
aiities of q bush hotel?"