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82, a clear 5000 feet above the glaciers which surround its base. They will know too that it was the last great Alpine peak which remained unsealed,—less on account of the difficulty of doing so, than from the terror inspired by its invincible appearance. There seemed to be a cordon drawn around it, up to which one might go, but no farther. Within that invisible line gins and effreets were supposed to exist—the Wandering Jew and the spirits of the damned. The superstitious natives in the surrounding valleys (many of whom still firmly believe it to be not only the highest mountain in the Alps, but in the world) spoke of a ruined city on its summit wherein the spirits dwelt; and if you laughed, they gravely shook their heads; told you to look yourself to see the castles and the walls, and warned one against a rash approach, lest the infuriate demons from their impregnable heights might hurl down vengeance for one's derision. Such were the traditions of the natives. Stronger minds felt the influence of the wonderful form, and men who ordinarily spoke or wrote like rational beings, when they came under its power, seemed to quit their senses, and ranted, and rhapsodised, losing for a time all common forms of speech. Even the sober De Saussure was moved to enthusiasm when he saw the mountain, and—inspired by the spectacle—he anticipated the speculations of modern geologists, in the striking sentences which are placed at the head of this chapter.

The Matterhorn looks equally imposing from whatever side it is seen; it never seems commonplace; and in this respect, and in regard to the impression it makes upon spectators, it stands almost alone amongst mountains. It has no rivals in the Alps, and but few in the world.

The seven or eight thousand feet which compose the actual peak have several well-marked ridges and numerous others. The most continuous is that which leads towards the north-east; the summit is at its higher, and the little peak, called the Hörnli, is at its lower end. Another one that is well pronounced descends from


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84 The view of the mountain from Breil, in the Val Toumanche, is not less striking than that on the other side; but, usually, it makes less impression, because the spectator grows accustomed to the sight while coming up or down the valley. From this direction the mountain is seen to be broken up into a series of pyramidal wedge-shaped masses; on the other side it is remarkable for the large, unbroken extent of cliffs that it presents, and for the simplicity of its outline. It was natural to suppose that a way would more readily be found to the summit on a side thus broken up, than in any other direction. The eastern face, fronting Zermatt, seemed one smooth, impossible cliff, from summit to base; the ghastly precipices which face the Z'Mutt glacier forbade any attempt in that direction. There remained only the side of Val Tournanche; and it will be found that nearly all the earliest attempts to ascend the mountain were made on that side.

The first efforts to ascend the Matterhorn of which I have heard, were made by the guides, or rather by the chasseurs, of Val Tournanche. These attempts were made in the years 1858-9, from the direction of Breil, and the highest point that was attained was about as far as the place which is now called the "Chimney" (cheminée), a height of about 12,650 feet. Those who were concerned in these expeditions were Jean-Antoine Carrel, Jean Jacques Carrel, Victor Carrel, the Abbe Gorret, and Gabrielle Maquignaz. I have been unable to obtain any further details about them. The next attempt was a remarkable one; and of it, too, there is no published account. It was made by the Messrs. Alfred, Charles, and Sandbach Parker, of Liverpool, in July 1860. These gentlemen, without guides, endeavoured to storm the citadel by attacking its eastern face — that to which reference was just now made as a smooth, impracticable cliff. Mr. Sandbach Parker

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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86 Bennen was a guide who was beginning to be talked about. During the chief part of his brief career he was in the service of Wellig, the landlord of the inn on the Æggischhorn, and was hired out by him to tourists. Although his experience was limited, he had acquired a good reputation; and his book of certificates, which is lying before me, shows that he was highly esteemed by his employers. A good-looking man, with courteous, Mr. Hawkins' party, led by Bennen, climbed the rocks abutting against the Couloir du Lion, on its south side, and attained the Col du Lion, although not without difficulty. They then followed the south-west ridge, passed the place at which the


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88 high as possible, and to attempt to reach the summit on the following day. We endeavoured to induce another man to accompany us, but without success. Matthias zum Taugwald and other well-known guides were there at the time, but they declined to go on any account. A sturdy old fellow—Peter Taugwalder by name—said he would go! His price? "Two hundred francs." "What, whether we ascend or not?" "Yes—nothing less." The end of the matter was, that all the men who were more or less capable showed a strong disinclination, or positively refused, to go (their disinclination being very much in proportion to their capacity), or else asked a prohibitive price. This, it may be said once for all, was the reason why so many futile attempts were made upon the Matterhorn. One first-rate guide after another was brought up to the mountain, and patted on the back, but all declined the business. The men who went had no heart in the matter, and took the first opportunity to turn back. For they were, with the exception of one man, to whom reference will be made presently, universally impressed with the belief that the summit was entirely inaccessible.

We resolved to go alone, but, anticipating a cold bivouac, begged the loan of a couple of blankets from the innkeeper. He refused them; giving the curious reason, that we had bought a bottle of brandy at Val Tournanche, and had not bought any from him! No brandy, no blankets, appeared to be his rule. We did not require them that night, as it was passed in the highest cow-shed in the valley, which is about an hour nearer to the mountain than is the hotel. The cowherds, worthy fellows, seldom troubled by tourists, hailed our company with delight, and did their best to make us comfortable; brought out their little stores of simple food, and, as we sat with them round the great copper pot which hung over the fire, bade us in husky voice, but with honest intent, to beware of the perils of the haunted cliffs. When night was coming on, we saw, stealing up the hill-side, the forms of Jean-Antoine Carrel and


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90 noiselessly out before daybreak, and went off. We did not leave until nearly seven o'clock, and followed them leisurely, leaving all our properties in the cow-shed; sauntered over the gentian-studded slopes which intervene between the shed and the Glacier du Lion, left cows and their pastures behind, traversed the stony wastes, and arrived at the ice. Old, hard beds of snow lay on its right bank (our left hand), and we mounted over them on to the lower portion of the glacier with ease. But, as we ascended, crevasses became numerous, and we were at last brought to a halt by some which were of very large dimensions; and, as our cutting powers were limited, we sought an easier route, and turned, naturally, to the lower rocks of the Tête du Lion, which overlook the glacier on its west. Some good scrambling took us in a short time on to the crest of the ridge which descends towards the south; and thence, up to the level of the Col du Lion, there was a long natural staircase, on which it was seldom necessary to use the hands. We dubbed the place "The Great Staircase." Then the cliffs of the Tête du Lion, which rise above the Couloir, had to be skirted. This part varies considerably in different seasons, and in 1861 we found it difficult; for the fine steady weather of that year had reduced the snow-beds abutting against it to a lower level than usual, and the rocks which were left exposed at the junction of the snow with tile cliffs, had few ledges or cracks to which we could hold. But by half-past ten o'clock we stood on the Col, and looked down upon the magnificent basin out of which the Z'Mutt glacier flows. We decided to pass the night upon the Col, for we were charmed with the capabilities of the place, although it was one where liberties could not be taken. On one side a sheer wall overhung the Tiefenmatten glacier; on the other, steep, glassy slopes of hard snow descended to the Glacier du Lion, furrowed by water and by falling stones; on the north there was the great peak of the Matterhorn and on the south the cliffs of the Tête du Lion. Throw


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92 or listened to the Carrels, who were sometimes seen or heard, high above us, upon the ridge leading towards the summit; and, leaving at mid-day, we descended to the cow-shed, packed up the tent and other properties, and returned to the Col, although heavily laden, before six o'clock. This tent was constructed on a pattern suggested by Mr. Francis Galton, and it was not a success. It looked very pretty when set up in London, but it proved thoroughly useless in the Alps. It was made of light canvas, and opened like a book; had one end closed permanently and the other with flaps; it was supported by two alpenstocks, and had the canvas sides prolonged so as to turn in underneath. Numerous cords were sewn to the lower edges, to which stones were to be attached; but the main fastenings were by a cord which passed underneath the ridge and through iron rings screwed into the tops of the alpenstocks, and were secured by pegs. The wind, which playfully careered about the surrounding cliffs, was driven through our gap with the force of a blow-pipe; the flaps of the tent would not keep down, the pegs would not stay in, and it exhibited so marked a desire to go to the top of the Dent Blanche, that we thought it prudent to take it down and to sit upon it. When night came on we wrapped ourselves in it, and made our camp as comfortable as the circumstances would allow. The silence was impressive. No living thing was near our solitary bivouac; the Carrels had turned back and were out of hearing; the stones had ceased to fall, and the trickling water to murmur— " The music of whose liquid lip

Had been to us companionship,

And, in our lonely life, had grown

To have an almost human tone." It was bitterly cold. Water froze hard in a bottle under my head. Not surprising, as we were actually on snow, and in a position where the slightest wind was at once felt. For a time we dozed, but about midnight there came from high aloft a tremendous


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94 brilliant than man knows how to depict. See, how—even there—the gentle undulations give shadows within shadows; and how—yet again—where falling stones or ice have left a track, there are shadows upon shadows, each with a light and a dark side, with infinite gradations of matchless tenderness. Then, note the sunlight as it steals noiselessly along, and reveals countless unsuspected forms;—the delicate ripple-lines which mark the concealed crevasse, and the waves of drifted snow; producing each minute more lights and fresh shadows; sparkling on the edges and glittering on the ends of the icicles; shining on the heights and illuminating the depths, until all is aglow, and the dazzled eye returns for relief to the sombre crags.

Hardly an hour had passed since we left the Col before we arrived at the "Chimney." It proved to be the counterpart of the place to which reference has been made at ; a smooth, straight slab of rock was fixed, at a considerable angle, between two others equally smooth. My companion essayed to go up, and, after crumpling his long body into many ridiculous positions, he said that he would not, for he could not, do it. With some little trouble I got up it unassisted, and then my guide tied himself on to the end of our rope, and I endeavoured to pull him up. But he was so awkward that he did little for himself, and so heavy that he proved too much for me, and after several attempts lie untied himself, and quietly observed that he should go down. I told him he was a coward, and he mentioned his opinion of me. I requested him to go to Breil, and to say that he had left his "monsieur" on the mountain, and he turned to go; whereupon I had to eat humble pie and ask him to come back; for, although it was not very difficult to go up, and not at all dangerous with a man standing below, it was quite another thing to come down, as the lower edge overhung in a provoking manner. The day was perfect; the sun was pouring down grateful


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Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011 TOP SECRET – Sensitive  {|style="width:100%"
 * -valign="top"
 * -valign="top"
 * f.
 * colspan="2"|DRV is Pressed to Give up Claims for Pathet Lao and Free Khmer Representation
 * C-23
 * -valign="top"
 * g.
 * colspan="2"|Chinese Play a Major Role in Pathet Lao–Free Khmer Exclusion
 * C-24
 * -valign="top"
 * h.
 * colspan="2"|USSR and China Agree to a Control Commission
 * C-25
 * -valign="top"
 * i.
 * colspan="2"|Sino–Soviet Influence Has Significant Effect
 * C-25
 * } Rh
 * h.
 * colspan="2"|USSR and China Agree to a Control Commission
 * C-25
 * -valign="top"
 * i.
 * colspan="2"|Sino–Soviet Influence Has Significant Effect
 * C-25
 * } Rh
 * } Rh

title: Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part III.djvu/102


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Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011 TOP SECRET – Sensitive III. C. 2.

 * 1.

 * a.

During the Korean War, the initial communist move toward negotiations came at a time of fairly clear-cut military stalemate. Discussions at Panmunjom extended over two years while UN and communist armies fought over small parcels of strategically valuable terrain. In Indochina, to the contrary, the first communist indications of willingness to negotiate came in September 1953 (from both Peking and Moscow), while the Viet Minh were preparing for the "general counteroffensive," and with the French Union forces constricting their defensive perimeter and desperately seeking to prevent large-scale desertions by the Vietnamese. Moreover, a final settlement was reached after only two months of bargaining. The reasons for this unexpectedly rapid and compromise settlement lie in Moscow and Peking. For reasons that were either the same or complementary, these two communist powers created an atmosphere for serious negotiations.

 * b.

Unlike the Chinese, the Soviet Union was never explicit about its motivations for working toward a settlement. Nevertheless, there are strong grounds for believing that the Soviets had these goals in view: (1) averting a major war crisis over Indochina that would stimulate Western unity, provide the U.S. with support previously lacking for "united action, and conceivably force Moscow to help defend the Chinese; (2) reducing the prospects for successful passage of the European Defense Community in the French National Assembly; (3) seizing the opportunity to create a communist controlled enclave in Vietnam which could, then be expanded into a new communist state.

 * (1)

On the first point, the Soviets were surely aware that the United States probably would be prepared, under certain conditions, to consider active involvement in the war. Newspaper reports of the time added both credence and uncertainty to American plans for "united action." The Soviets during this period were caught up, moreover, in a full-fledged policy debate over the import of Eisenhower's defense program for Soviet national security. When the debate was resolved, sometime in April 1954, apparently First Secretary Khrushchev's perception of the continued danger of a new world, war that might be touched off by a reckless American nuclear strike won out over the relative optimism of Premier Malenkov. Specifically, Moscow probably reasoned that a failure to settle at Geneva would lead to U.S. involvement and escalation in Indochina, that at one point there might be another direct clash between American and Chinese forces, and that the Soviet Union therefore would be called upon to come to the aid of its Chinese ally. Rh

title: Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part III.djvu/103


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Ellen


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Francis


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Harry William


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Henry


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, James


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, John (1554-1635)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, John (d.1655)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Lawrence


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Matthew


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Oliver


text:
Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part III.djvu/104

Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011 TOP SECRET – Sensitive As the Soviets entered the Geneva Conference, then, it seems that one of their primary aims was to diminish the possibility of U.S. intervention, either in the guise of a united action or unilaterally, in Indochina. While this outlook did not prevent the Soviets from seeking to capitalize on the change in administration in Paris from Laniel to Mendes-France, it did work in the general direction of a reasonable settlement that would be honorable for the French and generally acceptable to the Viet Minh. The Russians evidently believed, however, that so long as the French (and the British) were agreeable to a settlement, the Americans would be hard-pressed to disregard their allies and intervene.

 * (2)

EDC was also almost certainly on Molotov's mind during the negotiations. There is no evidence to support the contention of some Writers that Molotov explicitly baited Mendes-France with a lenient Indochina settlement in return for Assembly rejection of EDC, but Molotov need not have been that explicit. Throughout 1953 and into 1954, Soviet propaganda was dominated by comments on EDC and the danger of a rearmed Germany. It was certainly in Soviet interest to pressure the DRV for concessions to the French, since removal of the French command from Indochina would restore French force levels on the Continent and thereby somewhat offset the need for an EDC. Soviet interests, in short, probably dictated the sacrifice of Viet Minh goals if necessary to prevent German re-militarization.

 * (3)

Soviet efforts to gain control of Iran, Manchuria, Greece and Korea indicate a possible third objective of their diplomacy at Geneva. In these instances, the Soviet Union attempted to gain control of the target state by establishing a communist enclave in the target state itself. This enclave would become, then, "a first stage in the ultimate absorption of the whole state by the communist bloc." It may have been that, in the Soviet view, the timing for such a move in Vietnam was correct and that control of Vietnam would come without the necessity for military conquest.

 * c.

In contrast to the Soviet position, the Chinese made their goals at Geneva quite clear: (1) emphasizing the commitment to assist "wars of national liberation"; (2) guarding against the possibility of U.S. military intervention; (3) preventing the Indochinese states from becoming U.S. bases or joining the American alliance system; and (4) promoting the "five principles of peaceful coexistence" as part of China's effort to extend its influence across Asia. Central to each of these objectives was the need to create a zone of security that encompassed Laos, Cambodia, and the northern half of Vietnam, to insure China's southwestern flank against intrusion by the U.S. or any other large foreign power. Rh

title: Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part III.djvu/104


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Owen Browne


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Peter


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Richard


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Thomas (d.1795)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Thomas (1735?-1804)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Thomas (d.1867)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, William


text:
Talk:Freedom Businesses Protect Privacy

the talk can now be found in the internet archive http://archive.org/details/EbenMoglenKeynote2007MysqlConferenceExpo where it is labeld as cc!

title: Talk:Freedom Businesses Protect Privacy


text:
Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part III.djvu/105

Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011 TOP SECRET – Sensitive :::(1) China's Policy Calls for Assistance to "Wars of National Liberation"

From the moment Chinese troops arrived at the Sino–Vietnamese border, Chinese assistance to the Viet Minh was clearly in line with Peking's policy of assisting wars of national liberation. This theme was alluded to frequently by Chinese delegates at Geneva. The Chinese, however, carefully controlled the dispensation of that aid in support of the war, and only after the Berlin Conference did they significantly augment it to assure the fall of Dien Bien Phu. Regardless of Marxist rationale advanced by China for its policy toward the Viet Minh, China historically had acted to obtain vassal states on its periphery. China's domestic cohesion having been restored, it turned, consistent with centuries of policy towards Vietnam, to projecting its influence into Southeast Asia via Vietnam.

 * (2)

In providing less assistance than it could, have, Peking may very well have been wary of prompting American intervention and a wider war. In this respect, U.S. warnings to China during 1953 from an American Administration which publicly vowed a very hard line toward the communist bloc could not be ignored by Peking. The Chinese by 1954 had evinced, moreover, greater concern than previously over the military effectiveness of nuclear weapons. Having been through a costly war in Korea, and having decided as early as the fall of 1952 to give priority to "socialist reconstruction" at home, Peking was in no position to risk provoking the United States. Its willingness to work for a settlement of the Indochina war may have stemmed, in this light, from the conviction that: (a) the DRV had made sufficient military gains for China, i.e., territorial control in northern Vietnam; and (b) that the DRV should not be allowed to provoke the West (and the U.S. in particular) into a precipitous military response that would change the nature of the war and perhaps of China's commitment as well.

 * (3)

Besides assuring that a communist state would occupy the northern portion of Vietnam, China also sought to neutralize the two other Indochinese states. Chou indicated at the Conference that he had no objection to the introduction of arms and military personnel into Cambodia or Laos after the cease-fire; nor did he object to their monarchical form of government, to their independent handling of internal political problems, or to their joining the French Union. Surprisingly, Chou asked no concessions from the French on these counts, although the French had half-expected Chou to press for better trade relations, support for a CPR seat in the United Nations, or French diplomatic recognition of Communist China. Instead, Chou made clear that China was concerned preeminently about the establishment of U.S. bases in Cambodia and Laos for potential use against the mainland. Concessions to the French may Rh

title: Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part III.djvu/105


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carteret, George


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carteret, Philip de


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carteret, Philip (d.1796)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carthach (d.580?)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carthach (d.636)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carthew, George Alfred


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carthew, Thomas


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cartier, George Etienne


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cartwright, Edmund


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cartwright, George


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cartwright, John (fl.1763-1808)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cartwright, John (1740-1824)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cartwright, Joseph


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cartwright, Thomas (1535-1603)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cartwright, Thomas (1634-1689)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cartwright, Thomas (1795-1850)


text: Page:Life of William Hickling Prescott.djvu/12


text: Page:Life of William Hickling Prescott.djvu/14


text:
1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bolshevism

BOLSHEVISM, the name given since the Russian revolution to the form of Communism adopted under the Soviet system of government. Bolshevism as a doctrine and an organization is not of purely Russian growth; it is a branch of European Communism. The development of the latter is discussed in the article. The earliest and most powerful expression of modern Communism is to be found in the Communist Manifesto drawn up by K. Marx and F. Engels in 1847. This Manifesto has remained a kind of gospel for extreme Communists, and its pronouncements served as a guidance in the attempt of the Russian Bolsheviks (Russian for “Majority” party) to create a Communist republic in Russia. Another element in the circle of ideas appropriated by the Bolsheviks was provided by the activity of Bakunin, the indefatigable Russian anarchist, who fought for world revolution in 1849 in Dresden and in 1870 in Lyons, and who passed 12 years of his life in prison and in exile. He was an admirer of Marx's learning and analytical power, but he would never submit to the tyrannical pedantry of Marx's school and stood up for an elemental awaking of revolutionary instincts. State and law were enemies to be fought and overthrown without any regard for tradition or practical considerations. A third element was introduced by the rise of militant syndicalism in France (see ). These three currents combined to produce the three fundamental ideas of Bolshevism: the conquest of society by the proletariat

class, the power of revolutionary instinct and the dictatorship of a compact minority.

The combination proved admirably adapted in Russia for the practical purpose of the overthrow of the previously existing order. Theoretically it was a compound of contradictory elements. This was clearly discerned and exposed by a leading Marxist writer, Kautsky. He said in his book on the Dictatorship of the Proletariat:—

Kautsky had no difficulty in showing that, in consequence of this fundamental flaw, the practical results of Soviet rule were deplorable. It was obliged to work by means of an unwieldy bureaucracy:—

No wonder that Lenin and Trotsky were highly incensed by Kautsky 's criticism. They excommunicated him as a traitor to the cause, along with other Socialist leaders. But it was significant that they had to adopt the badge of “Communism” in order to mark their precise position in the field of rival doctrines. They had ceased to be Socialists in the accepted sense of the term.

title: 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bolshevism


text:
1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Labour Ministry and Department of Labour

LABOUR MINISTRY AND DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR.— One of the outward signs of the intensified governmental interest in labour has been the establishment in 1913 of a Department of Labor in the United States, and in 1917 of a Ministry of Labour in Great Britain.

.—The demand for the creation in the United Kingdom of a separate Ministry of Labour had been since 1904 a stock subject of discussion at the annual Trade Union Congress, and resolutions in favour of it had been introduced in various years up to 1916. Meanwhile, the attention of employers had been principally directed to the advocacy of a Ministry of Commerce which was to be a development of the Board of Trade. Employers had not contemplated in general a separate ministry for the labour side of the commercial problem. The general policy of the Government had been to leave to each department of State that portion of the labour problem which naturally was associated with its main functions. In so far as there was any department which was primarily charged with labour problems, that department was the Home Office, as having charge of factory legislation, though the Board of Trade had also a considerable share of the responsibility for handling labour questions, and through its “Commercial, Labour and Statistical Department” (see ) was being given continually larger association with them. Thus the Labour Department of the Board of Trade was made responsible in turn for the administration of the Labour Exchanges Act (1908), the first Trade Boards Act (1909), and Part II. of the Insurance Act of 1911, which dealt with unemployment insurance; and this Department dealt with the work of conciliation in labour disputes until the establishment of the separate department of the Chief Industrial Commissioner in 1911. Other departments concerned were:—the Local Government Board, as responsible for the administration of the poor law; the Board of Education; and the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, in so far as any labour questions affecting agriculture arose. Finally, there was the position of the State as a direct employer of labour both of clerical and semi-clerical labour in the Civil Service and the Post Office, and of industrial labour in Woolwich Arsenal and the dockyards. The general labour policy in this respect was under the financial control of the Treasury; the actual handling of the labour problems affecting the postal service was dealt with by the Post Office, those affecting Woolwich Arsenal and Enfield by the War Office, those affecting the dockyards by the Admiralty. The only general measure of coordination was given by the Fair Wages Advisory Committee, which considered from time to time what were in fact the fair wages in terms of the House of Commons resolution requiring that Government contractors should pay fair wages, and which instructed the contracting departments as to the wages that they should require their contractors to pay.

With the outbreak of the World War in 1914 labour problems immediately assumed a new importance, since the paramount question was the control of man-power. It was natural in these circumstances that resort should be had by the Government primarily to the Board of Trade, upon which the handling of labour problems had increasingly centred in the years immediately preceding the war. Thus it was to the Labour Exchanges Department of the Board of Trade that the Government looked

for the supply of labour for mobilization and for the grouping of labour which was required for the munitions programme. In the same way the Government looked to the Chief Industrial Commissioner for advice and guidance upon the policy to be adopted in respect of general labour problems such as trade disputes and the need for increasing production. But, as these problems assumed an ever-increasing importance, it began to be obvious that possible conflict, which might arise from separate policies carried out by the War Office, Admiralty and Board of Trade, might lead to grave consequences. More and more it was felt that some department, charged at any rate with the labour war problems, should be established, and effect was given to this view by the establishment of the Labour Department of the Ministry of Munitions in Aug. 1915. That department was in the first place largely staffed by officers lent by the Board of Trade, and from the outset discharged the dual function of war labour supply and regulation.

At the same time, it was laid down that the duty of holding the scales between the two sides in industry, i.e. the duties of conciliation and arbitration, must remain separate from the Ministry of Munitions, which was in itself an employing department. Thus the arbitration tribunal, known as the Committee on Production, which had grown out of the Chief Industrial Commissioner's Department, remained with the Board of Trade.

At first the Labour Department of the Ministry of Munitions had charge of labour problems affecting both the Admiralty and the War Office. But, even so, there were many labour problems of the first importance for which this department was not responsible. The control of the railways remained with the Railway Department of the Board of Trade, and similarly the control of mines with the Home Office. But the problems arising on mines and railways were of a general character affecting the whole labour situation. Moreover, while technically the Ministry of Munitions had responsibility over the labour policy of the Admiralty, it was hardly to be expected that one department of State would find itself able to take instructions from another which, in labour matters, was in fact a competitor. In consequence, although the Ministry of Munitions had achieved a certain measure of centralization and coôrdination, it was increasingly felt that some central department, not itself directly an employer of labour, should be available for giving general advice to the Government.

The first attempt to secure this was the creation during 1916 of the Department of the Chief Labour Adviser to the Government. It was the intention that Mr. Arthur Henderson, M.P., who was appointed to this post, should in a sense fulfil the function of guiding the labour policy of all departments and advising the Cabinet generally on labour affairs. The difficulty, however, was that Mr. Henderson had no direct authority over the employing departments, and was not in direct relation with the Committee on Production, which remained attached to the Board of Trade. In the result, therefore, though Mr. Henderson's advice was always available, the office of Chief Labour Adviser was not found to fulfil the requirements of the situation.

Ministry of Labour, 1917.—One of the first steps of the first Lloyd George Government was to establish early in 1917 a new Ministry of Labour. It was constituted under the powers given by the New Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1916. The Act did not itself invest the Minister of Labour with any specific powers except that it provided that the labour functions of any other department of State could be transferred to him by Order in Council. The Ministry started its official existence with the responsibility for the Chief Industrial Commissioner's Department, the administration of the Trade Boards Acts, and of the employment exchanges. Shortly afterwards there was added to these functions the responsibility for labour statistics. It happened, however, that simultaneously with the creation of the Ministry of Labour the Department of the Director-General of National Service also came into existence, and the question of the control of labour exchanges at once created complications. Every effort was made to bring the two Departments into the closest possible touch, but since the Admiralty and the Ministry

of Munitions, as well as the Board of Agriculture, were using the exchanges, it was difficult to effect a satisfactory coördination. During the war period the Ministry of Labour exercised the two functions of advising on general labour policy and of preparing for the post-war situation. So far as the first part of the Ministry's functions was concerned, great difficulties were experienced in effecting control. Not only had the Ministry of Munitions and the Admiralty established large and powerful Labour Departments, but as time went on separate Labour Departments under the Coal Controller of the Board of Trade and the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries were established, to be followed by an attempt to set up a separate department for the Air Ministry.

All these difficulties were almost inevitable with a new department created in the middle of the World War—a stranger among long-established departments. But in spite of these handicaps the existence of a single department which had no direct interest in production and could view labour problems from a general point of view was undoubtedly of great service. Of still greater service was the work performed by the Ministry of Labour during the war in preparing for peace conditions. The Ministry of Labour was responsible for drawing up, in conjunction with the War Office, the elaborate schemes for the demobilization of the forces, and was responsible with the Ministry of Reconstruction for drawing up the schemes for demobilization of civilian war workers. In addition the Ministry of Labour, by the creation of Whitley Councils, the extension of the Trade Boards Act and the proposals with regard to the control of wages after the war, was laying the post-war foundations.

Immediately upon the declaration of the Armistice at the end of 1918, it was decided to transfer to the Ministry of Labour the labour departments of the Admiralty and Ministry of Munitions. There was set up, to meet the special emergency created by demobilization, a new department of the Ministry of Labour under a Controller-General of Demobilization and Resettlement. The Ministry was then, for the immediate post-Armistice period, divided into two broad halves. The first half dealt with industrial conditions, and was responsible for the administration of the Wages (Temporary Regulation) Act, conciliation, the administration of the Trade Boards Acts, watching the progress of Joint Industrial Councils, and for the general industrial policy of the Government. This half of the Ministry of Labour was placed under the Permanent Secretary.

The second half of the Ministry of Labour under the post-Armistice scheme, under the Controller-General, divided itself into permanent and temporary departments. The permanent department was the machinery of the employment exchanges. Side by side with this permanent machine there were three temporary departments:—

(a) The Training Department, which was set up to provide training for disabled men and for certain classes of women.

(b) The Appointments Department, which dealt with the placing and training of officers and men of similar educational qualifications.

(c) The Civil Liabilities Department, which provided resettlement grants for ex-service men under certain conditions.

Post-war Reconstruction.—When the first rush of Armistice work was over, an attempt was made to lay down to some extent the permanent lines upon which the Ministry of Labour was to develop. It was recognized that in any event it would be necessary to proceed slowly with the complete centralization in one department of all labour matters, but it was felt that an organization must be devised which would be ultimately capable of taking such a position if this were finally decided upon. Speaking generally, the functions of a Ministry of Labour would be:—

The situation did not permit of the discontinuance of the temporary departments. Apart from these, the Ministry is divided into three main administrative departments with certain common service departments.

 * (Author:Humbert Wolfe)

.—The Department of Labor was created by Act of Congress on March 4 1913. Its chief official, the Secretary of Labor, is a member of the President's Cabinet. He is “charged with the duty of fostering, promoting and developing the welfare of the wage-earners of the United States, improving their working conditions and advancing their opportunities for profitable employment.” He is authorized to direct the

collection of statistics concerning the conditions of labour, its products, and their distribution, and may call upon the other governmental departments for the data they possess. He is also empowered to act as mediator in labour disputes and to appoint commissioners of conciliation, whenever he deems it desirable for promoting industrial peace. There is also an assistant secretary and a solicitor of the Department of Labor, the latter acting as legal adviser to the Secretary and to the heads of the various bureaus.

The four original bureaus comprised (1) the bureau of labour statistics, charged with gathering and diffusing information about labour, especially its relations with capital, hours of labour, earnings of labourers, and means of improving their conditions; (2) the bureau of immigration, charged with administering the immigration laws, including the Chinese-exclusion laws; (3) the naturalization bureau, for administering the naturalization laws; and (4) the children's bureau, charged with investigating and reporting upon all matters pertaining to children and child life among all classes of people, including infant mortality, maternal mortality, juvenile delinquency and diseases of children.

The exigencies of the World War led to the formation (1918) of a woman-in-industry service, or women's bureau, to safeguard the interests of the large number of women who replaced men withdrawn for war service. In the same year the U.S. employment service, formerly a part of the immigration bureau, was made a separate bureau and became the medium for recruiting unskilled labour for war industries, excepting farms and railways. Between Jan. 1 1918 and June 30 1919 employment was secured for 4,955,159 persons, and after the Armistice many discharged soldiers were placed in positions. As a temporary war emergency measure there were created also (1) a bureau of industrial housing and transportation for labourers engaged on Government contracts; (2) an information and education service for creating, through publicity, a spirit of coöperation and mutual understanding between labour and capital; and (3) a national war labour board, for settling labour disputes and ensuring uninterrupted production of the essentials for war.


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1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Labor, Department of

LABOR, DEPARTMENT OF (United States): see .


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(Translated by Thomas Walsh)

AM the singer who of late put by The verse azulean and the chant profane, Across whose nights a rossignol would cry And prove himself a lark at morn again.

Lord was I of my garden-place of dreams, Of heaping roses and swan-haunted brakes; Lord of the doves; lord of the silver streams, Of gondolas and lilies on the lakes.

And very eighteenth century; both old And very modern; bold, cosmopolite; Like Hugo daring, like Verlaine half-told, And thirsting for illusions infinite.

From childhood it was sorrow that I knew; My youth—was ever youth my own indeed?— Its roses still their perfume round me strew, Their perfume of a melancholy seed—

A rainless colt my instinct galloped free, My youth bestrode a colt without a rein; Intoxicate I went, a belted blade with me; If I fell not—'twas God who did sustain.

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Within my garden stood a statue fair, Of marble seeming, yet of flesh and bone; A gentle spirit was incarnate there Of sensitive and sentimental tone.

So timid of the world, it fain would hide And from its walls of silence issue not, Save when the Spring released upon its tide The hour of melody it had begot—

The hour of sunset and of hidden kiss; The hour of gloaming twilight and retreat; The hour of madrigal, the hour of bliss, Of "I adore thee" and "Alas" too sweet.

And 'mid the gamut of the flute, perchance, Would come a ripple of crystal mysteries, Recalling Pan and his glad Grecian dance With the intoning of old Latin keys,

With such a sweep, and ardor so intense, That on the statue suddenly were born The muscled goat-thighs shaggy and immense, And on the brow the satyr's pair of horn.

As Gongora's Galatea, so in fine The fair marquise of Verlaine captured me; And so unto the passion half divine Was joined a human sensuality;

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All longing and all ardor, the mere sense And natural vigor; and without a sign Of stage effect or literature's pretence— If there is ever a soul sincere—'tis mine.

The ivory tower awakened my desire; I longed to enclose myself in selfish bliss, Yet hungered after space, my thirst on fire For heaven, from out the shades of my abyss.

As with the sponge the salt sea saturates Below the oozing wave, so was my heart,— Tender and soft,—bedrenched with bitter fates That world and flesh and devil here impart.

But through the grace of God my conscience Elected unto good its better part; If there were hardness left in any sense It melted soft beneath the touch of Art.

My intellect was freed from baser thought, My soul was bathed in the Castalian flood, My heart a pilgrim went, and so I caught The harmony from out the sacred wood.

Oh, sacred wood! oh, rumor, that profound Stirs from the sacred woodland's heart divine! Oh, plenteous fountain in whose power is wound And overcome our destiny malign!

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Grove of ideals, where the real halts, Where flesh is flame alive, and Psyche floats; The while the satyr makes his old assaults, Loose Philomel her azure drunken throats.

Fantastic pearl and music amorous Adown the green and flowering laurel tops: Hypsipyle stealthily the rose doth buss; And the faun's mouth the tender stalking crops.

There where the god pursues the flying maid, Where springs the reed of Pan from out the mire, The Life eternal hath its furrows laid, And wakens the All-Father's mystic choir.

The soul that enters there disrobed should go A-tremble with desire and longing pure Over the wounding spine and thorn below, So should it dream, be stirred, and sing secure.

Life, Light and Truth, as in a triple flame Produce the inner radiance infinite; Art, pure as Christ, is heartened to exclaim: I am indeed the Life, the Truth, the Light!

The Life is mystery; the Light is blind; The Truth beyond our reach both daunts and fades; The sheer perfection nowhere do we find; The ideal sleeps, a secret, in the shades.

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Therefore to be sincere is to be strong. Bare as it is, what glimmer hath the star; The water tells the fountain's soul in song And voice of crystal flowing out afar.

Such my intent was,—of my spirit pure To make a star, a fountain music-drawn, With horror of the thing called literature— And mad with madness of the gloam and dawn.

Of the blue twilight, such as gives the word Which the celestial ecstasies inspires, The haze and minor chord,—let flutes be heard! Aurora, daughter of the Sun,—sound, lyres!

Let pass the stone if any use the sling; Let pass, should hands of violence point the dart. The stone from out the sling is for the waves a thing; Hate's arrow of the idle wind is part.

Virtue is with the tranquil and the brave; The fire interior burneth well and high; Triumphant over rancor and the grave, Toward Bethlehem—the caravan goes by!

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oblong hut, walled with blue-grey hardwood slabs, adzed at the ends and set horizontally between the round sapling studs; high roof of the eternal galvanised iron. A big rubbish heap lies about a yard to the right of the door, which opens from the middle of one of the side walls; it might be the front or the back wall―there is nothing to fix it. Two rows of rough bunks run round three sides of the interior; and a fireplace occupies one end―the kitchen end. Sleeping, eating, gambling, and cooking accommodation for thirty men in about eighteen by forty feet. The rouseabouts and shearers use the hut in common during shearing. Down the centre of the place runs a table made of stakes driven into the ground, with cross-pieces supporting a top of half round slabs set with the flat sides up, and affording a few level places for soup-plates; on each side are crooked, unbarked poles laid in short forks, to serve as seats. The poles are worn smoothest opposite the level places on the table. The floor is littered with rubbish old wool-bales, newspapers, boots, worn-out shearing pants, rough bedding, &c., raked out of the bunks in impatient search for missing articles―signs 83


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 of a glad and eager departure with cheques when the shed last cut out.

To the west is a dam, holding back a broad, shallow sheet of grey water, with dead trees standing in it.

Further up along this water is a brush shearing shed, a rough framework of poles with a brush roof. This kind of shed has the advantage of being cooler than iron. It is not rain-proof, but shearers do not work in rainy weather; shearing even slightly damp sheep is considered the surest and quickest way to get the worst kind of rheumatism. The floor is covered with rubbish from the roof, and here and there lies a rusty pair of shears. A couple of dry tar-pots hang by nails in the posts. The 'board' is very uneven and must be bad for sweeping. The pens are formed by round, crooked stakes driven into the ground in irregular lines, and the whole business reminds us of the 'cubby-house' style of architecture of our childhood.

Opposite stands the wool-shed, built entirely of galvanised iron; a blinding object to start out of the scrub on a blazing, hot day. God forgive the man who invented galvanised iron, and the greed which introduced it into Australia: you could not get worse roofing material for a hot country.

The wool-washing, soap-boiling, and wool-pressing arrangements are further up the dam. 'Government House' is a mile away, and is nothing better than a bush hut; this station belongs to a company. And the company belongs to a bank. And the banks belong to England, mostly.


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 Mulga scrub all round, and, in between, patches of reddish sand where the grass ought to be.

It is New Year's Eve. Half-a-dozen travellers are camping in the hut, having a spell. They want it, for there are twenty miles of dry lignum plain between here and the Government bore to the east; and about eighteen miles of heavy, sandy, cleared road north-west to the next water in that direction. With one exception, the men do not seem hard-up; at least, not as that condition is understood by the swagmen of these times. The least lucky one of the lot had three weeks' work in a shed last season, and there might probably be five pounds amongst the whole crowd. They are all shearers, or at least they say they are. Some might be only 'rousers.'

These men have a kind of stock hope of getting a few stragglers to shear somewhere; but their main object is to live till next shearing. In order to do this they must tramp for tucker, and trust to the regulation―and partly mythical―pint of flour, and bit of meat, or tea and sugar, and to the goodness of cooks and storekeepers and boundary riders. You can only depend on getting tucker once at one place; then you must tramp on to the next. If you cannot get it once you must go short; but there is a lot of energy in an empty stomach. If you get an extra supply you may camp for a day and have a spell. To live you must walk. To cease walking is to die.

The Exception is an outcast amongst bush outcasts, and looks better fitted for Sydney Domain. He lies on the bottom of a galvanised iron case, with a piece of blue blanket for a pillow. He is dressed in a blue


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 cotton jumper, a pair of very old and ragged tweed trousers, and one boot and one slipper. He found the slipper in the last shed, and the boot in the rubbish-heap here. When his own boots gave out he walked 150 miles with his feet roughly sewn up in pieces of sacking from an old wool-bale. No sign of a patch, or an attempt at mending anywhere about his clothes, and that is a bad sign; when a swagman leaves off mending or patching his garments, his case is about hopeless. The Exception's swag consists of the aforesaid piece of blanket rolled up and tied with pieces of rag. He has no water-bag; carries his water in a billy; and how he manages without a bag is known only to himself. He has read every scrap of print within reach, and now lies on his side, with his face to the wall and one arm thrown up over his head; the jumper is twisted back, and leaves his skin bare from hip to arm-pit. His lower face is brutal, his eyes small and shifty, and ugly straight lines run across his low forehead. He says very little, but scowls most of the time―poor devil. He might be, or at least seem, a totally different man under more favourable conditions.

A very sick jackeroo lies in one of the bunks. A sandy, sawney-looking Bourke native takes great interest in this wreck; watches his every movement as though he never saw a sick man before. The men lie about in the bunks, or the shade of the hut, and rest, and read all the soiled and mutilated scraps of literature they can rake out of the rubbish, and sleep, and wake up swimming in perspiration, and growl about the heat. [sic]


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 It is hot, and two shearers' cats―a black and a white one―sit in one of the upper bunks with their little red tongues out, panting like dogs. These cats live well during shearing, and take their chances the rest of the year just as shed rouseabouts have to do. They seem glad to see the traveller come; he makes things more homelike. They curl and sidle affectionately round the table-legs, and the legs of the men, and purr, and carry their masts up, and regard the cooking with feline interest and approval, and look as cheerful as cats can―and as contented. God knows how many tired, dusty, and sockless ankles they rub against in their time.

Now and then a man takes his tucker-bags and goes down to the station for a bit of flour, or meat, or tea, or sugar, choosing the time when the manager is likely to be out on the run. The cook here is a 'good cook,' from a traveller's point of view; too good to keep his place long.

Occasionally someone gets some water in an old kerosene tin and washes a shirt or pair of trousers, and a pair or two of socks―or foot-rags―(Prince Alfreds they call them). That is, he soaks some of the stiffness out of these articles.

Three times a day the black billies and cloudy nose-bags are placed on the table. The men eat in a casual kind of way, as though it were only a custom of theirs, a matter of form―a habit which could be left off if it were worth while.

The Exception is heard to remark to no one in particular that he'll give all he has for a square meal.

'An' ye'd get it cheap, begod!' says a big Irish


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 shearer. 'Come and have dinner with us; there's plenty there.'

But the Exception only eats a few mouthfuls, and his appetite is gone; his stomach has become contracted, perhaps.

The Wreck cannot eat at all, and seems internally disturbed by the sight of others eating.

One of the men is a cook, and this morning he volunteered good-naturedly to bake bread for the rest. His mates amuse themselves by chyacking him.

'I've heard he's a dirty and slow cook,' says one, addressing Eternity.

'Ah!' says the cook, 'you'll be glad to come to me for a pint of flour when I'm cooking and you're on the track, some day.'

Sunset. Some of the men sit at the end of the hut to get the full benefit of a breeze which comes from the west. A great bank of rain clouds is rising in that direction, but no one says he thinks it will rain; neither does anybody think we're going to have some rain. None but the greenest jackeroo would venture that risky and foolish observation. Out here, it can look more like rain without raining, and continue to do so for a longer time, than in most other places.

The Wreck went down to the station this afternoon to get some medicine and bush medical advice. The Bourke sawney helped him to do up his swag; he did it with an awed look and manner, as though he thought it a great distinction to be allowed to touch the belongings of such a curiosity. It was afterwards generally agreed that it was a good idea for the Wreck to go to the station; he would get some physic and a


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 bit of tucker to take him on. 'For they'll give tucker to a sick man sooner than to a chap what's all right.'

The Exception is rooting about in the rubbish for the other blucher boot.

The men get a little more sociable, and 'feel' each other to find out who's 'union,' and talk about water, and exchange hints as to good tucker-tracks, and discuss the strike, and curse the squatter (which is all they have got to curse), and growl about union leaders, and tell lies against each other sociably. There are tally lies; and lies about getting tucker by trickery; and long-tramp-with-heavy-swag-and-no-water lies; and lies about getting the best of squatters and bosses-over-the-board; and droving, fighting, racing, gambling and drinking lies. Lies ad libitum; and every true Australian bushman must try his best to tell a bigger out-back lie than the last bush-liar.

Pat is not quite easy in his mind. He found an old pair of pants in the scrub this morning, and cannot decide whether they are better than his own, or, rather, whether his own are worse―if that's possible. He does not want to increase the weight of his swag unnecessarily by taking both pairs. He reckons that the pants were thrown away when the shed cut-out last, but then they might have been lying out exposed to the weather for a longer period. It is rather an important question, for it is very annoying, after you've mended and patched an old pair of pants, to find, when a day or two further on the track, that they are more rotten than the pair you left behind.

There is some growling about the water here, and one of the men makes a billy of tea. The water is


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 better cooked. Pint-pot and sugar-bags are groped out and brought to the kitchen hut, and each man fills his pannikin; the Irishman keeps a thumb on the edge of his, so as to know when the pot is full, for it is very dark, and there is no more firewood. You soon know this way, especially if you are in the habit of pressing lighted tobacco down into your pipe with the top of your thumb. The old slush-lamps are all burnt out.

Each man feels for the mouth of his sugar-bag with one hand while he keeps the bearings of his pot with the other.

The Irishman has lost his match-box, and feels for it all over the table without success, He stoops down with his hands on his knees, gets the table-top on a level with the flicker of firelight, and 'moons' the object, as it were.

Time to turn in. It is very dark inside and bright moonlight without; and every crack seems like a ghost peering in.

Some of the men will roll up their swags on the morrow and depart; and some will take another day's spell. It is all according to the tucker.


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a wire fence and a few ragged gums, and add some scattered sheep running away from the train. Then you'll have the bush all along the New South Wales Western line from Bathurst on.

The railway towns consist of a public house and a general store, with a square tank and a schoolhouse on piles in the nearer distance. The tank stands at the end of the school and is not many times smaller than the building itself. It is safe to call the pub 'The Railway Hotel,' and the store 'The Railway Stores,' with an 's.' A couple of patient, ungroomed hacks are probably standing outside the pub, while their masters are inside having a drink―several drinks. Also it's safe to draw a sundowner sitting listlessly on a bench on the verandah, reading The Bulletin.

The Railway Stores seem to exist only in the shadow of the pub, and it is impossible to conceive either as being independent of the other. There is sometimes a small, oblong weatherboard building―unpainted, and generally leaning in one of the eight possible directions, and perhaps with a twist in another―which, from its half-obliterated sign, seems 100


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 or a buggy waiting for him. He travels for a night and day without a bite to eat, and, on arrival, he finds that the station is eighty or a hundred miles away. Then he has to explain matters to a publican and a coach-driver. God bless the publican and the coach-driver! God forgive our social system!

Native industry was represented at one place along the line by three tiles, a chimney-pot, and a length of piping on a slab.

Somebody said to me, 'Yer wanter go out back, young man, if yer wanter see the country. Yer wanter get away from the line,' I don't wanter; I've been there.

You could go to the brink of eternity so far as Australia is concerned and yet meet an animated mummy of a swagman who will talk of going 'out back.' Out upon the out-back fiend!

About Byrock we met the bush liar in all his glory. He was dressed like―like a bush larrikin. His name was Jim. He had been to a ball where some blank had 'touched' his blanky overcoat. The overcoat had a cheque for ten 'quid' in the pocket. He didn't seem to feel the loss much. 'Wot's ten quid?' He'd been everywhere, including the Gulf country. He still had three or four sheds to go to. He had telegrams in his pocket from half-a-dozen squatters and supers offering him pens on any terms. He didn't give a blank whether he took them or no. He thought at first he had the telegrams on him, but found that he had left them in the pocket of the overcoat aforesaid. He had learned butchering in a day. He was a bit of a scrapper himself and talked a lot about the ring.


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 calico. Suddenly he slipped his swag, dropped his billy, and ran forward, boldly nourishing the stick. I thought that he was mad, and was about to attack the train, but he wasn't; he was only killing a snake. I didn't have time to see whether he cooked the snake or not perhaps he only thought of Adam.

Somebody told me that the country was very dry on the other side of Nevertire. It is. I wouldn't like to sit down on it anywhere. The least horrible spot in the bush, in a dry season, is where the bush isn't―where it has been cleared away and a green crop is trying to grow. They talk of settling people on the land! Better settle in it. I'd rather settle on the water; at least, until some gigantic system of irrigation is perfected in the West.

Along about Byrock we saw the first shearers. They dress like the unemployed, but differ from that body in their looks of independence. They sat on trucks and wool-bales and the fence, watching the train, and hailed Bill, and Jim, and Tom, and asked how those individuals were getting on.

Here we came across soft felt hats with straps round the crowns, and full-bearded faces under them. Also a splendid-looking black tracker in a masher uniform and a pair of Wellington boots.

One or two square-cuts and stand-up collars struggle dismally through to the bitter end. Often a member of the unemployed starts cheerfully out, with a letter from the Government Labour Bureau in his pocket, and nothing else. He has an idea that the station where he has the job will be within easy walking distance of Bourke. Perhaps he thinks there'll be a cart


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 to have started as a rival to the Railway Stores; but the shutters are up and the place empty.

The only town I saw that differed much from the above consisted of a box-bark humpy with a clay chimney, and a woman standing at the door throwing out the wash-up water.

By way of variety, the artist might make a watercolour-sketch of a fettler's tent on the line, with a billy hanging over the fire in front, and three fettlers standing round filling their pipes.

Slop sac suits, red faces, and old-fashioned, flat-brimmed hats, with wire round the brims, begin to drop into the train on the other side of Bathurst; and here and there a hat with three inches of crape round the crown, which perhaps signifies death in the family at some remote date, and perhaps doesn't. Sometimes, I believe, it only means grease under the band. I notice that when a bushman puts crape round his hat he generally leaves it there till the hat wears out, or another friend dies. In the latter case, he buys a new piece of crape. This outward sign of bereavement usually has a jolly red face beneath it. Death is about the only cheerful thing in the bush.

We crossed the Macquarie―a narrow, muddy gutter with a dog swimming across, and three goats interested.

A little further on we saw the first sundowner. He carried a Royal Alfred, and had a billy in one hand and a stick in the other. He was dressed in a tail-coat turned yellow, a print shirt, and a pair of moleskin trousers, with big square calico patches on the knees; and his old straw hat was covered with


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 At the last station where he shore he gave the super the father of a hiding. The super was a big chap, about six foot three, and had knocked out Paddy Somebody in one round. He worked with a man who shore 400 sheep in nine hours.

Here a quiet-looking bushman in a corner of the carriage grew restless, and presently he opened his mouth and took the liar down in about three minutes.

At 5.30 we saw a long line of camels moving out across the sunset. There's something snaky about camels. They remind me of turtles and iguanas.

Somebody said, 'Here's Bourke.'


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The yarn was all lies, I suppose; but it wasn't bad. A city bushman told it, of course, and he told it in the travellers' hut.

'As true's God hears me I never meant to desert her in cold blood,' he said. 'We'd only been married about two years, and we'd got along grand together; but times was hard, and I had to jump at the first chance of a job, and leave her with her people, an' go up-country.'

He paused and fumbled with his pipe until all ears were brought to bear on him.

'She was a beauty, and no mistake; she was far too good for me―I often wondered how she came to have a chap like me.'

He paused again, and the others thought over it―and wondered, too, perhaps. The joker opened his lips to speak, but altered his mind about it.

'Well, I travelled up into Queensland, and worked back into Victoria 'n South Australia, an' I wrote home pretty reg'lar and sent what money I could. Last I got down on to the South-Western Coast of South Australia an' there I got mixed up with 106


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 'She didn't do nothing.'

'Well, Jack, what did she say?'

Jack sighed and straightened himself up: 'She said―she said―"Well, so you've come back".'

Painful silence.

'Well, Jack, and what did you say?'

'I said yes.'

'Well, and so you had!' said Tom Moonlight.

'It wasn't that, Tom,' said Jack sadly and wearily―It was the way she said it!'

Lally Thompson rubbed his eyes: 'And what did you do, Jack?' he asked gently.

'I stayed for a year, and then I deserted her again―but I meant it that time.'

'Ah, well! It's time to turn in.'


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 wife and children in misery and poverty, and my conscience wouldn't let me rest night or day'―(Lally Thompson seemed greatly moved)―'so at last I made up my mind to be a man, and make―what's the word?'

'Reparation,' suggested the joker.

'Yes; so I slaved like a nigger for a year or so, got a few pounds together and went to find my wife. I found out that she was living in a cottage in Burwood, Sydney, and struggling through the winter on what she'd saved from the money her father left her.

'I got a shave and dressed up quiet and decent. I was older looking and more subdued like, and I'd got pretty grey in those few years that I'd been making a fool of myself; and, somehow, I felt rather glad about it, because I reckoned she'd notice it first thing―she was always quick at noticing things―and forgive me all the quicker. Well, I waylaid the school kids that evening, and found out mine―a little boy and a girl―and fine youngsters they were. The girl took after her mother, and the youngster was the dead spit o' me. I gave 'em half-a-crown each and told them to tell their mother that someone would come when the sun went down.'

Bogan Bill nodded approvingly.

'So at sundown I went and knocked at the door. It opened, and there stood my little wife looking prettier than ever―only careworn.'

Long, impressive pause.

'Well, Jack, what did she do?' asked Bogan.


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 another woman―you know what that means, boys?'

Sympathetic silence.

'Well, this went on for two years, and then the other woman drove me to drink. You know what a woman can do when the devil's in her?'

Sound between a sigh and a groan from Lally Thompson. 'My oath,' he said, sadly.

'You should have made it three years, Jack,' interposed the joker; 'you said two years before.' But he was suppressed.

'Well, I got free of them both, at last―drink and the woman, I mean; but it took another―it took a couple of years to pull myself straight'

Here the joker opened his mouth again, but was warmly requested to shut it.

'Then, chaps, I got thinking. My conscience began to hurt me, and―and hurt worse every day. It nearly drove me to drink again. Ah, boys, a man―if he is a man―can't expect to wrong a woman and escape scot-free in the end.' (Sigh from Lally Thompson.) 'It's the one thing that always comes home to a man, sooner or later―you know what that means, boys.'

Lally Thompson: 'My oath!'

The Joker: 'Dry up yer crimson oath! What do you know about women?'

Cries of 'Order!'

'Well,' continued the story-teller, 'I got thinking. I heard that my wife had broken her heart when I left her, and that made matters worse. I began to feel very bad about it. I felt mean. I felt disgusted with myself. I pictured my poor, ill-treated, little


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Author talk:Alexander Waugh Johnston

Burial
Name: 	Alexander Waugh Johnston Age: 	81 Birth Date: 	1842 Death Date: 	1923 Burial Place: 	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Cemetery: 	Rookwood Section: 	2C Row: 	11 Inscription: 	b. 1842 (N.B. Date of death not recorded) Denomination: 	Presbyterian
 * Sydney Metropolitan Cemetery Records. Society of Australian Genealogists, Sydney, Australia.

death
Name: 	Alexander W Johnston Death Date: 	1923 Death Place: 	New South Wales Father's name: 	John Mother's name: 	Jane A Registration Year: 	1923 Registration Place: 	Burwood, New South Wales Registration Number: 	6606

DEATH OF FORMER RESIDENT.

The death occurred on Tuesday last at Croydon of Mr. Alexander Waugh Johnston, M.A., aged 81. The deceased was the third son of the late John Johnston, of Clydesdale, Singleton. He will be remembered by many residents of Singleton as a teacher at the old Grammar School, and frequently contributed to the Press on the question of free railways. The interment took place at Presbyterian Cemetery, Rookwood.

Mr Alexander Waugh Johnston MA, aged 81, a former resident of Singleton, passed away at Croydon last week. The deceased was the third son of the late John Johnston, of Clydesdale, Singleton. He will be remembered by many of the older residents ol Singleton as a teacher at the old Grammar School. The interment took place at tho Presbyterian cemetery, Rookwood

JOHNSTON - May 29 at No 86 Robinson st, Croydon,Alexander Waugh Johnston aged 81 years
 * http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16076763

title: Author talk:Alexander Waugh Johnston


text:
Author:Alexander Waugh Johnston

Works

 * The New Utopia, or, Progress and prosperity: an exposure of the evils produced by unwise legislation, and a suggestion of the means whereby they may be remedied. (1890)
 * Free railways; or, The abolition of tolls and taxes. (1890)
 * Law and Liberty. A Manual of the Elements of Political Economy for the Use of Statesmen, Teachers, and Students. (1910)

title: Author:Alexander Waugh Johnston


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HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA:

(London): "The best short account of Australasian history."

 * "Admirably written and well illustrated."

(London): "His book is both clear and interesting, and this edition contains two new and very valuable chapters."

GEOGRAPHY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

This is the standard text-book on the subject, and it has been thoroughly revised and largely re-written. It has also been issued for general readers under the title "The Mother State" (see page 3).

LAW AND LIBERTY.

 * "Worthy of commendation, for it introduces freshness into a heavy but important subject…As a series of concise pronouncements which convey ideas and induce thought it is well worth reading."


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stranger walked into the corner grocery with the air of one who had come back after many years to see someone who would be glad to see him. He shed his swag and stood it by the wall with great deliberation; then he rested his elbow on the counter, stroked his beard, and grinned quizzically at the shopman, who smiled back presently in a puzzled way.

'Good afternoon,' said the grocer.

'Good afternoon.'

Pause.

'Nice day,' said the grocer.

'Nice day.'

Pause.

'Anything I can do for you?'

'Yes; tell the old man there's a chap wants to speak to him for a minute.'

'Old man? What old man?'

'Hake, of course―old Ben Hake! Ain't he in?'

The grocer smiled.

'Hake ain't here now. I'm here.'

'How's that?'

'Why, he sold out to me ten years ago.'

'Well, I suppose I'll find him somewhere about town?'

117


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 'I don't think you will. He left the colonies when he sold out. He's―he's dead now.'

'Dead! Old Ben Hake?'

'Yes. You knew him, then?'

The stranger seemed to have lost a great deal of his assurance. He turned his side to the counter, hooked his elbow on it, and gazed out through the door along Sunset Track.

'You can give me half-a-pound of nailrod,' he said, in a quiet tone―'I s'pose young Hake is in town?'

'No; the whole family went away. I think there's one of the sons in business in Sydney now.'

'I s'pose the M'Lachlans are here yet?'

'No; they are not. The old people died about five years ago; the sons are in Queensland, I think; and both the girls are married and in Sydney.'

'Ah, well!…I see you've got the railway here now.'

'Oh, yes! Six years.'

'Times is changed a lot.'

'They are.'

'I s'pose―I s'pose you can tell me where I'll find old Jimmy Nowlett?'

'Jimmy Nowlett? Jimmy Nowlett? I never heard of the name. What was he?'

'Oh, he was a bullock driver. Used to carry from the mountains before the railway was made.'

'Before my time, perhaps. There's no one of that name round here now.'

'Ah, well!…I don't suppose you knew the Duggans?'

'Yes, I did. The old man's dead, too, and the


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 family's gone away―Lord knows where. They weren't much loss, to all accounts. The sons got into trouble, I b'lieve―went to the bad. They had a bad name here.'

'Did they? Well, they had good hearts―at least, old Malachi Duggan and the eldest son had.…You can give me a couple of pounds of sugar.'

'Right. I suppose it's a long time since you were here last?'

'Fifteen years.'

'Indeed!'

'Yes. I don't s'pose I remind you of anyone you know round here?'

'N―no!' said the grocer, with a smile. 'I can't say you do.'

'Ah, well! I s'pose I'll find the Wilds still living in the same place?'

'The Wilds? Well, no. The old man is dead, too, and'

'And―and where's Jim? He ain't dead?'

'No; he's married and settled down in Sydney.'

Long pause.

'Can you―' said the stranger, hesitatingly; 'did you―I suppose you knew Mary―Mary Wild?'

'Mary?' said the grocer, smilingly. 'That was my wife's maiden name. Would you like to see her?'

'No, no! She mightn't remember me!'

He reached hastily for his swag, and shouldered it.

'Well, I must be gettin' on.'

'I s'pose you'll camp here over Christmas?'

'No; there's nothing to stop here for―I'll push on. I did intend to have a Christmas here―in fact, I came


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 a long way out of my road a-purpose.…I meant to have just one more Christmas with old Ben Hake an' the rest of the boys―but I didn't know as they'd moved on so far west. The old bush school is dyin' out.'

There was a smile in his eyes, but his bearded lips twitched a little.

'Things is changed. The old houses is pretty much the same, an' the old signs want touchin' up and paintin' jest as bad as ever; an' there's that old palin' fence that me an' Ben Hake an' Jimmy Nowlett put up twenty year ago. I've tramped and travelled long ways since then. But things is changed―at least, people is.…Well, I must be goin'. There's nothing to keep me here. I'll push on and get into my track again. It's cooler travellin' in the night.'

'Yes, it's been pretty hot to-day.'

'Yes, it has. Well, s'long.'

'Grood day. Merry Christmas!'

'Eh? What? Oh, yes! Same to you! S'long!'

'Good day!'

He drifted out and away along Sunset Track.


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14 spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless I went forth, and as I came near unto the house of Laban, I beheld a man, and he had fallen to the earth before me, for he was drunken with wine. And when I came to him, I found that it was Laban. And I beheld his sword, and I drew it forth from the sheath thereof, and the hilt thereof was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceeding fine, and I saw that the blade thereof was of the most precious steel. And it came to pass that I was constrained by the spirit that I should kill Laban: but I said in my heart, never at any time have I shed the blood of man, and I shrunk and would that I might not slay him. And the spirit said unto me again, behold the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands; yea and I also knew that he had sought to take away mine own life; yea, and he would not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord; and he also had taken away our property.

And it came to pass that the spirit said unto me again, slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish, than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief.

And now, when I, Nephi, had heard these words, I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise. Yea, and I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the law of Moses, save they should have the law. And I also knew that the law was engraven upon the plates of brass. And again—I knew that the Lord had delivered Laban into my hands for this cause, that I might obtain the records according to his commandments. Therefore I did obey the voice of the spirit, and took Laban by the hair of the head, and I smote off his head with his own sward.

And after I had smitten off his head with his own sword, I took the garments of Laban and put them upon mine own body; yea, even every whit; and I did gird on his armour about my loins. And after I had done this, I went forth unto the treasury of Laban. And as I west forth towards the treasury of Laban, behold I saw the servant of Laban who had the keys of the treasury. And I commanded him in the voice of Laban, that he should go with me into the treasury; and he supposed me to be his master, Laban, for he beheld the garments, and also the

title: Page:Book of Mormon (1840).djvu/17


text: Translation:Royal Institute Act, 2544 BE


text: Translation talk:Royal Institute Act, 2544 BE


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82 7. 'Those whose conduct has been good, will quickly attain some good birth, the birth of a Brâhmana, or a Kshatriya, or a Vaisya. But those whose conduct has been evil, will quickly attain an evil birth, the birth of a dog, or a hog, or a Kandâla.

8. 'On neither of these two ways those small creatures (flies, worms, &c.) are continually returning of whom it may be said, Live and die. Theirs is a third place.

'Therefore that world never becomes full In this manner all the five questions have been answered. First, why in the fifth oblation water is called man; secondly, to what place men go after death, some by the path of the Devas, others by the path of the fathers, others again by neither of these paths; thirdly, how they return, some returning to Brahman, others returning to the earth; fourthly, where the paths of the Devas and the fathers diverge, viz. when from the half-year the path of the Devas goes on to the year, while that of the fathers branches off to the world of the fathers; fifthly, why that world, the other world, does never become full, viz. because men either go on to Brahman or return again to this world.

Many questions are raised among Indian philosophers on the exact meaning of certain passages occurring in the preceding paragraphs. First, as to who is admitted to the path of the Devas? Householders, who know the secret doctrine of the five fires or the five libations of the Agnihotra, as described above, while other householders, who only perform the ordinary sacrifices, without a knowledge of their secret meaning, go by the path of the fathers. Secondly, those who have retired to the forest, and whose worship there consists in faith and austerities, i.e. Vânaprasthas and Parivrâgakas, before they arrive at a knowledge of the true Brahman. The question then arises, whether religious students also enter the path of the Devas? This is affirmed, because Purânas and Smritis assert it, or because our text, if properly understood, does not exclude it. Those, on the contrary, who know not only a conditioned, but the highest unconditioned Brahman, do not proceed on the path of the Devas, but obtain Brahman immediately.

Again, there is much difference of opinion whether, after a man (cf. V, 3, 2).


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Rh has been in the moon, consuming his works, he can be born again. Birth is the result of former works, and if former works are altogether consumed, there can be no new birth. This, however, is shown to be an erroneous view, because, besides the good sacrificial works, the fruits of which are consumed in the moon, there are other works which have to be enjoyed or expiated, as the case may be, in a new existence. The great difficulty or danger in the round of transmigration arises when the rain has fructified the earth, and passes into herbs and trees, rice, corn, and beans. For, first of all, some of the rain does not fructify at once, but falls into rivers and into the sea, to be swallowed up by fishes and sea monsters. Then, only after these have been dissolved in the sea, and after the sea water has been attracted by the clouds, the rain falls down again, it may be on desert or stony land. Here it may be swallowed by snakes or deer, and these may be swallowed by other animals, so that the round of existence seems endless. Nor is this all. Some rain may dry up, or be absorbed by bodies that cannot be eaten. Then, if the rain is absorbed by rice, corn, &c, and this be eaten, it may be eaten by children or by men who have renounced marriage, and thus again lose the chance of a new birth. Lastly, there is the danger arising from the nature of the being in whom the food, such as rice and corn, becomes a new seed, and likewise from the nature of the mother. All these chances have to be met before a new birth as a Brâhmana, Kshatriya, or Vaisya can be secured. Another curious distinction is here made by Sankara in his commentary. There are some, he says, who assume the form of rice, corn, &c, not in their descent from a higher world, as described in the Upanishad, but as a definite punishment for certain evil deeds they have committed. These remain in that state till the results of their evil deeds are over, and assume then a new body, according to their work, like caterpillars. With them there is also a consciousness of these states, and the acts which caused them to

'Hence let a man take care to himself ! And thus it is said in the following Sloka :—

9. 'A man who steals gold, who drinks spirits,


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84

who dishonours his Guru's bed, who kills a Brahman, these four fall, and as a fifth he who associates with them.

10. 'But he who thus knows the five fires is not defiled by sin even though he associates with them. He who knows this, is pure, clean, and obtains the world of the blessed, yea, d.'

1. Prâkînasâla Aupamanyava, Satyayagña Paulushi, Indradyumna Bhâllaveya, Gana Sârkarâkshya, and Budila Âsvatarasvi, these five great householders and great theologians came once together and held a discussion as to What is our Self, and what is Brahman.

2. They reflected and said: 'Sirs, there is that Uddâlaka Âruni, who knows at present that Self,


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is an old custom prevalent in Australasia―and other parts, too, perhaps, for that matter―which, we think, deserves to be written up. It might not be an 'honoured' custom from a newspaper manager's or proprietor's point of view, or from the point of view (if any) occupied by the shareholders on the subject; but, nevertheless, it is a time-honoured and a good old custom. Perhaps, for several reasons, it was more prevalent amongst diggers than with the comparatively settled bushmen of to-day―the poor, hopeless, wandering swaggy doesn't count in the matter, for he has neither the wherewithal nor the opportunity to honour the old custom; also his movements are too sadly uncertain to permit of his being honoured by it. We refer to the remailing of newspapers and journals from one mate to another.

Bill gets his paper and reads it through conscientiously from beginning to end by candle or slush-lamp as he lies on his back in the hut or tent with his pipe in his mouth; or, better still, on a Sunday afternoon as he reclines on the grass in the shade, in all the glory and comfort of a clean pair of moleskins and socks and a clean shirt. And when he has finished 121


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 up her trembling arms and pleads with swimming, upturned eyes, which are eloquent with the love she felt too late.

It is supposed to be something to have your work published in an English magazine, to have it published in book form, to be flattered by critics and reprinted throughout the country press, or even to be cut up well and severely. But, after all, now we come to think of it, we would almost as soon see a piece of ours marked with big inky crosses in the soiled and crumbled rag that Bill or Jim gets sent him by an old mate of his―the paper that goes thousands of miles scrawled all over with smudgy addresses and tied with a piece of string.


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Rh called Vaisvânara. Well, let us go to him.' They went to him.

3. But he reflected: 'Those great householders and great theologians will examine me, and I shall not be able to tell them all; therefore I shall recommend another teacher to them.'

4. He said to them: 'Sirs, Asvapati Kaikeya knows at present that Self, called Vaisvânara. Well, let us go to him.' They went to him.

5. When they arrived (the king) ordered proper presents to be made separately to each of them. And rising the next morning he said: 'In my kingdom there is no thief, no miser, no drunkard, no man without an altar in his house, no ignorant person, no adulterer, much less an adulteress. I am going to perform a sacrifice, Sirs, and as much wealth as I give to each Ritvig priest, I shall give to you, Sirs. Please to stay here.'

6. They replied: 'Every man ought to say for what purpose he comes. You know at present that Vaisvânara Self, tell us that.'

7. He said: 'To-morrow I shall give you an answer.' Therefore on the next morning they approached him, carrying fuel in their hands (like students), and he, without first demanding any preparatory rites, said to them:


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 thorough, respectable old freethinker, and consequently they often get a War Cry or a tract sent inside their exchanges―somebody puts it in for a joke.

Long years agone―long years agone Bill and Jim were 'sweet' on a rose of the bush―or a lily of the goldfields―call her Lily King. Bill and Jim both courted her at the same time, and quarrelled over―her fought over her, perhaps and were parted by her for years. But that's all bygones. Perhaps she loved Bill, perhaps she loved Jim―perhaps both; or, maybe, she wasn't sure which. Perhaps she loved neither, and was only 'stringing them on.' Anyway, she didn't marry either the one or the other. She married another man―call him Jim Smith. And so, in after years, Bill comes across a paragraph in a local paper, something like the following:―

And Bill marks it with a loud chuckle and big crosses, and sends it along to Jim. Then Bill sits and thinks and smokes, and thinks till the fire goes out, and quite forgets all about putting that necessary patch on his pants.

And away down on Auckland gumfields, perhaps, Jim reads the par with a grin; then grows serious, and sits and scrapes his gum by the flickering firelight in a mechanical manner, and―thinks. His thoughts are far away in the back years―faint and far, far and faint. For the old, lingering, banished pain returns, and hurts a man's heart like the false wife who comes back again, falls on her knees before him, and holds


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86

1. 'Aupamanyava, whom do you meditate on as the Self?' He replied: 'Heaven only, venerable king.' He said: 'The Self which you meditate on is the Vaisvânara Self, called Sutegas (having good light). Therefore every kind of Soma libation is seen in your house.

2. 'You eat food, and see your desire (a son, &c), and whoever thus meditates on that Vaisvânara Self, eats food, sees his desire, and has Vedic glory (arising from study and sacrifice) in his house. That, however, is but the head of the Self, and thus your head would have fallen (in a discussion), if you had not come to me.'

1. Then he said to Satyayagña Paulushi: 'O Prâkînayogya, whom do you meditate on as the Self?' He replied: 'The sun only, venerable king.' He said: 'The Self which you meditate on is the Vaisvânara Self, called Visvarûpa (multiform). Therefore much and manifold wealth is seen in your house.

2. 'There is a car with mules, full of slaves and jewels. You eat food and see your desire, and whoever thus meditates on that Vaisvânara Self, eats food and sees his desire, and has Vedic glory in his house.

'That, however, is but the eye of the Self, and you would have become blind, if you had not come to me.'


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 reading the paper―if it is not immediately bespoke―he turns it right side out, folds it, and puts it away where he'll know where to find it. The paper is generally bespoke in the following manner:

'Let's have a look at that paper after you. Bill, when yer done with it,' says Jack.

And Bill says:

'I just promised it to Bob. You can get it after him.'

And, when it is finally lent, Bill says:

'Don't forget to give that paper back to me when yer done with it. Don't let any of those other blanks get holt of it, or the chances are I won't set eyes on it again.'

But the other blanks get it in their turn after being referred to Bill. 'You must ask Bill,' says Jack to the next blank, 'I got it from him.' And when Bill gets his paper back finally―which is often only after much bush grumbling, accusation, recrimination, and denial―he severely and carefully re-arranges the pages, folds the paper, and sticks it away up over a rafter, or behind a post or batten, or under his pillow where it will be safe. He wants that paper to send to Jim.

Bill is but an indifferent hand at folding, and knows little or nothing about wrappers. He folds and re-folds the paper several times and in various ways, but the first result is often the best, and is finally adopted. The parcel looks more ugly than neat; but Bill puts a weight upon it so that it won't fly open, and looks round for a piece of string to tie it with. Sometimes he ties it firmly round the middle, sometimes at both


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 ends; at other times he runs the string down inside the folds and ties it that way, or both ways, or all the ways, so as to be sure it won't come undone―which it doesn't as a rule. If he can't find a piece of string long enough, he ties two bits together, and submits the result to a rather severe test; and if the string is too thin, or he has to use thread, he doubles it. Then he worries round to find out who has got the ink, or whether anyone has seen anything of the pen; and when he gets them, he writes the address with painful exactitude on the margin of the paper, sometimes in two or three places. He has to think a moment before he writes; and perhaps he'll scratch the back of his head afterwards with an inky finger, and regard the address with a sort of mild, passive surprise. His old mate Jim was always plain Jim to him, and nothing else; but, in order to reach Jim, this paper has to be addressed to―

and so on. 'Mitchell' seems strange―Bill couldn't think of it for the moment―and so does 'James.'

And, a week or so later, over on Coolgardie, or away up in Northern Queensland, or bush-felling down in Maoriland, Jim takes a stroll up to the post office after tea on mail night. He doesn't expect any letters, but there might be a paper from Bill. Bill generally sends him a newspaper. They seldom write to each other, these old mates.

'There were points, of course, upon which Bill and Jim couldn't agree―subjects upon which they argued