The Sunday Oregonian., July 21, 1901, PART FOUR, Page 30, Image 30

30
(Copyright, 1001, toy Frank G. Carpenter.)
3YDNEY, New South Wales, April
2. There is a big opening In
Australia for American trade.
The country Is Just ripe for the
advent of our drummers. Thte peo
ple are friendly and every American sales
man. I have met is doing good business."
We sell over $12,000,000 -worth of goods
annually In New South "Wales, or more
'than $50 per family of the population.
American goods are sold In all the stores,
and American farming implements are
"used on nearly every farm. Three-fourths
of the reapers and mowers come from the
"United States. There are thousands of
American plows and tens of thousands of
our axes and saws. The Australians like
our hatchets. They call them tomahawks
and evidently think we got? the pattern
from the Indians, Our carpenters' tools
are In demand, especially augurs, hits
and braces, and seven-tenths of all the
paws used come from Philadelphia
American A'otlons for Australians.
American notions are sold everywhere.
In Townsville, in Northeastern Australia,
I saw patent camp chairs with the Yankee
trade-mark on them, our cuff -clasps and
collar buttons are In common use, and
there are all sorts of knick-knacks,
marked American and sold as such. T
dropped Into a store the other day which
advertised American candies, and asked
the tall young lady clerk from what city
they were imported. She replied they
were made in Sydney, but they called
them American because ttiey thought this
would make them sell better.
The Australians smoke American to
bacco. They use flnecut and plug, shaving
off the plug for their pipes. The brands
sold are almost unknown in the United
States, showing that the market Is quletv
ly worked by some of our little-known
tobacco firms, the larger ones not realiz
ing the extent of this market. In New
Guinea our tobacco is used as money. So
many plugs will buy you a dinner, a suit
of clothes or a wife, the tobacco currency
being more common than gold and silver.
The cigars smoked by the Australians
'chiefly come from Manila, and the trade
in Philippine tobacco is growing.
Best Spenders on Enrtli.
I have spoken of the New Zealanders as
.spenders. The Australians are .quite as
lextravagant. In New South Wales tlie
average is over $900 per year for each
family. The people of all classes dress
well and live well. The women of "Mel
bourne know how to put on their clothes
as well as those of any city of similar
size in the United States. Many of them
wear American shoes, paying a duty of
f75 cents on every pair. They wear costly
hats and bonnets, and in midwinter nearly
"every girl has her furs. The business men,
.as a rule, wear silk hats and good clothes.
The -fitting is not quite as fine as that of
COMING West on a homeseekers'
excursion at the beginning of
the year, it was my fate to
get stranded in the State of
(tWashington. At first I sought, in Seat
Hie and Tacoma, for a first-class position
las a stenographer: later, I would have
(been glad to take a job of any sort, if I
(could have found one.
After three weeks of illness my funds
jwere exhausted. First, my overcoat went;
'then two suits of clothing were pawned,
.and then my watch and chain. Finally I
came to the conclusion that the cities did
mot want me, and ventured Into the wll
Iderne&s, with no baggage except an um
brella and a handbag containing under
clothing. Later I disposed of the hand
bag, substituting therefor blankets, a
(jumper and overalls. Imagine a man
used all his life to office work starting out
to compete with the hardy men who hew
down the forests and saw the trees into
lumber!
In four days' time I walked 65 miles.
'I passed through Olympla, which is a
small city of the unburled dead, and
jreached the village of Little Rock, foot
sore, exhausted, disheartened, having been
everywhere unsuccessful in obtaining
work of any kind. Now, however, I was
in a region where work is plentiful, and
c
(Continued From Page Twenty-five.)
Its nest. One of the best ways of study
ing the birds Is to select some spot that
they frequent and then, by concealing
one's self among the- ferns or bushes,
watch them with a field glass as they
come and go.
Another nest that was photographed,
with the bird, was built In a climbing
rose bush, just -outside the front -parlor
,-wlndow of a residence In South Portland.
There, among the roses, was an ideal
(home, and it did not take the birds long
to find out that they were among friends.
our American tailors, but far better than
that of London. Clothes cost about as
much in Melbourne and Sydney as in New
York, and American styles seem to be In
demand.
A great deal of our lumber comes to
Australia, not only In the shape of boards
and logs, but In paper, and now the Aus
tralian newspapers are printed on Ameri
can wood pulp. Many of the publishers
use American type. "Within the past! few
years the linotype has been coming in,
and a salesman of one of the American
firms tells me that he has scattered such
machines throughout the colonies. He
gets about $3500 for each machine, and
does a business which is largely cash.
The leading American typewriters are
well-known here. Some of the agencies
have business colleges connected with
them, and rent and sell machines in Vhe
samo way as In America, You can buy
all kinds of American cameras here, and
the American bicycle is to be seen every
where. So far no wagons to speak of have
been imported, but there is a good de
mand for parts of our carriages and wag
ons, and I think this field might be de
veloped. Pond of Shorr.
The Australian is fond of show. He likes
a good horse and a good buggy, and some
of the rubber-tired rigs which are now
being made in America might be sold
here at a profit.
One of the best pushers of American
trade In Australia is our Consul at Syd
ney, George "W. Bell. He is well ac
quainted with the markets and is doing
considerable good. He tells me that many
of our goods sold here are marked as
made in Germany and that some of the
importations come via London. This is
so of fencing wire, both barbed and
smooth, of which a vast deal Is used,
and also of sliver-plated ware, watches
and clocks.
In woolens, cottons and other cloths,
the supply comes chiefly from England
and the Continent There is no attempt
to push American goods of this kind, and
the low freight rates to Europe operate
against our importations. Still a trade
could be built up In American cottons,
and as soon as the trans-Isthmian canal
is completed, there will undoubtedly be
large shipments of calicos, shirtings and
denims.
American Corn for Australia.
One of the great markets of the future
for the corn of the Mississippi "Valley
will be in Australia. The country is sub
ject vto frequent drought and a5 such
times food for stock is an imperative ne
cessity. In Queensland I saw green oats
straw selling for $45 a ton, and I was told
that several shiploads of corn had been
imported from the Pacific states by that
state to feed its cattle and sheep. There
has been a great drought and the stock
has died by the thousands. One man who
had 18,000 sheep and nothing to feed
I soon had my first experience of a log
ging camp.
There were three camps near each oth
er, employing altogether about 200 men.
Inexperienced men are generally put at
work "swamping," at $1 75 per day, and
so I became a swamper. Our duties were
to make paths through the forest, by
which to reach the trees which had been
selected for felling; to cut down the un
derbrush, remove fallen trees, and level
up the road. We worked all day, In tho
mud and wet, walked a mile and a half
to the cookhouse for meals, and slept upon
hard boards, in the bunkhouse, at night
There are showers in those woods near
ly every day throughout the eight months'
rainy season. These one learns to take
as a matter of course, but when a hard,
drenching rain storm begins, the men are
laid off, without pay, while their board
goes on at $5 a week, so that about all
they can earn, during some weeks of the
Winter, is their board and clothing.
After the swampers have cleared the
paths of underbrush, come the skid-road
builders. The "barkers" first having
skinned the -bark from the felled trees,
the trunks are then placed lengthwise, to
formasort of trough on hillsides; or cross
wise. If on level ground. The latter are
called skid roads; the former chutes,
and down these chutes and over the skid
roads the other logs are dragged, by don
key engines, placed every 200 or 300 yards
apart. The "rigging" men put up the
rigging and adjust the cables, and every
thing is ready for business.
The "fallers" having chopped some
PHOTOGRAPHING
Experience teaches all birds to treat every
body as foes, until they have been proven
friends, but when the friendship of a
bird is gained, It may be very close.
When the tw0 little mites of the last
mentioned humming-bird nest were
hatched, the old birds became tamer than
ever, and fed daily from the proffered
dish of honey and water. The buds on
the bush that had surrounded the nest
during the period of Incubation had blos
somed out into full-blown roses, and one
large rose formed a beautiful red canopy
for the little family.
In the same strip of woods, where we
THE SUNDAY
T" ri r - - " " i T I
F ,4v 77-
AUSTRALIA'S
ONE , WA ARTESIAN' WELtS
- v. ir-. --'
them, paid $40 a ton for American corn.
He soaked It and then fed It, and as
a result saved his flock.
One who has not visited Australia can
have no idea of the need of food in time
of drought. "Within the past 10 years
millions of sheep have died of hunger
and vast numbers of thirst. This state
of New South "Wales had 62,000,000 sheep
In 1S91. It has not more than 41,000,000
now. "Within 10 years the number has
fallen off more than 20.-O00.000. Estimating
each sheep at $2 50, this means a loss of
$50,000,000 In the capital stock of the squat
ters in one state only. There have been
large losses In South Australia, Victoria
and Queensland. I am told that numbers
of sheep die almost every year, and that
the losses during the past 10 years have
been almost continuous.
The ditches are made with huge plows
constructed of logs in the form of a "V.
The end is shod with Iron, and a team of
eight or 10 oxen drags the plow along
the course desired for the stream. This
makes a broad furrow, forming the canal,
at which the stock can drink. There are
many canals of this kind from 15 to 20
miles long, and some even longer.
. "Where Hens Lay Boiled Egf?n.
Australia is the hottest country on rec
ord. I have ridden for miles astride the
equator, but I have never found heat to
compare with this. Out In the country In
the dry times there appears to be little
more than a sheet of brown paper between
you and the lower regions, and the peo
ple facetiously say that they have to feed
their hens cracked ice to keep them from
laying boiled eggs. The dry lands are
hotter than Sahara. Much of them Is des
ert, and the sun beats vertically down
upon the continent during the hottest part
of the year, three hours every day, in
traveling across it.
Australia is as long from one side to
the other as from New York to Salt Lake
City, and the greater part of it is covered
with granite sand. It has no cooling
winds to speak of, and the sand and rock
bottle up the heat and give it out again.
Captain Sturt, who crossed the Australian
desert some years ago, records that he
once hung his thermometer graduated to
127 degrees In the shade, and that the
mercury rose and broke the tube. The
temperature must have been at least 128
notches in a tree, in these notches
are placed the springboards, on which
the fallers stand while they work, usual
ly five or six feet above the ground. Hav
ing chopped into the tree about one-third
of the way, on the sido of which they
wish It to fall, they saw two-thirds of
the way through from the other side, and
a little above the chopping, so that it will
settle on the chopped side and fall over
that way. Then the fallers jump. Many
a man has been killed by not getting out
of the way of a broken tree top or branch
In time.
The "buckers" next saw up the tree
Into proper lengths, and the "sniper"
then rounds off the ends, so that the
trunks can be dragged along the skid
roads without catching in obstacles. Then
the "hook-tender" attaches the cable to
a log, and off it glides down the skid
road to the saw mill, or to the cars, to be
carried to and rolled Into Puget Sound
for rafting.
The skilled laborers In the logging camps
make good wages when the weather is
propitious, but when there is very bad
weather they are laid off. They must
have quite an outfit of blankets, gum
boots, slicker and rough clothing. Their
hospital dues, of $1 per month, poll tax
and other levies are deducted from their
wages.
The logger gets very little recreation.
He Is dead tired at night and seeks his
bunk at an early "hour, after smoking one
or two pipes of tobacco. He is bound
to be dirty. There is no place to take
have been studying the red-shafted flick
er, a Louisiana or crimson-headed tana,
ger has built its nest every year up
among the firs, and raised Its brood.
This Is. one- of the most beautiful native
birds of Oregon, its crimson head, yellow
breast and body, with black on the wings,
form a beautiful contrast of colors Tvhen
seen in the foliage of some dark green
fir tree. It Is almost aa ' brilliant as its
Eastern cousin, tho scarlet tanager, and
in its wild. Western home has become
much shyer.
The Louisiana tanager Is historically
interesting, because it was first discov
OREGONIAN, PORTLAND,
TfvJ
.JDottlSJreb
r 7
degrees in the open air outside, which is
said to be the highest temperature record
ed in any part of the world.
For three months during that trip the
temperature averaged over 101 degrees
Fahrenheit in the. shade, and the air was
so dry that Captain Sturt writes "that
every screw fell out of his boxes, his
combs split up into hairs, the lead dropped
out of his pencils, his hair ceased to grow
and his finger-nails became as brittle as
glass."
A Desert Continent.
Ihere Is no continent which has so much
dry land as Australia. It is a great dry
heart, with a few patches of green about
thq edges. On the east side facing the
Pacific is a long range of mountains,
roughly speaking running north and south,
and the most of the good, land lies be
tween those mountains and the sea. "West
of the mountains vast plateaus begin and
extend on and on, spotted here with low J
rocky ranges for more than 2000 miles.
The land fajls slightly as It goes toward
the west, but at the end it Is still 1000
feet high. It is 2000 feet high at the east,
and in the Australian Alps or the Eastern
range it rises to more than 7000 feet. There
Is a general slope toward the south In
some places- so great that the continent
falls to the level of the sea, but In others
it keeps an altitude of 500 and 600 feet,
ending in cliffs at that height, which
line the Australian Bight for hundreds
of miles.
All the rivers flow toward the coast. The
most of them are short and unnavigable.
There Is, In fact, only one big river sys
tem In the country that of the Murray,
which flows out the southeast end of Aus
tralia. The Murray is 1400 or 1500 miles
long. It has extensive branches something
like the Mississippi-Missouri, by which It
waters a vast basin, in which are some
of the best sheep farms of Australia.
Nearly all of its basin is taken up by
squatters. The greater part of It is
fenced, and In certain sections the lands
are worth as much as good farming lands
In the United States.
The Australian Lakes.
Australia has no fresh-water lakes to
speak of. Its biggest lakes are salt, and
there are very few of these. The most
of them He In South Australia, in what is
called the lake district, a region about 1000
a bath except Ice-cold creeks. His cloth
ing Is covered with mud, pitch and grease.
As one of them said to me, "We are clean
enough down underneath the dirt."
It is a life of hardship and hard work,
deprived, of all the comforts and pleasures
of a home, and when the logger gets to
town, which is usually about once a
month, after pay day, he is sometimes a
little wild in his recreation, and you can't
blame him very much.
As for myself, I managed to endure the
hard labor for three days, and then, a
hard storm coming up, we were laid off,
and I drew my pay. minus $2 50 for board,
and started afoot down through the woods
toward Aberdeen, a sawdust city on
Gray's Harbor. Thence 1 proceeded to
Ocosta, a village of vacant houses, any
one of which a person Is welcome to oc
cupy If he will keep the taxes paid up;
thence, by sailboat, to Westport, whoso
citizens are boring for oil, and where the
Government jetties are being built, and
thence along the magnificent beach of
the Pacific Ocean to Tunkland, on Willa
pa Harbor, where I took the boat for
South Bend.
From South Bend I walked 57 miles
through tho woods to Chehalls, working
a few days, here and there, in logging
camps, saw mills and lumber-yards, to
make my living expenses. In spite of the
hard labor of a sort to which I was en
tirely unused, sleeping In bunkhouses on
the rough boards, or sometimes on a pal
let of straw, I gained 25 pounds In two
months, and, of course, in muscle and en-
T
AjsZ- T
BIRDS AND THEIR
ered, and subsequently described, by
Lewis and Clark, In their expedition to
the Northwest Territory in 1805-6. It was
named Louisiana tanager, because of
the territory In which It was found, and
has no reference to the present limits
of Louisiana. Arriving from the South
about the first of May, the call of this
beautiful bird can be heard from that
time on, coming from the top of the tall
est fir, where It lives and finds Its food.
In the bark and among the leaves. It
seldom comes down near the ground, and
for this reason It is not often seen, except
through a field glas3. The female has
JULY 21', 1901.
JfeiBSi
miles long. At the bottom of this is
Lake Torrens. about 103 miles long, with
Lake Gardiner to the west of It. N6rth of
Lake Torrens Is Lake Eyre, which is
larger, and to the northwest Lake Ama
deus, which Is also of good size. All these
lakes are salt. They are surrounded by
flats of treacherous mud crusted with salt.
Some parts of them are dry for years at
a time, when a wet season will fill them
and cause grass to sprout up all about
them.
You need not go far In Australia to
hear, of the horrors of the drought. You
can easily meet a man who has lost a
fortune by dry weather. Men sometimes
go crazy on their stations far off In the
interior because the rain falls to come.
They have thousands of acres and tens
of thousands of sheep, and tHey have to
sit and watch the animals die before
their eyes, knowing they cannot feed
them. The droughts clear the land of
everything green. The pastures become as
bare as the roads and the sheep stagger
about, nosing In the dust for the seeds or
grasses and trees. Sometimes trees are
cut down to give them food. One man
who had 4000 acres of land kept 100 men
busy cutting off the branches of his apple,
oak and other trees to feed the sheep.
They eat the leaves and even the small
twigs. This same man had another force
skinning dead sheep and another whose
business It was to lift up fhe sheep when
they fell down and could not rise of their
own accord. This is to keep them from
the carrion crows, which hover about over
them and pick out their eyes if they fall.
Rabbits and Kangaroos.
During these droughts the rabbits die
as well as the sheep. They drop dead
outside the rabbit fences. You may see
kangaroos lying here and there dead upon
the plains, and I have been told that
even the birds drop dead from the trees.
The Rlvernia country Is one of the best
sheep-raising districts of Australia. It
produces some of the finest wool, and Is
noted for its excellent grass. In the
drought of 1S95 it looked as though a fire
had swept over It. The most of It was as
clean as a baseball ground. It could not
have been more bare If it had been
plowed. There was not a green sprout or
any sign of vegetable life to be seen.
Last year much the same condition pre
durance. After a hard day's work In the
woods or In a lumber-yard, one can sleep
anywhere, but the next morning he will
wake up stiff and lame as an old horse.
In my wanderings, I met a number of
wild animals. At one point, near Cos
mopolls, I came upon an old she bear
and her .cub, where they had come down
to a stream to drink. I didn't stop to
get acquainted, but they paid very little
attention to me, except that the mother
eyed me warily for fear that I might
have hostile intentions. I told some young
fellows in Cosmopolls about having seen
bears, and I am sorry to say that they
killed the mother and brought the cub and
Its mother's skin to Aberdeen the follow
ing day for sale. The cub was as cunning
as a puppy, and did not seem to realize
Its loss, or to fear its captors.
The animal that I had the most fear of
was the cougar, because they are sly and
treacherous, and spring on their prey un
awares from some tree or fallen log. They
grow In this region to a large size, and a
couple of times toward nightfall their
blood-curdling cries caused me to quicken
my footsteps to a ranch or near-by set
tlement. A little girl at Labam said that while
coming home from a neighbor's, about
dusk, a few evenings before, she had seen
a cougar in a tree by the side of the road.
She stopped, and the cougar started down
the tree; then she turned and ran toward
the house she had just quitted. She was
so frightened that she fell down twice,
but she reached the house safely, although
none of the beauty of the male, but Is
of a dull, yellowish color; she seems to
realize her lack of beauty, for she re
mains shy and quiet.
The song of the tanager is very often
heard during nesting time. At that sea
son tho male Is always found near the
nest, where he cheers and sings to his
mate from dawn till dark. It has a
song something like the robin, or black
headed song grosbeak, only it is shorter.
Out near the end of the limb of some
tall fir Is the typical nesting place of
the bird, and for this reason the nest
Is seldom found In a position which Is
vailed in parts of Queensland. There were
tracts covered with dead sheep, cattle
and horses, and dead emus and kangaroos
were lying here and there over the coun
try. This and other droughts have caused
a reduction in one district of 64 per cent
of the sheen and other districts even more.
It is said that the drought of 1S95 light-J
ened the wool clip almost 12 per cent, and
it decreased the lamb crop in New South
"Wales about 8,000.000 head.
Hundreds of Artesian Wells.
Within the past few years the govern
ments of Australia have been preparing
to resist these droughts. They have been
sinking artesian wells, making dams and
putting up waterworks. The droughts in
many parts of the country are such that
for nine months the sheep can feed on the
dry grasses If they can only get water,
and of late the water In many places has
come from artesian wells. The chief dan
ger has been in overstocking, so that the
sheep eat all the grass and, notwithstand
ing the drinking water, die of starvation.
There are in Queensland alone 350 ar
tesian wells and a number more are being
put down. Already more than $2,000,000
have been spent upon them. The average
depth of the wells is in the neighborhood
of 500 to 1000 feet. Some of tho wells are
very deep. There Is one at "Wlnton which
was sunk 4000 feet before it struck water,
and there are many down 3000 and more.
One well flows 5,000,000 gallons a day, an
other 4,000,000 and another 3,000.000. In
New South "Wales a large number of bores,
as they are called, have been sunk, and
several of them are flowing from 1,000,000
to 2,000,000 gallons a day.
A singular thing about the wells Is that
the water that comes from them is very
hot. As one of the squatters says, it is
hot enough to scald a dog, and, Indeed, a
dog that fell Into the stream of one of
them the other day was killed. The water
is slightly salt, and It contains some soda,
but the sheep drink and thrive upon It. It
cools, of course, as it runs off, being con
ducted in ditches and pipes over the pas
tures. Most of the land north and west of the
lakes is desert. If you will draw a line
across the continent from the lakes to
the mouth of the Victoria River you will
block off one 3f the biggest deserts of the
world. The desert block will be one-sixth
as big as the whole United States, and it
will contain no water and no vegetation
of any kind except thorny scrub and
thorny grasses. This is the case with
nearly all Western Australia, with the ex
ception of the settled portion at the south
west. Tho scrubs are peculiar to Australia.
They are a sort of dwarf eucalyptus trees,
or dwarf acacias. The most common are
the mallee scrubs and mulga scrubs. The
she was unable to tell the people for some
time what was the matter.
I also met a rancher with a badly lac
erated hand, which, he said had been torn
by a cougar. It seems he had gone out
in the evening to look for his cows, when,
hearing their bells in a patch of woods,
he had tied his horse and gone along the
path afoot to drive them out. Suddenly,
right In front of him, he saw a cougar
prepared to spring. Most fortunately for
the man, there happened to be a heavy
club lying alongside the path which he
quickly picked up, and as the cougar
sprang at him, he swung for its head
with the weapon. The animal, however,
did not get the full force of the blow,
the club striking close to the wielder's
hands, and permitting the cougar to rake
the man's right hand and arm with his
terrible claws. The blow, however, suf
ficed to knock It down, and before it
could recover, the man dealt It another
blow which killed It. This cougar was
about eight feet long.
Some lumber yards near the railroads
depend largely on the tramps that come
along, from day to day, for their help.
It is tho popular theory that tramps will
not work. This is a mistake. Many of
them will work for two or three days at
a time, and then trudge along, with a dol
lar or two In their, pockets for tobacco
and beer. Some days we would have 10
or 15 at mess, and the following day per
haps only two or three. Often they will
move if they hear there is better grub
at the next place, or 10 cents more wages
HOMES.
accessible to the photographer. Eighty
five feet from the ground In a fir tree is
not an easy place to take a picture, but
this was the site selected by the tana
ger we photographed. Fortunately, It
was not as far from the trunk of the
tree as the nests are sometimes placed.
We selected a day when there was no
wind and made the ascent easily, because
of the thick growth of branches clear up
to the nest. The limbs near the top of
the tree were not very strong, so, as
an additional safeguard, we used a couple
of strong ropes. lashed to the tree trunk.
By the aid of a small cord, the limb
mallee scrubs look like willow or reeds.
The bushes grow close together, so that
there are often 10 on a square foot of
ground. They grow twice as high as your
head without a branch, and as you look
over them you see nothing but a ma3
of dark brown bushes reaching on and on
for miles. Here and there roads and
paths are cut through them which look
like avenues or aisles.
They make the country gloomy in the
extreme, and, added to the dreary euca
lyptus trees, the vast deserts and the lack
of variety' in the scenery, have given it
the title of the "Never, Never Country,"
or the land of despair. The extent of the
mallee scrub is enormous. In South Aus
tralia there is an unbroken tract about
twice the size of the State of New York,
which is entirely covered with mallee, and
you will find It In all parts of Australia.
The mulga scrub is a sort of a thorn
bush. The bushes grow close together,
and they become matted so that it Is al
most impossible to make your way
through them.
Grasses and Trees.
Among other curiosities are the grasses.
There are trees here which grow grass
looking for all the world as If a great
stump had sprouted out in grass on all
sides and on the top.
The spinlfex or the porcupine grass is
one of the terrors of tho explorer. It
covers much of the sandy plains to such
an extent that It Is almost Impossible to
travel over them. It Is a hard, splny
grass, which grows In little hills from
one foot and a half to five feet in diam
eter. It Is always found In the dry coun
try, and Its mere existence Is an evidence
that there is no water near by.
Its blades are as sharp as a needle and
are very destructive to both horses and
men. The horses' feet are so cut that,
they sometimes have to be killed or are
left to die upon the desert.
But I could write much about the queer
vegetation of Australia. I see new trees
every day. and the queerest of all Is the
great bottle tree, which looks for all the
world like a gigantic champagne magnum
with leaves growing out of the cork. Ev
erywhere I go I see eucalyptus trees.
They are the dreariest forests that I
have ever traveled through. Many of
them have long thin leaves which hang
downward as though they were weeping.
They are always green and they shed
their bark Instead of their leaves. The
bark hangs down for all the world like
disheveled hair, making you think that all
nature has gone into mourning, and they
aro chief mutes at the funeral. Some of
them are very high, comparing with the
big trees of California. There was one
recently felled which measured 4S0 feet,
said to be the largest tree of the world.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.
per day. There are not many who fol
low the life of a tramp because they Hko
it. It Is often bad habits that put men
on the road. They drink or gamble, and
having lost their job and exhausted their
credit, aro compelled to move on to
strange scenes and amid new faces. Once
down, it is very hard for a man to re
cover his former standing. And don't for
get that there are many good men obliged
to take to the road, temporarily. I met
several who always paid their way when
they had money, and offered to work for
a meal, when they had none. And I firm
ly believe that a kind word and a hot cup
of tea would often save a man from de
spair and crime.
Living among this class for a, time, I
got quite an Insight into their lives, and
learned that a pipe of tobacco and a
glass of beer Is the only solace or pleasure
that many men In these United States
look forward to. They have long ago
given up all hope of ever having a home,
or being anything but a loafer or Idler.
On the other hand, there are many others
who look forward to finding employment
somewhere, with agreeable surroundings,
that they may settle down and become
good citizens again. Most men, In a
short time, become tired of tramping
about, footsore, weary, "busted." home
less, friendless, but the ranks of the great
army are constantly recruited from the
host of fools who don't know when they
have a good thing, and who, by their fol
lies, are forced out on the road.
H. N. DALE.
J
j&
that contained the nest was raised to a
position where the nest and 'eggs were
plainly visible from above. When all
was In readiness, the camera was hauled
up to the top of the tree with a rope.
Then came the problem of fastening It
In a suitable position to take a picture.
This was not very easy, when the slight
est slip was liable to send the photograph
er into perpetual retirement. By tying
the tripod to the limbs in different
places, and then passing a rope around
the top of the camera and lashing It to
fairly steady position.
WILLIAM L. FENLEY.
M
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