CHAPTER VII. BOGGABRIAN "LIFE."

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1866, 21 June 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHAPTER VII. BOGGABRIAN "LIFE."

From calm to storm— Boggftbri — Parting — Apostrophe by the wise juthor — Sharks. The change from the quietude of the sea, •where the only sounds are those of wind, wave, and engine — mostly the latter — to the rush, and roar, and rattle of a great city, must have struok every one. Sydney is eminently a city of noise, owing to business being concentrated, in very narrow streets, on the peninsula between the two bays of Sydney Cove (Circular Qaay) and Darling Harbor. The rattling and the shrieks of the tramcars, the whistling and the screeches of the " puffers " calling f or passengers, the tramp, tramp of many feet, all created a deafening, discordant noise, very different from the noble sounds of the ocean, even to the panting of our steamer. Yet there was undoubtedly a feeling of pleasure in once more having reached terrajiTiM, where one could'_have the comforts of civilisation. And there was the inevitable combat with the hansom cabman to sharpen one's wits, and to remind us we had returned to the world and all its wickedness. No person could dislike Boggabri, even though to be in his company was to be forced to take more champagne than was good. He was a fair specimen of the young back-block squatter, who spends three years on the dreary plains of the west, and then goes in for a wild .carnival of six months in Sydney and Melbourne, during which he is the chosen victim of the many beasts and birds of prey that exist in these cities. Boggabri knew he had been swindled, and fleeced, and co forth, but he did not care ; he had had what he thought a " fine time," and did not care for the expense. Why need he, when his people shore 250,000 sheep each year, and owned land enough to make a European kingdom. His only lamentation vras that he was still in leading strings, and could not spend a couple of years in New York, London, and Paris, that Parigi o cara, which is the - darling dream of the wealthy youth in America and Australia. No ascetic, Boggabri. And yet after some years of alternating, vegetating, and wild life, he will marry, settle down, and become one of the lights of the l&nd. Young Australians generally sow their wild oats before thirty, not , like an English lord recently married, oi whom it was said he had now sown his wild '.oats, and would settle down. He should, fot he was sixty -five 1 The parting of shipmates, especially on : short voyages, is the easiest in the world. It

is remarkab&how the sight of land dissolves all the ifoifritflit&nces we hate formed. We \ rusty have b«corfle fast friends with & person, and bar* been *xohanging the confidences of a life, bat the moment our destination is reached, when the steamer touches the wharf, all is dissolved like^roagic, and everyone rushes tp^oolyifter his luggage. Not even a., 11 good-Uyo "ifl|* said. Even "" spoons " part without mucTi<cer.emony, it being understood that when on'shqro there will be no recognition, unless theio.is an introduction. In fact of all evanescenijiriendohips those formed on sea ate the most fleet ing. '— , Boggabri, however, was too young and? freehearted to part coldly with the^ 41 following " that had preyed opon him since lw had stepped on board, for loafers and birds of ptey scent out vi6tims with unerring instinct. I don't know how much money Biggabri had spent in champagne on the voyage, 6t lost at " nap," bat it mast have been very considerable. For all that he was as ready as ever to bleed at the ckme. Cochon and his companibns, and the " talent," in fact all who coald take their eyes off the dream panorama of the harbor, were bad down to the saloon to imbibe champagne, and soon "Hip, hip, hurrah," and " For he's a jolly good fellow," sainted the ears of those on deck who refused to bo wheedled down. Surely, as old Batler says, " The pleasure is as great of being cheated as to oheat," or we would not have such exhibitions as this. How often do we see, aye, daily, young fools and old fools, too, throwing away their money in treating mfcn and women who do not care a farthing for them, who laugh at them in their sleeves ? The wild young spark who thinks he makes himself popular, and earns the title. of a " jolly good fellow," a " real gentleman," by treating swindlers, demireps, bullies, and Buch cattle; the vain man who gives dinners ; the vain woman who gives parties ; all come within the category of what I call " shouting idiots." When health, when money, when reputation are gone, ah I where will ;be the men who shouted "hurrah," and sang " For he's a jolly good fellow," and the women, the Mademoiselles Marco, who smiled so sweetly? Elsewhere, attending other fools. They don't linger about squeezed orahgea. Thi3 apostrope is not new; the oldest writers have'; written as I do ; ea6h generation repeats the folly. Ovid, in his Pontic Epistles and elsewhere, speaks on this topic, and Plautus and others are equally strong. But what boots all this ? The eternal serpent, Time, repeats itself ; each generation will have its own experience, will taste the cup to the dregs, will not believe what other generations have said, but must prove it themselves, and to their sorrow. I was in too great a hurry to arrange my own affairs to see what became of Boggabri and his barnacles. However, that evening T met him at the theatre, where our shipmates, Oochon, Feuillemort, Vaurien, and their comrades, appeared in opera. I have purposely followed Boggabri, because I think he so especially illustrates a peculiar phase of Australian life, whioh is hot without value to his compeers, that it cannot be left out of this strange sketch of a journey. Boggabri was in company of three or four young fellows of his own age, fine stalwart youths, whose bronxed faces showed they, too, were of the back blocks. When I came out between the acts I encountered the quartette, and Boggabri insisted I should join them. They were tired of the opera ; they had all seen it better elsewhere, and they intended to " see life." I knew pretty welt what this meant, for in my time had I not done the same ? That I now looked upon this " life" as inane and insane, as the folly of youth, woald not prevent me from going with them to ccc how the new generation repeated the follies of the old. As for the youths, they had evidently gone from champagne to champagne until they were too heated to pay attention to the shrieks of Misa Sqnillhigh, the grunt* of Cochon and the piping of Vaurien and Feuillemort. Fishermen are always able to tell where there is a shoal of fish on the sea by the appearance of birds of prey, whioh hover round, darting into the water occasionally and seizing a victim. The experienced man can just as easily tell where a lot of young spendthrifts are by the presence of ft white faced, hook-nosed crow, apparently bent on other matters, but really intent upon the gudgeons. The birds of prey differ in genus according to the victim. The humble magsman haunts the doors of the low hotel in wait for the drunken bushman. The "talent flies at higher game, and in a " gentlemanly " way. It did not, therefore, surprise me to find that persons of unmiatakeable " talent " features were hanging around promiscuously in the vicinity of Boggabri and his friends. Where the carcase is thera will the eagles be gathered together. 41 Seeing lifo " in Sydney presents no differences to the doing the same silly thing in other large centres. Like nearly all 11 pleasures " it is monotonous, and, except to the inexperienced, and to those who '• stimulate^' themselves, utterly wearisome and senseless. Perhapg there is the difference, that Sydney lays itself out to help on the novice by a number of private bars in each hotel, so that the foolish are able to have their fling without the general public having a look at them. The recipe to allure the thoughtless is simple. A private bar, a bald, 14 taking " barmaid, dressed up in the " style that kills, and armed with smiles and nods and winks and small talk that take each " masher " as the Americans call them, captive, and leads every young fool to think he is Mr. Eight. Given this, and night after night the progress of destruction goes on. With persons like Boggabri and hia friends, the danger is not great, for they have only a certain time for their spree and have to keep away from the metropolis for years, hunting kangaroos and looking after sheep and cattle. But in the case of young fellows residing in the city, it is very different. In the various private baro I visited with Boggabri, I met numbers of young men in the Civil Service, the banks, and the mercantile institutions who were " going the pace." It had told upon their faces, on which was that fatal imprint that foretold an early degradation, a fearful doom. The suicide's grave or the courts generally close the story. And this is "life." No wonder Satan laughs. Yes, all is bright, glittering and alluring. Musio, lovely forms, splendid rooms, perfumes, wines, make the scene seem fairyland —to some. Bat when the light of the day creeps in upon the pallid gambler and seer of " life," when the feverish brow is kissed by the cool, merciful air of morning, if consciousness is still retained— ah 1 then, young man, what do you think of it ? Vanity of vanities, worse than vanity. Well will it be if, in desperation, you do not fling yourself again into the abyss, from which one day, not far distant, you will never rise. In contrast to these scenes of " life " how pleasant was the next evening I spent in Sydney, at the cottage of a young friend of mine at Burwood. A pretty little place it was, with a garden the work of the young pair's own hands. A couple of laughing children made music in the house, over which there was an indescribable air of peace, virtue, content and happiness. It was as if I had left the humid, tropical valley, with its poisoned air, and ascended to the cool mountain regions, where ! there' now awaited me health and happiness. Young man, which of the pictures will you choose ? (To be Continued.)

The sudden discovery that hundreds of dressmakers travel constantly between New York ! and Europe, and smuggle, on an average, ! from three to six thousand dollars apiece in their trunks, on their return voyage, has set the custom house office in a whirl. The women have been arrested on all sides, and immense amounts of finery seized from every incoming steamer. Fifty thousand dollars' worth of laces and silks were seized one day. The prices have gone up in the 'millinery trade, and the secret of the low prices, which some of the dressmakers advertise, has come out. The duty on many of their 'goods is sixty por cent., at which rate, it can easily be seen, smuggling pays enoimqusly. -