The Book Of The Bush - George Dunderdale (tharntype novel english .txt) 📗
- Author: George Dunderdale
Book online «The Book Of The Bush - George Dunderdale (tharntype novel english .txt) 📗». Author George Dunderdale
While The World Was Young, Nations Could Be Founded Peaceably. There
Was Plenty Of Unoccupied Country, And When Two Neighbouring
Patriarchs Found Their Flocks Were Becoming Too Numerous For The
Pasture, One Said To The Other: "Let There Be No Quarrel, I Pray,
Between Thee And Me; The Whole Earth Is Between Us, And The Land Is
Watered As The Garden Of Paradise. If Thou Wilt Go To The East, I
Will Go To The West; Or If Thou Wilt Go To The West, I Will Go To The
East." So They Parted In Peace.
But When The Human Flood Covered The Whole Earth, The Surplus
Population Was Disposed Of By War, Famine, Or Pestilence. Death Is
The Effectual Remedy For Over-Population. Heroes Arose Who Had No
Conscientious Scruples. They Skinned Their Natives Alive, Or
Crucified Them. They Were Then Adored As Demi-Gods, And Placed Among
The Stars.
Pious Aeneas Was The Pattern Of A Good Emigrant In The Early Times,
But With All His Piety He Did Some Things That Ought To Have Made His
Favouring Deities Blush, If Possible.
America, When Discovered For The Last Of Many Times, Was Assigned By
The Pope To The Spaniards And Portuguese. The Natives Were Not
Consulted; But They Were Not Exterminated; Their Descendants Occupy
Story 1 (Purging Out The Old Leaven.) Pg 2
The Land To The Present Day.
England Claimed A Share In The New Continent, And It Was Parcelled
Out To Merchant Adventurers By Royal Charter. The Adventures Of
These Merchants Were Various, But They Held On To The Land.
New England Was Given To The Puritans By No Earthly Potentate, Their
Title Came Direct From Heaven. Increase Mather Said: "The Lord God
Has Given Us For A Rightful Possession The Land Of The Heathen People
Amongst Whom We Dwell;" And Where Are The Heathen People Now?
Australia Was Not Given To Us Either By The Pope Or By The Lord. We
Took This Land, As We Have Taken Many Other Lands, For Our Own
Benefit, Without Asking Leave Of Either Heaven Or Earth. A
Continent, With Its Adjacent Islands, Was Practically Vacant,
Inhabited Only By That Unearthly Animal The Kangaroo, And By Black
Savages, Who Had Not Even Invented The Bow And Arrow, Never Built A
Hut Or Cultivated A Yard Of Land. Such People Could Show No Valid
Claim To Land Or Life, So We Confiscated Both. The British Islands
Were Infested With Criminals From The Earliest Times. Our Ancestors
Were All Pirates, And We Have Inherited From Them A Lurking Taint In
Our Blood, Which Is Continually Impelling Us To Steal Something Or
Kill Somebody. How To Get Rid Of This Taint Was A Problem Which Our
Statesmen Found It Difficult To Solve. In Times Of War They
Mitigated The Evil By Filling The Ranks Of Our Armies From The Gaols,
And Manning Our Navies By The Help Of The Press-Gang, But In Times Of
Peace The Scum Of Society Was Always Increasing.
At Last A Great Idea Arose In The Mind Of England. Little Was Known
Of New Holland, Except That It Was Large Enough To Harbour All The
Criminals Of Great Britain And The Rest Of The Population If
Necessary. Why Not Transport All Convicts, Separate The Chaff From
The Wheat, And Purge Out The Old Leaven? By Expelling All The
Wicked, England Would Become The Model Of Virtue To All Nations.
So The System Was Established. Old Ships Were Chartered And Filled
With The Contents Of The Gaols. If The Ships Were Not Quite
Seaworthy It Did Not Matter Much. The Voyage Was Sure To Be A
Success; The Passengers Might Never Reach Land, But In any Case They
Would Never Return. On The Vessels Conveying Male Convicts, Some
Soldiers And Officers Were Embarked To Keep Order And Put Down
Mutiny. Order Was Kept With The Lash, And Mutiny Was Put Down With
The Musket. On The Ships Conveying Women There Were No Soldiers, But
An Extra Half-Crew Was Engaged. These Men Were Called "Shilling-A-Month"
Men, Because They Had Agreed To Work For One Shilling A Month For The
Privilege Of Being Allowed To Remain In Sydney. If The Voyage Lasted
Twelve Months They Would Thus Have The Sum Of Twelve Shillings With
Which To Commence Making Their Fortunes In The Southern Hemisphere.
But The "Shilling-A-Month" Man, As A Matter Of Fact, Was Not Worth
One Cent The Day After He Landed, And He Had To Begin Life Once More
Barefoot, Like A New-Born Babe.
Story 1 (Purging Out The Old Leaven.) Pg 3
The Seamen'S Food On Board These Transports Was Bad And Scanty,
Consisting Of Live Biscuit, Salt Horse, Yankee Pork, And Scotch
Coffee. The Scotch Coffee Was Made By Steeping Burnt Biscuit In
Boiling Water To Make It Strong. The Convicts' Breakfast Consisted
Of Oatmeal Porridge, And The Hungry Seamen Used To Crowd Round The
Galley Every Morning To Steal Some Of It. It Would Be Impossible For
A Nation Ever To Become Virtuous And Rich If Its Seamen And Convicts
Were Reared In Luxury And Encouraged In Habits Of Extravagance.
When The Transport Cast Anchor In The Beautiful Harbour Of Port
Jackson, The Ship'S Blacksmith Was Called Out Of His Bunk At
Midnight. It Was His Duty To Rivet Chains On The Legs Of The
Second-Sentence Men--The Twice Convicted. They Had Been Told On
The Voyage That They Would Have An Island All To Themselves, Where
They Would Not Be Annoyed By The Contehey Not Only Gave His Speeches In Full, But They
Commented On Them Editorially, At Great Length, And With The Exception
Of The Brown Papers, Favorably. By The Time Enoch Was On His Way Home,
With But Two Weeks More Of Speech Making Before Him, It Looked As
Though The Thought Of War With Mexico Had Been Definitely Quashed. And
Enoch Was Tired To The Very Marrow Of His Bones.
But The Brown Papers Were Not Finished. One Evening, In arizona,
Shortly After The Train Had Pulled Out Of A Station, Enoch Asked For
The Newspapers That Had Been Brought Aboard From The Desert City.
Charley Abbott, Who Had Been With The Newspaper Men On The Observation
Platform For An Hour Or So, Answered The Secretary'S Request With A
Curiously Distraught Manner.
"I--That Is--Mr. Huntingdon, Jonas Says You Slept Worse Than Ever Last
Night. Why Not Save The Papers Till Morning And Try To Sleep Now?"
Enoch Looked At His Secretary Keenly. "Picked Up Some Brown Papers
Here, Eh! Nothing That Bunch Can Say Can Hurt Me, Old Man."
"Don'T You Ever Think It!" Exclaimed Charley Vehemently. "You Might As
Well Say You Were Immune To Rattler Bites, Mr. Huntingdon--" Here His
Voice Broke.
"Look Here, Abbott," Said Enoch, "If It'S Bad, I'Ve Got To Fight It,
Haven'T I?"
"But This Sort Of Thing, A Man--" Charley Suddenly Steadied Himself.
"Mr. Secretary, They'Ve Put Some Nasty Personal Lies About You In The
Paper. The Country At Large And All Of Us Who Know You, Scorn The Lies
As Much As They Do Brown. In a Day Or So, It We Ignore Them, The Stuff
Will Have Been Forgotten. I Beg Of You, Don'T Read Any Newspapers
Until I Tell You All'S Clear."
Enoch Smiled. "Why, My Dear Old Chap, I'Ve Weathered All Sorts Of Mud
Slinging!"
"But Never This Particular Brand," Insisted Charley.
Story 1 (Purging Out The Old Leaven.) Pg 4
"Let'S Have The Papers, Abbott. I'M Not Afraid Of Anything Brown Can
Say."
Charley Grimly Handed The Papers To The Secretary And Returned To The
Observation Platform.
A Reporter Had Seen Enoch In The Gambling House On The Evening Of
Diana'S Departure For The Canyon. He Had Learned Something From The
Gambling House Keeper Of The Secretary'S Several Trips There. The
Reporter Had Then, With Devilish Ingenuity, Followed Enoch Back To
Minetta Lane, Where He Had Found Luigi. Then Followed Eight Or Ten
Paragraphs In Luigi'S Own Words, Giving An Account Of Enoch And Enoch'S
Mother. The Whole Story Was Given With A Deadly Simplicity, That It
Seemed To The Secretary Must Carry Conviction With It.
As Enoch Had Told Abbott, He Had Weathered Much Political Mud Slinging,
But Even His Worst Political Enemies Had Spared Him This. His
Adherents Had Made Much Of The Fact That Enoch Was Slum Bred And Self
Made. That Was The Sort Of Story Which The Inherent Democracy Of
America Loved. But The Brown Account Made Of Enoch A Creature Of The
Underworld, Who Still Loved His Early Haunts And Returned To Them In
All Their Vileness. And In all The Years Of His Political Life, No
Newspaper But This Had Ever Mentioned Enoch'S Mother. The Tale Closed
With A Comment On The Fact That Enoch, Who Shunned All Women, Had Been
Seen Several Times In Washington Giving Marked Attention To Miss Diana
Allen. Diana And Her Work Were Fully Identified.
Enoch Read The Account To The Last Word, A Flush Of Agonizing
Humiliation Deepening On His Face As He Did So. When He Had Finished,
He Doubled The Paper Carefully, And Laid It On The Chair Next To His.
Then He Lighted A Cigarette And Sat With Folded Arms, Unseeing Eyes On
The Newspaper. When Jonas Came In an Hour Later, The Cigarette,
Unsmoked, Was Cold Between The Secretary'S Lips. With Trembling Hands,
The Colored Man Picked Up The Paper And With Unbelievable Venom
Gleaming In His Black Eyes, He Carried It To The Rear Door, Spat Upon
It And Flung It Out Into The Desert Night. Then He Returned To Enoch.
"Mr. Secretary," He Said Huskily, "Let Me Take Your Keys."
Mechanically Enoch Obeyed. Jonas Selected A Small Key From The Bunch
And, Opening A Large Leather Portfolio, He Tooected A SmWere Fitted Out In Sydney, And
It Was Found That Money Could Be Made By Oil And Whalebone As Well As
By Rum. Sealing Was Also Pursued In Small Vessels, Which Were Often
Lost, And Sealers Lie Buried In all The Islands Of The Southern Seas,
Many Of Them Having A Story To Tell, But No Story-Teller.
Whalers, Runaway Seamen, Shilling-A-Month Men, And Escaped Convicts
Were The Earliest Settlers In New Zealand, And Were The First To Make
Peaceful Intercourse With The Maoris Possible. They Built Themselves
Houses With Wooden Frames, Covered With Reeds And Rushes, Learned To
Converse In The Native Language, And Became Family Men. They Were
Most Of Them English And Americans, With
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