The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 19, 1901, Page 10

10 HEN we epeak of an American we don’t really mean an Ameri- cen at all. We have no refer- ence to the man who wears feathers instead of letting his wife do so, and who prefers nuts and roots to pate ée fole gras. Just o when we speak of an Australian wé do not mean a bushman. We mean the white stranger within the Austr: gates, the man who has claimed another’s inheritance. Upon the same principle, a *New Zealander” while the na- tibe of New Zealand must be called a orl. When you want to talk about the bgna fide Australian native, call him an *“abor He very likely will swer to the name, but that do. ter parti y. It is often plez have an Austral native not Say “black fellow,” though, shot of hi cerned. In the colloquialism of the “Aus- tralian,” he is always a “black fellow.” The aboriginals, then, or “black fellows" ©f Australia represent one of the lowest types of the inferior human races. They are of unprepo J pearance, their bodies being very thin; their legs straight end almost without calves. This general leanness is probably due to their food which is chiefly animal, the principal ftems of their diet belng marsupials , birds, es, lizards, cr. and eggs of birds or reptiles. g i more delicious to an e than a fine kangaroo s It is the favorite grille of ngaroo flesh is a trifle coarse e white men s white, answer. within ear- and he knows that he is con- according ver have less art may be because thelr chefs with kangaroos than the black chefs of the interior Some of the wilder tribes regard human fiesh, and par ly that of a fat China- man, 38 very g ting. The men pro- cure the animal food, and the women dig for edible roots and rch for mush- rooms, grass seeds, hc sweet resin and the manna ¢ trees. It is sometimes made them if they are slow Mushrooms are often scarce, almost impossible to find in some districts. 8o upon such occasions & wife serves the choicest possible roast of lizard to begin with and then apolegeti- cally expl At there is no dessert The seque pends upon what kind of man the husband is. The chances are that he is p e in his ideas of domes- tic discipl The A nanas, nt nuor- ian race » white m ar and flour, they are less some of them become even fat. roly-poly old fellow often waddles to the western mines and asks for ‘Su-gar,” he can say, very distinctly it he takes his own time. ** one of the miners the way he eats it. Scoops d licks it up like a ything he has in the s he came im I had only a little 1 I needed myself. He matting for it, bidding sal. Finally he went ght he had given up. But back h his wife. and sulky and I didn't ntil he offered her pound of sugar.” s are inferfor to white make up for lack Thetr height is al- it up in horse. He'd world for for it a left, no offered spea aborigl 1 in streng rength by NEW SoUTH ' i Ot ey v thickly on both sexes. The men have long beards, covering cheeks, chin and lips, and also a good deal of hair all over their bodies, especially ‘on the legs. Their hair is rather wavy and tends to fall into curls. Their skulls are very strong, but have only a small Interfor capacity. The brows and jaws are often exceedingly prominent. The sides of the nose are broad and flat and the nostrils are wide. The cheekbones are broad and the mouth large with full but not protuberant lips. The forehead is rather low and in many instances of a retreating character. The expression of the face is so characteristic that it is almost always easy to recognize an Australian aboriginal if one is famil- eve- far wi the type All over the continent the bodily and mental qualities and the intelligence are so uniform as to make it certain that the race had a common origin and been almost completely isolated from oth- er branches of the human family for a very long period. A= ZORIGINALY AUSTRALIAN WALES _~T= most uniformly five feet five inches, few exceeding or falling below this stature. Their skin is blackish brown, sometimes light brown individuals are seen. Their hair is black and grows very In culture the Australlan aboriginals stand about on the level of the Europeans of the stone age. They do not know how to treat or use metals, though, of course, when they live near white men they get kmves and hatchets from them. Ioven so, they have been seen to eat with their knives and to cut food with their hatcliets. No wonder Big Jim at the mine refused to\give them any more of these utensils. He said it was encouraging bad table manners. ‘Leave them alone with their stone spoons and they behave well enough; give them our articles and they behave no better than Courthouse Jack, the fellow that Norah wouldn’'t marry after she’d seen him at dinner.” thelr handiwork, and when found is of & THE SUNDAY OCALL, All the weapons and tools of the na~ tives' own manufacture Are of wooll, stone, shell fiber or sinews; and even in the use of such materials as are known to them they are backward and crude. Their stone axes are roughly hewn and have no smooth polish like those of the Polyneslans. Thelr wooden olubs are clumny, thelr shields ugly and their mat- |ting roughly woven, Decoration {s almost entirely lacking on A BLACKTT ACKER..% i i By e il childish character.. Their weapons are spear, club and shield, which are handled with wondertul dexterity, The spear is generally hurled by means of a throwing stick called a wimmera. A Weapon pecu- lar to the Australian aboriginal s the boomerang—a flat stick of crooked wood more or less bent. "This is an original in- vention of the Australfan native, and has the peculiar quality of flylng very far and very high and in some cases of return- ing to the thrower. Though the Australian nattve is of in- ferior intelligence, he is remarkably ex- pert in all matters pertaining to the hunt, having very keen power of chesrvation and a faculty of drawing conclusions & to the whereabouls of game from the wmallest signs. In most dlstriots game s #0 abundant that every man can prooure As much meat as he desires for himself and his family without overmuch trouble. The game oconalsts of kangaroos, amus and smaller creatures, such as kangaroo rats, bandicoots and opossums, For flsh- ing the men use hand nets and fish spears, or they shut off an arm of & bay or river by wi But though marvelously expert hunters they are almost utterly ineapable of ocal« eulating. Tome of them know only the numbess & to & Though thoy can tell & AUSTRALIAMN ABORIGINE S AFTER A KANGAROO simple lle easily enough and are by 70 means averse to cheating they cannot invent any elaborate untruth or tell a tale, as they are almost devold of im: ination. A man who comes home late sel- dom risks telling his wife that a kangaroo hunt detained him, for he has learned by sad experfence that it is ten to one he will let out something next day about how many spearheads he won. They iive in bark huts of the rudest description and do not form villages or towns. Their possessions consist of a few simple tgols and weapons, such as are easily carried about. Now and then they work for white men as station hands or after & thelr em ployment and take to their nomadio life again. The aboriginal man is ocalled by white men a ‘black fellow” and the women are named “gins” or “lubras’ A child is ealled a “plokanniny.” To turn for & moment to the white men of Australin. A very familiar sight In the country districts or “back blocks™ i the “swagsman''—a white man, who wanders from station to station oarrying his wag,” conuisting of blankets and & tin “billy* with him. Occasionally he does & fow days’ work in busy times, but gen- erally he rellos on the kindness of the sta- tion owners or their overseers to furnish him with a little flour and tea and & placs to Ue down. The Austrelian term for : : § g "PICKANINNY.. - The “boundary rider” i & man em- ployed to ride round a cattle station ov some portion of it, #o as to keep the cat- tle within bounds. The saddle used by the “boundary rider” {s made on an English model, except that It 1a provided with large kneepads to assist the rider In keop- tng his seat on & “buck jumoer” The shanty in which the station hand lives s bullt of rough ple of split timber of the sum tres, walls, roofs and chimney being all made of the same materfal. The fireplace 18 made of rough stones The station hand recelves nis tea, sugar, flour and other necessities at intervals from the head station. His is a hard, solitarv, monotonous lifs, yet many men becoms much attached to the freedom of exist- ence in “the bush’ and feel lost and con- fused when they visit a eity. You sfe, there are some peopls, after all, whom Tennyson has not yet ?zmvumd upon the cycle of Cathay question. The Professional Best Man Is Very Useful. —_— that the sentimental side of & wed- ding is exclusively the concern of the women Interested in it. The romance and poetry of the occasion are represented by the fluttering pink and white bridesmaids, the stately mald of honer and the radiant bride herself, ‘while the black coated ushers and the best man are merely supernumeraries who attend ts such prosalc details as finding seats for the spectators and providing a back- ground for the bridal pieture As for the groom, he iz an ndispensable adjunct, but there is nothing picturesque about him. He represents the worldly, matter-of-fact element as opposed to ths feminine and romantic side of the busi- ness. The men in a marriage ceremony look like a lot of busy, work-a-day beetles hovering abolit a bunch of interesting ap- ple blossoms. But in spite of this appearance of things, men are not untouched by senti- .hlm at such times. Tt goes without say- ing that they won't admit it. The most hardened and experienced usher will tell you that he hears the ‘““Wedding March™ with less emotion than is provoked by “Johnny, Fill Up the Bowl" He will say that when he sees a tearful little bride his only feeling is a charitable hope that she won’t cry hersgif into a red nose for the reception. It is nevertheless true that the masculine heart usually gives a further quiver at “The Voice That Breathed O’er Eden,” and that a lump has been known to come into the masculine throat at the happy confidence of the bride's “I will."™ You see, such things mean a lot, after all, to the most worldly of us. Between the bridegroom and his best man is often a more genuine bond of feel- ing than thete is between the bride and her chief attendant. It is popularly sup- Fosed to consist principally of sympathy, but this isn't altogether a correct hypoth- esls. When a prospective bridegroom looks among his unmarried friends for a “best man,” the usual formula with which his request is made is an ap 0 “see me through.” I dare say that those are the exact words in four cases out of five, and they express exactly the nature of the service which is asked for. In every semke the best man sees the bridegroom through when the latter, be- ing distracted by joy or otherwise, can't see himself through anything whatever. The bridegroom needs moral support,.as ‘well as practical assistance in finding the ring and catching the train. He wants a man to lean on. He wants somebody to “gzee him through,” and it is no empty phrase that such a personage is denomin- ated the ‘“‘best man.” Now it by no means follows that the best man is also the bridegroom’s best friend. His best friend may not have the qualities which go to the making of a best man. He may be excitable and an easy victim of ‘“the rattles.” He may be of the careless kind, that cheerfully shirks responsibility. However good a friend he may be, it is possible that he may also be a broken reed at the eris in the chancel and during the delicate ar- rangements before and after. For if you think that all a best man has to do i{s to stand beside the groom and tell him to keep his shoulders bacik and straighten his necktle you are very much mistaken. In the first place, he must see to it that the bridegroom is well up in what may not irreverently be cailed the stage busi- ness of the ceremony. He is ltke the prompter in the wings: Iif he falls at the critical time the whole performance may be ruined.. He must know the exact times for kneeling and risiag 2nd turiing, he should be able to repeat the marriage ser- vice backward, and, indeed, it Is recorded that In the course of a certain large and very swell wedding m Boston the best man, clcse at the bridegroom’s back, ac- tually himself declaimed the responses which hig/principal should have mada, that gentleman being so overcome as to be temporarily beref The best man must be certaln that the groom has proverly attended to the fesihg of the clergyman. At the ushers’ dinner he Is the master of ceremonies—this of itself 18 no small undertaking. He must se that the bridegroom, during the hours immediately preceding the ceremony, s pEOPLm are socustomed to think of speech. unvexed and antroubled by disturbing cares, and that his tollet for the great event is performed with precision and composure. He ‘must bring him to the church in a calm and collected state of mind and an unruffled and immaculate costume. And from that time until he hands him into the carriage beside the bride he must watch him as a falthful second watches a prize-fighter in the ring. Any sign of weakness, any symptom, such as a twftching knee or & wavering eye, must be noted at once and remedied with dls. patch and determination, The responsibllities of the best man do not end with the actual ceremony, If there is a reception he has to see that his newly married friend does the proper things at the prgoer times, and that he behaves like a rutional being. The best man is usually charged with the raflway tickets for the first stage of the bridal Journey; it is his duty to set the happy pair aboard of the right train and to at- tend to the checking of their Iuggage.