SOUTHERLY BUSTERS,

By G. H. Gibson (AKA Ironbark)

Illustrated By Alfred Clint

With Additional Illustrations by Montagu Scott.

Many of these Scraps were originally contributed by the Author to "The Town and Country Journal," "Sydney Punch," "The Illustrated Sydney News," and other Australian newspapers and magazines.

John Sands, Printer

1878

Original

Original

CONTENTS

NOTES.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

LINES BY A (PAWN)BROKEN-HEARTED YOUTH.

THE ANCIENT SHEPHERD

WHERE IS FREEDOM?

THE CATTLE MUSTER.

WHAT AN ECHO TOLD THE AUTHOR.

THE SHEPHERD'S VENGEANCE.

SOCIAL EVILS.

MORAL PHILOSOPHY FOR LITTLE FOLKS.

AN AMBITIOUS DREAM.

SUPERNATURAL REVELATIONS OF A FANCY-GOODS MAN,

CHRISTMAS.

"THE CATARACT." *

THE STOCKMAN'S GRAVE.

EPITAPH ON A CONVIVIAL SHEARER.

A CANDIDATE FOR AN EARLY GRAVE.

A PEELER'S APPEAL

THE OLD HAND.

THE BUTCHER'S PIC-NIC.

THE OYSTERMEN'S AND FISHMONGERS' PIC-NIC.

THE WHEELWRIGHTS' PIC-NIC.

THE UNDERTAKER'S PIC-NIC.

THE HAIRDRESSERS' PIC-NIC.

THE GREAT CRICKET MATCH.

NOTES.

a. "Billy," a tin pot for making tea in.

b. Young gentlemen getting their "colonial experience" in the bush are called "jackeroos" by the station-hands. The term is seldom heard except in the remote "back-blocks" of the interior.

c. It was formerly the practice of squatters to give a ration of flour, mutton, and, occasionally, tea and sugar, to all persons travelling ostensibly in search of work. The custom, however, as might have been expected, became frightfully abused by loafers, and has of late fallen into disuse, to the intense disgust of the tramping fraternity in general.

d. The Yanko is a noted sheep-station in the Murrumbidge district (the Paradise of loafers), where travellers were, and, I believe, still are, feasted at the expense of the owners, on a scale of great magnificence, and somewhat mistaken liberality.

e. The utterly refined and unsophisticated reader is informed that to "whip the cat" signifies, in nautical parlance, to weep or lament.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

I AM assured that something in the way of an apologetic preface is always expected from a "new-chum" author who has had the hardihood to jump his Pegasus over the paddock fence (so to speak), and drop, uninvited, into the field of letters; and so, having induced a publisher, in a moment of weakness, to bring me before the public, it behoves me to conciliate that long-suffering body by conforming to all established rules. I am aware that my excuse for inflicting this work on mankind is somewhat "thin" but, such as it is, I will proceed to state it, as a "plea in bar" against all active and offensive expressions of indignation on the part of outraged humanity.

Having "got me some ideas," as Mr