The following day Somers felt savage with himself again. “Fool that I
am, fool!” he said, mentally kicking himself. And he looked at the big
pink spread of his Sydney _Bulletin_ viciously. The _Bulletin_ was the
only periodical in the world that really amused him. The horrible
stuffiness of English newspapers he could not stand: they had the same
effect on him as fish-balls in a restaurant, loathsome stuffy fare.
English magazines were too piffling, too imbecile. But the “Bully,” even
if it was made up all of bits, and had neither head nor tail nor feet
nor wings, was still a lively creature. He liked its straightforwardness
and the kick in some of its tantrums. It beat no solemn drums. It had no
deadly earnestness. It was just stoical, and spitefully humorous. Yes,
at the moment he liked the _Bulletin_ better than any paper he knew,
though even the _Bulletin_ tried a dowdy bit of swagger sometimes,
especially on the pink page. But then the pink page was just “literary,”
and who cares?
Who cares, anyhow? Perhaps a bit sad, after all. But more fool you for
being sad.
So he rushed to read the “bits.” They would make Bishop Latimer forget
himself and his martyrdom at the stake.
“1085: The casual Digger of war-days has carried it into civvies.
Sighted one of the original Tenth at the Outer Harbour (Adelaide) wharf
last week fishing. His sinker was his 1914 Star.”
Yes, couldn’t Somers just see that forlorn Outer Harbour at Adelaide,
and the digger, like some rag of sea-weed dripping over the edge of the
wharf, fishing, and using his medal for a weight?
“Wilfrido: A recent advertisement for the Wellington (New Zealand) Art
Gallery attracted 72 applicants. Among them were two solicitors (one an
Oxford M.A.); five sheep-farmers, on whose lands the mortgagee had
foreclosed; and a multitude of clerks. The post is not exactly a
sinecure, either: it demands attendance on seven days a week at £150
p.a.”
Then a little cartoon of Ivan, the Russian workman, going for a
tram-drive, and taking huge bundles of money with him, sackfuls of
roubles, to pay the fare. The “Bully” was sardonic about Bolshevism.
“Ned Kelly: Hearing the deuce of a racket in the abo (aborigines) camp
near our place, we strolled over to see what was wrong, and saw a young
Binghi giving his gin a father of a hiding for making eyes at another
buck. Every respectable Binghi has the right to wallop his missis, but
this one laid it on so much that he knocked her senseless. This enraged
her relatives, and they went for him _en masse_, while two or three gins
applied restoratives to the battered wife. She soon came round, and,
seeing how things were, grabbed a waddy and went to the assistance of
her lord and master. In the end the twain routed the phalanxed
relations. Same old woman, whatever her line!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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