Biltong

“ If a man of this class happened to get hold of a small farm which had not been quite worked out, and was lucky enough also to have two or three good and fruitful seasons in succession, he did pretty well, and might make money if he was careful. His wheat paid his rent and found his family in bread, his barley and his hay kept his team of horses in good condition; so that after he had ploughed and sown his own few fields he was able to spend, perhaps six or seven months of the year, in carting sandalwood for the merchants at Perth at a very fair rate of payment. ”

“ As soon as a hot billet A is withdrawn by pushing it endwise out of the exit door B, the whole row is pushed forward by a set of mechanical pushers C, the billets sliding on the raised water-cooled pipes D, and, in the hotter part of the furnace, on the magnesite bricks E, on which iron slides easily when red-hot. A new cold billet is then charged at the upper end of the hearth, and the new cycle begins by pushing out through B a second billet, and so forth. To lessen the loss in shape of “crop ends,” and for general economy, these billets are in some cases 30 ft. ”

“ As for Bilston, where is the man heroic enough to sound its praises? Passengers by railway, passing through Bilston, see only deserted slag-heaps, cinder mounds, and a general area of desolation, but the road reveals Bilston in an added squalor of grimy houses and frowzy courts. The collieries and ironworks that created the town are things of the past, and their ruins only remain to tell of what it was a century ago. ”

“ The latter was a long low room, with a counter running through it. This, as also the shelves lining the walls, was covered with goods—blankets and rugs, canisters of coffee and sugar, brass wire and bangles and every species of native “track,” biscuit and paraffin tins. Strings of beads of every conceivable hue, overcoats, and flannel shirts, and moleskin trousers hung from pegs, and clusters of reims, or raw-hide thongs—for rope is but little used in South Africa—in fact, half a hundred varieties of the genus “notion” for supplying the needs of customers, native or white. ”

“ Bitaram on escaping collected all the herd boy’s cattle, and drove them home. When the raja and his sons returned, they found Bitaram with a large herd of cows and buffaloes. Going near, they enquired where he had got them. He replied, “At some distance below the spot where you threw me into the river, I found numerous herds of cattle, so I brought away as many as one person could drive. If you all go, you will be able to bring a very much larger number.” ”

“ The train roared away, unnoticed, and the station-master and the porter ran up to add their voices to the chorus. Somehow they were outside the station, gently propelled; and there was a great arch of gum leaves, with a huge WELCOME in red letters, and beneath it were the shire president and his councillors, and other weighty men, all with speeches ready. But the speeches did not come to much, for the shire president had lads himself who had gone to the war, and a lump came in his throat as he looked at the tall boys from Billabong, whom he had known as little children ”

“ In the vicinity are very productive mines of coal and ironstone, as well as sand of fine quality for casting, and grinding-stones for cutlers. Bilston contains numerous furnaces, forges, rolling and slitting mills for the preparation of iron, and a great variety of factories for japanned and painted goods, brass-work and heavy iron goods. Though retaining no relics of antiquity, the town is very ancient, appearing in Domesday. The parish church of St Leonard, dating as it stands mainly from 1827, is on the site of a building of the 13th century. ”

“ Bob had great plans for ploughing all his flats next year. Dairy cows pastured in the creek paddock near the house; beyond, Bob's beloved sheep were steadily engrossed in the fascinating pursuit of “turning into wool and mutton.” He never grew tired of watching the process.
The ever-present problem of labour, too, had solved itself pleasantly enough. Sarah, for many years housemaid at Billabong, had married a man on a farm near Cunjee, whose first attempt at renting a place for himself had been brought to an untimely end by the drought ”

“ The stockyards of an Australian station form a very important part of its working establishment. A big “run” may have several sets of yards to save the trouble of driving stock far on any direction; but the main yards are always near the homestead—sometimes, indeed, a great deal too near. The yards at Billabong, however, did not err in this respect, being planned in a secluded corner whence they opened upon two paddocks. A belt of dwarfed gum-trees surrounded and shaded them ”

“ Whilst Tippitt was enjoying his fourth pint that morning at The Green Lion, Bindle borrowed a large watering-can, which was handed up to him on the roof of the pantechnicon by a surprised barman. Bindle emptied the contents of one of the packets of lamp-black into the can, and started to stir it vigorously with a piece of twig he had picked up from the side of the Common. ”

“ Nasmyth looked up and Gordon laughed a soft laugh, while Wheeler waved his hand.
“Anyone can bid for timber rights,” he declared. “Now, our folks are open for any business, and we have got a mill. It’s not going to cost much to put a shingle-splitting plant in. We have easy water-carriage to the Inlet, where a schooner can load, and the Charters people would have to tow their raw material right along to their mill. Besides, that Inlet’s a blame awkward place to get a schooner in. ”

“ There was one hawker who came regularly to Billabong; a cheery old fellow, well known and respected, whose caste was not strict enough to prevent his refusing the station hospitality, and whose appearance was always welcome. He had been coming so long that he knew them all well, and took an almost affectionate interest in Jim and Norah, always bringing some little gift for the latter. The men liked him, for he had been known to "turn to" and work at a bush fire "as hearty as if he weren't a fat little image av a haythen," said Murty O'Toole ”

“ The millstones employed in grinding corn require to be made of a peculiar kind of stone. The greater proportion of our millstones are procured from a particular spot in Western Germany. At about ten miles from Coblentz is a small town called Andernach, the chief trade of which is in millstones, procured from the neighbouring quarries of Nieder Mendig. ”

“ This, as a matter of fact, was perfectly correct, for it is only at considerable peril to life and limb that saw-logs are driven down the rivers to a Western mill. They must be guided through each awkward pass and frothing rapid, and the men who undertake it spring with pike and peevie from one to another while the rolling trunks tumultuously charge on. ”

“ In these six days seemed to be concentrated all the amusement of the year, and the shepherds and labourers from the bush farms, who could probably count every human face that they had seen for a year past, crowded into the town by scores, too often to return penniless after having spent a twelvemonth's wages in the tap-rooms of Barladong. ”

“ It will be far better to get the ride over before the sun is very formidable. And if you'll take my advice, boys, you'll make those fellows have some practice before Thursday. You two should be in good form, but they scarcely ever touch a bat."
Jim and Wally approved of his advice, and each evening before the day of the match saw the Billabong contingent of the Cunjee eleven hard at work on a level stretch of ground close to the homestead; while Norah was generally to be found making herself useful in the outfield. ”

“ It must be a hard life. Yet if I thought I could pick up six stone of salmon and plaice and throw it about I should sign on at Billingsgate at once. It is true they start work about five; but they stop work, it seems, about ten, and they earn a pound and over for that. Then they can go home. Most of them, I imagine, are stockbrokers during the rest of the day.
And they are a refined and gentlemanly body of men. I hope the old legend that the fish-porter of Billingsgate expresses himself in terms too forcible for the ordinary man is now exploded ”

“ The mountain regions are rich in various minerals.
In the Island of Mindanao coal has been mined ever since Americans have been there.
This country will find out in a few years what is in the Philippines. I believe it is a rich country. Almost anything can be raised that is desired in the line of field and garden crops; fine timber is plentiful and saw mills are yet unknown. I don't believe there is a saw mill in the Island of Luzon. All sawed timber is imported that is used at present; not much is used in building as most of the houses are built of stone or bamboo. ”

“ I'll have a bigger one by and by, but in the meanwhile it includes the selling of timber in place of destroying it, and a doubling right off of the Somasco mill. It also takes in a gristmill, the recording of more timber rights, and most of you getting in on the ground floor of a new silver mine. There's to be an office down in Vancouver, and a desiccated fruit store, and the best men we can get hold of to run them. ”

“ In the first stanza Bulitaundúa is represented as talking to himself. Coming out of his house, and looking round, he finds that the usual “trade” breeze is blowing, and hopes it may prove just the breeze to help him over to the fair lady’s land. In the second stanza he is in his canoe, paddling away down the river, and singing, as he glides along, a song in which are mentioned the most prominent points of land as they come in sight ahead. ”

“ Planks and woodwork were plentiful everywhere in the new world, and iron and ironworkers at first equally scarce; so stocks soon were seen in every town, and the bilboes were disused, sold perhaps for old iron, wherein they again did good service. In Virginia the bilboes had a short term of use in the earliest years of the settlement; the Provost-marshal had a fee of ten shillings for “laying by the heels;” and he was [Pg 10] frequently employed; but there, also, stocks and pillory proved easier of construction and attainment. ”

“ Whilst the young are thus employed the old men consult together upon any affair that may be at the time in agitation; such as repairing a public building or making reprisals upon the cattle of a neighbouring people. The bimbangs are often given on occasions of business only, and, as they are apt to be productive of cabals, the Europeans require that they shall not be held without their knowledge and approbation. ”

“ The nights are very cool. Like Banka, Billiton is chiefly noted for its production of tin, the island forming the southern limit of the occurrence of this metal in this locality. There are upwards of 80 mines, which employ some 7500 workmen, and have produced more than 6500 tons of tin in a year. Iron is also worked. On the rocks along the coast are found tortoises, trepang and edible birds’ nests, which are articles of export. The forests supply wood of different kinds for boat-building, in which the inhabitants are expert ”

“ There was a flash of varnished wood that rose and fell, and twinkling metal, and I saw the driver sitting stiffly with hands, that were almost blackened, clenched on the lines, peering straight before him out of half-closed eyes, while the moisture that ran from his forehead washed copper-tinted channels through the grime. It was by an effort he held himself to his task; but that was nothing unusual, for the prairie does not yield up her riches lightly, and by the golden wake he left behind him the effort was justified. The earth had been fruitful that season, and harvest had not failed ”

“ One machine was near the trail, and Kit saw chaff and beaten straw fall like a yellow cataract from the elevator. Where the stuff came down sweating men piled bags of grain.
“A prairie wheat bin; the fellow means to hold his crop,” Austin remarked. “When I first knew the prairie the storekeeper took the lot and charged ten per cent, on the bill he carried over. He couldn’t take the farm, because another fellow held a mortgage. ”

“ The commodities which might be drawn from Manila are cordage, pitch and tar, linen cloth, rushes, rotin, indigo, rocon, achiote, and rice. The cotton is of the finest quality, and might be made an important article of exportation to China, where many cargoes of that commodity are sent from Surat, on which the gain is sometimes an hundred per cent. ”

“ But her hopes were rapidly put to flight, and the spirits of the Cunjee "barrackers" went down to zero as it became distressingly apparent that Mr. Billings and his partner were there to stay. Alike they treated the bowling with indifference, hitting the Billabong stockman with especial success—which soon demoralized Dave, who appealed to be taken off, and devoted his energies to short slip fielding. Here he had his revenge presently, for the second Mulgoa man hit a ball almost into his hands, and Dave clung to it as a drowning man to a straw—one wicket for thirty-five. ”

“ Swarms of the most curious surrounded Bidwell's hole in the ground, picking at the ore and flooding the air with shouts and questions till the old man in desperation ordered them off his premises and set up a notice:
[Pg 22] "Keep off this ground or meet trouble!"
To his friends he explained, "Every piece of rock they carry off is worth so much money."
"Ye've enough here to buy the warrld, mon," protested Angus Craig, an old miner from the north.
"I don't know whether I have or not," said Bidwell. "It may be just a little spatter of gold." ”