An Outback Marriage

Extract: CHAPTER I. IN THE CLUB. It was a summer's evening in Sydney, and the north-east wind that comes down from New Guinea and the tropical islands over leagues of warm sea, brought on its wings a heavy depressing moisture. In the streets people walked listlessly, perspired, mopped themselves, and abused their much-vaunted climate. Everyone who could manage it was out of town, either on the heights of Moss Vale or the Blue Mountains, escaping from the Inferno of Sydney. In the Cassowary Club, weary, pallid waiters brought iced drinks to such of the members as were condemned to spend the summer in town. The gong had sounded, and in ones and twos members shuffled out of the smoking-room, and went in to dinner. At last only three were left talking at the far end of the big, empty smoking-room, like three small stage conspirators at the end of a very large robbers' cavern. One was a short, fat, red-faced man, who looked like a combination of sea-captain and merchant, and who was the local representative of a big English steamship company. His connection with the mercantile marine had earned him his nickname of "The Bo'sun." By his side sat Pinnock, a lean and bilious-looking solicitor; the third man was an English globe-trotter, a colourless sort of person, of whom no one took any particular notice until they learnt that he was the eldest son of a big Scotch whisky manufacturer, and had £10,000 a year of his own. Then they suddenly discovered that he was a much smarter fellow than he looked. The three were evidently waiting for somebody. The "Bo'sun" had a grievance, and was relieving his mind by speech. He walked up and down between the smoking-room chairs, brandishing a telegram as he talked, while the attorney and the globe-trotter lay back on the lounge and admired his energy..... Andrew Barton Banjo Paterson (17 février 1864 - 5 février 1941) est considéré comme l'un des plus grands poètes et écrivains d'Australie. Comme Henry Lawson, il était correspondant du magazine The Bulletin. Il fut correspondant de guerre pendant la guerre des Boers, et en France pendant la Première Guerre mondiale. En 1890, il écrit The Man From Snowy River, le poème folklorique le plus populaire d'Australie. La poésie de Paterson est connue pour son romantisme et célébrer la vie des champs. En 1895, sur une mélodie autre que celle que nous connaissons actuellement, Banjo a écrit les paroles de Waltzing Matilda. Waltzing Mathilda est l'une des chansons folkloriques australiennes les plus connues, au point qu'elle a été proposée comme hymne national et est souvent considérée comme telle par les non-Australiens. En Australie, son statut d'hymne n'est pas officiel mais elle a de farouches partisans. Son effigie figure sur le billet de dix dollars australiens.