It is easier to stay out than get out.
—Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar.
The train was now exploring a beautiful hill country, and went twisting in and out through lovely little green valleys. There were several varieties of gum trees; among them many giants. Some of them were bodied and barked like the sycamore; some were of fantastic aspect, and reminded one of the quaint1 apple trees in Japanese pictures. And there was one peculiarly beautiful tree whose name and breed I did not know. The foliage2 seemed to consist of big bunches of pine-spines, the lower half of each bunch a rich brown or old-gold color, the upper half a most vivid and strenuous3 and shouting green. The effect was altogether bewitching. The tree was apparently4 rare. I should say that the first and last samples of it seen by us were not more than half an hour apart. There was another tree of striking aspect, a kind of pine, we were told. Its foliage was as fine as hair, apparently, and its mass sphered itself above the naked straight stem like an explosion of misty5 smoke. It was not a sociable6 sort; it did not gather in groups or couples, but each individual stood far away from its nearest neighbor. It scattered7 itself in this spacious8 and exclusive fashion about the slopes of swelling9 grassy10 great knolls11, and stood in the full flood of the wonderful sunshine; and as far as you could see the tree itself you could also see the ink-black blot12 of its shadow on the shining green carpet at its feet.
On some part of this railway journey we saw gorse and broom—importations from England—and a gentleman who came into our compartment13 on a visit tried to tell me which—was which; but as he didn’t know, he had difficulty. He said he was ashamed of his ignorance, but that he had never been confronted with the question before during the fifty years and more that he had spent in Australia, and so he had never happened to get interested in the matter. But there was no need to be ashamed. The most of us have his defect. We take a natural interest in novelties, but it is against nature to take an interest in familiar things. The gorse and the broom were a fine accent in the landscape. Here and there they burst out in sudden conflagrations14 of vivid yellow against a background of sober or sombre color, with a so startling effect as to make a body catch his breath with the happy surprise of it. And then there was the wattle, a native bush or tree, an inspiring cloud of sumptuous15 yellow bloom. It is a favorite with the Australians, and has a fine fragrance16, a quality usually wanting in Australian blossoms.
The gentleman who enriched me with the poverty of his information about the gorse and the broom told me that he came out from England a youth of twenty and entered the Province of South Australia with thirty-six shillings in his pocket—an adventurer without trade, profession, or friends, but with a clearly-defined purpose in his head: he would stay until he was worth L200, then go back home. He would allow himself five years for the accumulation of this fortune.
“That was more than fifty years ago,” said he. “And here I am, yet.”
As he went out at the door he met a friend, and turned and introduced him to me, and the friend and I had a talk and a smoke. I spoke17 of the previous conversation and said there was something very pathetic about this half century of exile, and that I wished the L200 scheme had succeeded.
“With him? Oh, it did. It’s not so sad a case. He is modest, and he left out some of the particulars. The lad reached South Australia just in time to help discover the Burra-Burra copper18 mines. They turned out L700,000 in the first three years. Up to now they have yielded L20,000,000. He has had his share. Before that boy had been in the country two years he could have gone home and bought a village; he could go now and buy a city, I think. No, there is nothing very pathetic about his case. He and his copper arrived at just a handy time to save South Australia. It had got mashed19 pretty flat under the collapse20 of a land boom a while before.” There it is again; picturesque21 history—Australia’s specialty22. In 1829 South Australia hadn’t a white man in it. In 1836 the British Parliament erected23 it—still a solitude24—into a Province, and gave it a governor and other governmental machinery25. Speculators took hold, now, and inaugurated a vast land scheme, and invited immigration, encouraging it with lurid26 promises of sudden wealth. It was well worked in London; and bishops27, statesmen, and all sorts of people made a rush for the land company’s shares. Immigrants soon began to pour into the region of Adelaide and select town lots and farms in the sand and the mangrove28 swamps by the sea. The crowds continued to come, prices of land rose high, then higher and still higher, everybody was prosperous and happy, the boom swelled30 into gigantic proportions. A village of sheet iron huts and clapboard sheds sprang up in the sand, and in these wigwams fashion made display; richly-dressed ladies played on costly31 pianos, London swells32 in evening dress and patent-leather boots were abundant, and this fine society drank champagne33, and in other ways conducted itself in this capital of humble34 sheds as it had been accustomed to do in the aristocratic quarters of the metropolis35 of the world. The provincial36 government put up expensive buildings for its own use, and a palace with gardens for the use of its governor. The governor had a guard, and maintained a court. Roads, wharves37, and hospitals were built. All this on credit, on paper, on wind, on inflated38 and fictitious39 values—on the boom’s moonshine, in fact. This went on handsomely during four or five years. Then all of a sudden came a smash. Bills for a huge amount drawn40 by the governor upon the Treasury41 were dishonored, the land company’s credit went up in smoke, a panic followed, values fell with a rush, the frightened immigrants seized their gripsacks and fled to other lands, leaving behind them a good imitation of a solitude, where lately had been a buzzing and populous42 hive of men.
Adelaide was indeed almost empty; its population had fallen to 3,000. During two years or more the death-trance continued. Prospect43 of revival44 there was none; hope of it ceased. Then, as suddenly as the paralysis45 had come, came the resurrection from it. Those astonishingly rich copper mines were discovered, and the corpse46 got up and danced.
The wool production began to grow; grain-raising followed—followed so vigorously, too, that four or five years after the copper discovery, this little colony, which had had to import its breadstuffs formerly47, and pay hard prices for them—once $50 a barrel for flour—had become an exporter of grain.
The prosperities continued. After many years Providence48, desiring to show especial regard for New South Wales and exhibit loving interest in its welfare which should certify49 to all nations the recognition of that colony’s conspicuous50 righteousness and distinguished51 well-deserving, conferred upon it that treasury of inconceivable riches, Broken Hill; and South Australia went over the border and took it, giving thanks.
Among our passengers was an American with a unique vocation52. Unique is a strong word, but I use it justifiably53 if I did not misconceive what the American told me; for I understood him to say that in the world there was not another man engaged in the business which he was following. He was buying the kangaroo-skin crop; buying all of it, both the Australian crop and the Tasmanian; and buying it for an American house in New York. The prices were not high, as there was no competition, but the year’s aggregate54 of skins would cost him L30,000. I had had the idea that the kangaroo was about extinct in Tasmania and well thinned out on the continent. In America the skins are tanned and made into shoes. After the tanning, the leather takes a new name—which I have forgotten—I only remember that the new name does not indicate that the kangaroo furnishes the leather. There was a German competition for a while, some years ago, but that has ceased. The Germans failed to arrive at the secret of tanning the skins successfully, and they withdrew from the business. Now then, I suppose that I have seen a man whose occupation is really entitled to bear that high epithet—unique. And I suppose that there is not another occupation in the world that is restricted to the hands of a sole person. I can think of no instance of it. There is more than one Pope, there is more than one Emperor, there is even more than one living god, walking upon the earth and worshiped in all sincerity55 by large populations of men. I have seen and talked with two of these Beings myself in India, and I have the autograph of one of them. It can come good, by and by, I reckon, if I attach it to a “permit.”
Approaching Adelaide we dismounted from the train, as the French say, and were driven in an open carriage over the hills and along their slopes to the city. It was an excursion of an hour or two, and the charm of it could not be overstated, I think. The road wound around gaps and gorges56, and offered all varieties of scenery and prospect—mountains, crags, country homes, gardens, forests—color, color, color everywhere, and the air fine and fresh, the skies blue, and not a shred57 of cloud to mar58 the downpour of the brilliant sunshine. And finally the mountain gateway59 opened, and the immense plain lay spread out below and stretching away into dim distances on every hand, soft and delicate and dainty and beautiful. On its near edge reposed60 the city.
We descended61 and entered. There was nothing to remind one of the humble capital, of huts and sheds of the long-vanished day of the land-boom. No, this was a modern city, with wide streets, compactly built; with fine homes everywhere, embowered in foliage and flowers, and with imposing62 masses of public buildings nobly grouped and architecturally beautiful.
There was prosperity, in the air; for another boom was on. Providence, desiring to show especial regard for the neighboring colony on the west called Western Australia—and exhibit loving interest in its welfare which should certify to all nations the recognition of that colony’s conspicuous righteousness and distinguished well-deserving, had recently conferred upon it that majestic63 treasury of golden riches, Coolgardie; and now South Australia had gone around the corner and taken it, giving thanks. Everything comes to him who is patient and good, and waits.
But South Australia deserves much, for apparently she is a hospitable64 home for every alien who chooses to come; and for his religion, too. She has a population, as per the latest census65, of only 320,000-odd, and yet her varieties of religion indicate the presence within her borders of samples of people from pretty nearly every part of the globe you can think of. Tabulated66, these varieties of religion make a remarkable67 show. One would have to go far to find its match. I copy here this cosmopolitan68 curiosity, and it comes from the published census:
Church of England, 89,271
Roman Catholic, 47,179
Wesleyan, 49,159
Lutheran, 23,328
Presbyterian, 18,206
Congregationalist, 11,882
Baptist, 17,547
Christian Brethren, 465
Methodist New Connexion, 39
Unitarian, 688
Church of Christ, 3,367
Society of Friends, 100
New Jerusalem Church, 168
Jews, 840
Protestants (undefined), 5,532
Mohammedans, 299
Confucians, etc, 3,884
Other religions, 1,719
Object, 6,940
Not stated, 8,046
Total, 320,431
The item in the above list “Other religions” includes the following as returned:
Agnostics, Atheists, Believers in Christ, Buddhists72, Calvinists, Christadelphians, Christians73, Christ’s Chapel74, Christian Israelites, Christian Socialists75, Church of God, Cosmopolitans76, Deists, Evangelists, Exclusive Brethren, Free Church, Free Methodists, Freethinkers, Followers77 of Christ, Gospel Meetings, Greek Church, Infidels, Maronites, Memnonists, Moravians, Mormons, Naturalists78, Orthodox, Others (indefinite), Pagans, Pantheists, Plymouth Brethren, Rationalists, Reformers, Secularists, Seventh-day Adventists, Shaker, Shintoists, Spiritualists, Theosophists, Town (City) Mission, Welsh Church, Huguenot, Hussite, Zoroastrians, Zwinglian,
About 64 roads to the other world. You see how healthy the religious atmosphere is. Anything can live in it. Agnostics, Atheists, Freethinkers, Infidels, Mormons, Pagans, Indefinites they are all there. And all the big sects79 of the world can do more than merely live in it: they can spread, flourish, prosper29. All except the Spiritualists and the Theosophists. That is the most curious feature of this curious table. What is the matter with the specter? Why do they puff80 him away? He is a welcome toy everywhere else in the world.
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1
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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sociable
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| adj.好交际的，友好的，合群的 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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knolls
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| n.小圆丘，小土墩( knoll的名词复数 ) | |
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blot
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| vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍 | |
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compartment
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| n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间 | |
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conflagrations
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| n.大火（灾）( conflagration的名词复数 ) | |
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sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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mashed
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| a.捣烂的 | |
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collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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specialty
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| n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长 | |
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ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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mangrove
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| n.(植物)红树，红树林 | |
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prosper
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| v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣 | |
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swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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swells
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| 增强( swell的第三人称单数 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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wharves
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| n.码头，停泊处( wharf的名词复数 ) | |
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inflated
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| adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
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fictitious
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| adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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paralysis
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| n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症) | |
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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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certify
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| vt.证明，证实；发证书(或执照)给 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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vocation
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| n.职业，行业 | |
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justifiably
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| adv.无可非议地 | |
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aggregate
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| adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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56
gorges
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| n.山峡，峡谷( gorge的名词复数 )；咽喉v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的第三人称单数 )；作呕 | |
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shred
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| v.撕成碎片，变成碎片；n.碎布条，细片，些少 | |
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mar
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| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
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gateway
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| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
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reposed
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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census
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| n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查 | |
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tabulated
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| 把（数字、事实）列成表( tabulate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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Buddhists
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| n.佛教徒( Buddhist的名词复数 ) | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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socialists
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| 社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 ) | |
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cosmopolitans
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| 世界性的( cosmopolitan的名词复数 )； 全球各国的； 有各国人的； 受各国文化影响的 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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naturalists
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| n.博物学家( naturalist的名词复数 )；（文学艺术的）自然主义者 | |
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sects
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| n.宗派，教派( sect的名词复数 ) | |
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80
puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
参考例句： |
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