Andrew Barton Paterson

Titles in Poetry category:

• Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, The

  It is not so easy to write ballads descriptive of the bushland of Australia as on light consideration would appear. Reasonably good verse on the subject has been supplied in sufficient quantity. But the maker of folksongs for our newborn nation requires a somewhat rare combination of gifts and ...

Titles in Short Stories category:

• Amateur Gardener, The

  The first step in amateur gardening is to sit down and consider what good you are going to get by it. If you are only a tenant by the month, as most people are, it is obviously not of much use for you to plant a fruit orchard or an avenue of oak trees. What you want is something that will gro ...

• Bullock, The

  The typical Australian bullock -- long-horned, sullen-eyed, stupid, and vindictive -- is bred away out in Queensland, on remote stations in the Never Never land, where men live on damper and beef, and occasionally eat a whole bottle of hot pickles at a sitting, simply to satisfy their craving f ...

• Cast-iron Canvasser, The

  The firm of Sloper and Dodge, publishers and printers, was in great distress. These two enterprising individuals had worked up an enormous business in time-payment books, which they sold all over Australia by means of canvassers. They had put all the money they had into the business; and now, ...

• Cat, The

  Most people think that the cat is an unintelligent animal, fond of ease, and caring little for anything but mice and milk. But a cat has really more character than most human beings, and gets a great deal more satisfaction out of life. Of all the animal kingdom, the cat has the most many-sided ...

• Concerning a Dog-fight

  Dog-fighting as a sport is not much in vogue now-a-days. To begin with it is illegal. Not that THAT matters much, for Sunday drinking is also illegal. But dog-fighting is one of the cruel sports which the community has decided to put down with all the force of public opinion. Nevertheless, a ...

• Concerning a Steeplechase Rider

  Of all the ways in which men get a living there is none so hard and so precarious as that of steeplechase-riding in Australia. It is bad enough in England, where steeplechases only take place in winter, when the ground is soft, where the horses are properly schooled before being raced, and wher ...

• Dan Fitzgerald Explains

  The circus was having its afternoon siesta. Overhead the towering canvas tent spread like a giant mushroom on a network of stalks -- slanting beams, interlaced with guys and wire ropes.

• Dog, The

  The dog is a member of society who likes to have his day's work, and who does it more conscientiously than most human beings. A dog always looks as if he ought to have a pipe in his mouth and a black bag for his lunch, and then he would go quite happily to office every day.

• Dog -- as a Sportsman, The

  The sheep-dog and the cattle-dog are the workmen of the animal kingdom; sporting and fighting dogs are the professionals and artists.

• Downfall of Mulligan's, The

  The sporting men of Mulligan's were an exceedingly knowing lot; in fact, they had obtained the name amongst their neighbours of being a little bit too knowing. They had "taken down" the adjoining town in a variety of ways. They were always winning maiden plates with horses which were shrewdly ...

• His Masterpiece

  Greenhide Billy was a stockman on a Clarence River cattle-station, and admittedly the biggest liar in the district. He had been for many years pioneering in the Northern Territory, the other side of the sun-down -- a regular "furthest-out man" -- and this assured his reputation among station-h ...

• Merino Sheep, The

  People have got the impression that the merino is a gentle, bleating animal that gets its living without trouble to anybody, and comes up every year to be shorn with a pleased smile upon its amiable face. It is my purpose here to exhibit the merino sheep in its true light.

• Oracle, The

  No tram ever goes to Randwick races without him; he is always fat, hairy, and assertive; he is generally one of a party, and takes the centre of the stage all the time -- collects and hands over the fares, adjusts the change, chaffs the conductor, crushes the thin, apologetic stranger next him ...

• Sitting in Judgment

  The show ring was a circular enclosure of about four acres, with a spiked batten fence round it, and a listless crowd of back-country settlers propped along the fence. Behind them were the sheds for produce, and the machinery sections where steam threshers and earth scoops hummed and buzzed an ...

• Thirsty Island

  Travellers approaching a bush township are sure to find some distance from the town a lonely public-house waiting by the roadside to give them welcome. Thirsty (miscalled Thursday) Island is the outlying pub of Australia.

• Three Elephant Power

  "Them things," said Alfred the chauffeur, tapping the speed indicator with his fingers, "them things are all right for the police. But, Lord, you can fix 'em up if you want to. Did you ever hear about Henery, that used to drive for old John Bull -- about Henery and the elephant?"

• Victor Second

  We were training two horses for the Buckatowndown races -- an old grey warrior called Tricolor -- better known to the station boys as The Trickler -- and a mare for the hack race. Station horses don't get trained quite like Carbine; some days we had no time to give them gallops at all, so they ...

• White-when-he's-wanted

  Buckalong was a big freehold of some 80,000 acres, belonging to an absentee syndicate, and therefore run in most niggardly style. There was a manager on 200 pounds a year, Sandy M'Gregor to wit -- a hard-headed old Scotchman known as "four-eyed M'Gregor", because he wore spectacles. For assist ...