Australians as Customers for American Manufacturers
"'! right, hj Prank (i Curiiuntcr i
SYDNEY. New Houtli Wales, Juno 20
iSpriliil Corespondent c of Tlin lice 1
'Pure Ih ,i big opening ill AiiHtrullii
for Amirlcnii trade Tin- nintry la
JiiMt rln for the iiilvciii nf our ilruui
mors. Tlit' people iir(! friendly um! evir
Ameilculi Hllli'xlnmi I have met Ih doing good
bllHllll'SB. We Hell over $l2.IMlll,ll()(l worth of
goods Hiinmilly in Now South Will's or
nioro than $."0 pur family of tln population
American goods urn sold In all tlu stores
ami American farming Implements mp
used on nearly every farm. Tline fourths
of the reaperH aiul mowers come fioin the
United States Tilt re nio thousand of Amur
nan plows ii ti I ti ns of tliousimls of our
axeH ami miwh. The AiiHtrallaiiB like inn
liaiilielH They call them tomahawks nnd
v t'li'lit ly think we not Hie pallein fioin I lit
ImllaiiH Our earpenti r' tools aiu in do
iiiallil. eHpeclully angels tills ami li l
ami hc veil -1 I'll t lis of all the sums iisiiI
c'Diiio from I'hllailelphla.
A nierleil li NiiIIihim I hi- list i n 1 1 oils,
American notions aie Hulil everywhere
In Townsvillc, In nnrtlieuHh ru Australia
I Haw patent lump ihairH with tlm Yankee
iraileinark on (hem, our cull' clasps ami
collar liuttiiiiH are In common mm ami then
am all sorts of kuli k-knni ks markeil
American ami nM iih such I ilioppeil into
u Htoru the oilier ilay whhh ndvoiilHul
American camllcH ami iiHkeil the tall young
liuly clerk fiom what elly ihey were
linporteil. Shu rnpllod they were mailu In
Sydney, hut limy calleil lliem American
because they thought 1 1 1 i h woulil make
thum Hell better.
The Australians smoko American tobacco
They line llnecut ami plug, shaving olt the
plug for their pipcH. Tho hinmls hoIiI are
almost unknown In I lie United Stales, (.how
lug I tin t tho market Is quietly workeil by
Huiiio of our llltle known tnbaci o limit), the
InrKur ones mil realizing the extent of thlH
market. In New (lulucu our tobacco IB
used iih money. So many plugs will buy
you a dinner, n suit of elothcH or a wife,
tho tobacco currency being more common
I linn gold nnd Hllver. The cigars Hiuoked
by the Australians chlelly come f i
.Manila and the trade In 1'hlllpplno tobacco
Is yrowliiK.
I Imvo Bpoken of thu Now ZenlundorB as
HpondorH. The Australlaim are iiulto ns ex-
trnvagnnt. In Nuw South Wales tho nver-
ago Is over $!mio per year for each family.
Tho peeplo of all cIiishcb dress well and
live well. The women of Melboiiruo know
how to put on their clothes as well ns
tluiHii of any liy of similar al.o in the
rutted SlateH Many of thorn wear Ameri
can hIiiich, paying a duty of 7f cents on
every pair. They wear coHtly hats and
hotuiotH and In midwinter nearly every girl
has her film. The btiHlncss men, iih a rule,
wear Hllk halri and good clothes Tim
lining is not qnlli' iih line iih that of our
American lallniH, but far better than that
of London. Clothes cost about iih much in
Melbourne and Sydney iih in New York
and American styles seem lo bu in demand.
A great deal of our lumber comeH to
Australia, not only In thu Hhapo of boards
and logH, but in paper, ami now the Aus
trallan nowspnpcni are printed on Ainerl
unti wood pulp. Many of the publishers
Jso American type. Within thu past few
years thu linotype has been coining In
and a salesman of one of thu American
firms tells mo that ho has scattered such
machines throughout tho colonies. Ho gotH
about $3,r00 for each machine and does a
business which Is largely cash.
Tho lending American typewriters are
ONU Ol'' Al'STUAMA'S NIJW AHTKSI AN
whi:i:i.s it is i.osi; ri:r.T i)i:i:r and
KLOWS A MILLION (JALLONS OV HOT
WATEK I'Klt DAY.
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well known here Sumo of the uguncles
have business colleges collliecteil with
lliem anil real anil Hull machine In tho
huiiio way iih In America. You can buy nil
kimlH of Aineilcan lamuriiH here ami the
American bicycle in io bu Been everywhere.
Ho far no wagons to apeak of have been
Imported, but there Ih a good demand for
partH of our carriages and wagons and I
think HiIh Held mlislit bo developed.
Tho Aiiatrnllau is fond of show. Ho likes
u Km horse and a Kood biiKKy and soino
of thu rubber tired tIkb which nro now
Ut,UlK liai0 ln America inlKlit bo sold hero
!lt a prolll.
One of the best pusheru of American
trade In Anstialla Is our consul at Sydney,
(ieorge W. Hell. Ilu Is well acquainted
with the markets ami Ih doing considerable
goml. He tells mu that many of our goods
sold here are marked as made In (icrmany
and that Home of tlm Importations comu via
Loudon. This Is mo of fencing wire, both
barbed and smooth, of which a vast deal Is
lived, ami also of silver-plated wntc,
watches and clocks.
In woolens, cottons ami other cloths the
supply comeH chlelly from England and the
continent. Thero is no attempt to push
American goods of this kind and the low
freight i ales to Europe operate against nur
Importation!!. Still a trade could bu built
up In American cottons, and as soon ns the
1 1 ii iih - IhI h in in 1 1 canal Ih completed there
will undoubtedly be large shipments of
i aliens, Mhlrtiiigs ami denims
Ouu of tho great markets of thu future
for thu corn of the Mississippi valley will
bo In Australia. The country is subject to
frequent drouths mid at such times food
for stock la an imperative necessity. In
Queensland I Haw green oats straw selling
for tlS a ton, and I was told that several
shiploads of corn had been Imported from
the Pacific states by that state to feed Its
ciittln and sheep. There hnB been n groat
drouth and the stock Iuih died by Uio
thousands. One man who had 18,000 sheep
ami nothing to feed them paid $10 a ton
for American corn, lie soaked It and thou
fed it, and aw u result saved his Hock
One who has not visited Australia enn
have no Idea of the need of food in time
of drouth. Within the past ten years mil
lions of sheep have died of hunger ami vnst
numbers of thirst This slate of New South
Wales had 2,000,ooo sheep In tsot It has
not more than 11,(100,000 now Within ten
vent's the number ban fallen off moro than
20.00tt.0iM Estimating each sheep at $2 HO,
Oils means n losa of J50.000.000 In the
capital stock of the squatters In ono state
only There have been largo losses In
South Australia, Victoria and Queensland
I nm told that niiiuborn of sheep die almost
every year and that the losses during the
past ten years have been almost continu
ous, lloi'l'ois of (lie llrtmtli,
You need not go far In Australia to hear
of the horrors of the drouth. You can
easily meet a man who tins Inst a fortune
b dry weather. Men hometlines go crazy
on their Btntlous far off In the Interior le
iduse tho rain falls to come. They have
thousands of acres and tens of thousands
of slu'i p and they have to sit and watch
he animals die before their eyes, knowing
tlm .annul feed them. The drouths clear
the laud of everything green Tho pas
(tircH become ns bare as the roads and
the sheep Htagger about, no-lug In the dust
for the seeds of grnspoi and trees. Some
times trees nio cut down to give them
food Ono man who had l.ooo acres of land
kept loo mi n busy cutting oil tho branches
of his apple, oak and oilier trees to feed
the sheep They eat the leaves and even
tho smnll l wigs This same man had an
other force skinning dead sheep and
another whose business It was to lift up the
sheep when they fell down nnd could not
rise of their own accord. This is to koep
thorn from the cnrrlon crows, which hover
about over them and pick nut their
oyes If thoy fall.
HEM., AMERICAN CONSUL, IN HIS OPPICE AT SYDNEY
During,' these drouths the rabblta dio as
well as thu sheep. They drup dead out-
aldu tho rabbit fences. You may ton
kaiiKarooB lyiiiK here and there dead upon
the plains ami I have been told that even
the birds drop dead from the trees.
The ltlverlna couulry Is one of I lie bcBt
sheep raising districts of Australia. It
produces Homo of the lluosl wool and Is
noted for Its excellent grass. In the
drouth of ISO.'i It looked as though a lire
hnd swept over it. Tho most of It was as
clean as a base ball ground. It could not
havo been more baio If It had been plowed.
Thero was not a green sprout or any sign
of vegetable life to bo seen. Last year
much the same condition prevailed In parts
of Queensland Thero were tracts covt ted
THU AUSTKALIAN I10TTLE THEE,
. . , . ,,, , . .
with dead sheep, cnttlo and horses, nud
dead emus and kangaroos were lying here
and Here over tho country. This and other
drouths have caused a reduction In one
district of 01 per cent of the sheep and
other districts oven moio. It Is said that
tho drouth in lStl.'i lightened tho wool clip
almost 12 per cent and it decreased tho
lamb ci op In Nuw Suuth Wales about
8,000,000 head.
Illllnlreils n' Arleslmi Wells.
Within the past fow years tho govern
iiientH of Australia have been preparing to
resist these drouths. They have been sink
ing niieal.ui wells, making dams and put
ting up water works. The drouths In ninny
pans of the country nre such that for nlno
months the sheep enn feed on tho dry
grasses If they can only get water, and of
late the water In nian places lias come
from artesian wells. The chief danger has
been in overstocking, so that the sheep eat
nil the grass and, notwithstanding the
drinking water, die of siarvatlon.
Thero are in Queensland nlono 3."o arte
sian wells and a number more arc being
put down, Already more than $2,000,000
has been spent upon them The nggregato
depth of tho wells Is In the neighborhood
of .100,000 feet. Some of the wells are ver
deep. There Is ono at Wlnton whl. h wn
sunk 1,000 feet beforo It struck water, and
there are many down 3.0on and more One
well Hows fi.000,000 gallons a day another
4,000.000 and another 3.000.000 In New
South Woles a large number of bores, ns
they are called, havo been sunk anil several
JLJ1BL
tJ
of them are lieu lug from I.iiiiii.uuii to J.
000 gallons a dav.
A singular thing about the wells Is that
the water that comes mini them Is very
hot. As one of the squatters says, It Is
hot enough to sen Id a dog. and. Indued, a
dug that fell inlo the stream of one of
them the other day was killed. The water
Is slightly salt, and It contains soino ooda.
but the sheep drink and thrive upon It.
It cooli.. of course, as it runs off, being eon.
ducted in ditches and pipes over the pas-
turcs.
Tin ditches are made with huge plows
constructed of logs In the form of a V.
The end Is shod with Iron, and a team i.f
eight or ten oxen drags the plow along the
course desired for the strenm. This makes
il broad furrow, forming tho canal, at which
the stock can drink. There nre many canals
of this kind from fifteen to twenty miles
long and somo even longer.
Whore Urns l.ii - llolleil lluus,
Australia la tho hottest counlry on
record. I have ridden for mil h astride ill
equator, but I have never found heat to
compare with this, out In tho country In
thu
,, , ... .....
i mi v c ..i,.u i.,,,t-.i. in uo nine
moro than a sheet of brown paper bu-
tween you ami the lower regions and the
people facetiously ay that they havo u.
1 tCX llL',,s1cr;,',it,1 lco. '"P tl"1''
',7'"?, b"cC'1, C'KKS- "I0 ln"' 3
..Vv. v...... ,.,,,v ii itiuiu in
desert and tho sun bents vertically down
upon tho continent during thu hottest part
of tho year throe hours eviry day In travel
ing across It.
Australia Is us long from one side, to the
other as from New Yorky to Salt Lake
City, nnd tho greater part of It Is covered
with grnnltu band. It has no cooling winds
to spenk of nnd tho sand and rock bottle
up tho heat and glvo it out again. Cap
tain Sturt, who crossed tho Australian
desert somo years ago, records that ho
oncu hung his thermometer graduated to
127 degrees In tho shado and that the mor-
cury roso and broke tho tube. Tho tcm
peraturn must havo been at least 12S de
grees In tho open air outside, which Is
said to be the highest temperature recorded
In any part of tho world.
Tor three months during that trip the
temnerature averaued mer In! iteeren
Fahrenheit in the shade and the air was
so dry that Captain Sturt writes "that
every screw fi II out of his boxes, his combs
split up into halts, the lead dropped out
of , mlHl,(1 , . ,
, ,n , , fls ,irlltu, IH nM -
.....
'""'' ' " i.n.i.
Thero Is no continent which has so much
dry land ns Australln It Is a great dry
henrt, with n few patches of green about
thu edges. On the east sido facing the Pa-
HOLE OP ONE OP
cillc is a Iouk range of mountains, roughlv
speaking running north and south, ami tnu
most of the good land liu b twecti theso
mountains and ilm sea. West of tho moun
tain:! vast plateaus begin and extend on
and on and on. spotted hole with low
rocky rane.es for more than I'.OOO miles.
Thu Innd falls slightly as It goes toward
thu wost, but at the end It Is still 1.000 foot
lilglt. It Is :'.U0O feet high at the east nnd
in tho Australian Alps 01 the eastern
rango It rises to more than i,o feel. There
la a general slope toward the south, In
soino places so great that the continent
falls to the level of the sea, but In others
It keeps an altltudo of f0t) and MO feet,
ending in clilTs at that height, which Hue
thu Australian bight for bundle 1 of miles.
All the rivers How towntd thu mast. The
most of them are short and iitinavlgable.
Thero Is. In fact, only one big rlvir sys
tem In the i mm try that of the Murray,
which IIowk out of thu south' nst end of Aus
tralia. The Murray is 1. loo or l.r.oo mllis
long. It has extensive brunches something
llku tho Mississippi-Missouri, by which it
waters a vast basin, ln whldi aie somu or
tho best sheep farms of Anstral.a. Nearl
all of its basin is taken up b sipiattirs
The grenter part of It Is fenced and in ccr
lain sections tho lands nre wor.h as much
as good farming lands in the I'tiiiod
States.
ll si in I In n I, nl.es Are nl,
tistrnlia has no fresh watir hikes to
speak of. Its biggest lakes are salt and
ilnre are veiy few of these. The mini ut
them lie 111 South Australia, In what I-
ailed the lake district, a n glon ahum
I. nun miles long. At the bottom or this l
l.ako 'I'o ne iih. about 100 miles long, with
Lake Cardilier to the west of It. North of
Lake Torreus Is Lake Kyre. whlih Is larger.
.,,i ... ,,, 11Iir,i11.i t .'.i,,. a,,.
,H ,M, , ,.,, Kzt. A ih,l
, ., T.v .iro SUrroiiti(!e( by
M.llH f , ,.,.ai.heious mud crusted with
Smlll, ()f om ,.,, lry f()r yi,n,.s
.,. ., ,,,, ),,, u L,t s,,nso wm nM
,u,m an, ,.,, Kla88 , s)rmll all
al,ml them.
Most of the land north ami west nf the
hikes Is desert. If you will draw a line
across the continent from the lakes' lo the
mouth of the Victoria river ou will block
olf one of Hie biggest deserts of tho world
' u. diserl block will be ono-slxth as big as
the whole fnlte.l States and it will con-
tnn no water and no vegetation of anv
kind exctpt thorny scrub and thorny
grasses. This is the ease with nearly
all weslun Australia with the exception of
Hie small settled portions at the sotitli
wi si.
lliiisMi-s mill Tiers.
Among nlhcr curiosities are the grasses
'I here are liees here which glow grass
"", "' HO l U I
looking ror all the world ns If n gicat
Minimi had Hummed nut In uriina nn nil
Hll08 allll R ,.,
Tho slllf(;!( op H, . rnM ,,
(1110 ()f , tul.lnr8 ()f ...pVirer. It cov-
ms much of the sandy plains to hi.cI, an
"x,u"t "' 11 I" l0Bt Impossible to travel
nv.T hum
It la a hard, spiny grass, which
grows in little hills from one foot nnd n
half to live feet in illaineler. It Is always
found In the dry country and Its more ex
istence is an evidence that thero Is no
water nearby.
Its blades nro asshnrp as a needle and
aro very destructive to both horses and
men. Tho horses' foot aro to cut that thoy
sometimes have to bo killed or are left to
die upon the desert.
Hut I could write much about tho queer
vegoiauon ot Australia. I seo now troes
'l?'"'1 th" !'.u"or.Mt. of n11 ls th"
gteat bottle tiee. which looks for all the
world llku a gigantic chnnipagno magnum
with leaves grow ing out of the cork. Every
where I go I see eucalyptus tiees.
They aro the dreariest forests that 1
havo ever traveled through. Many of
them have long thin leaves which hams
,ln"ward as though they were weeping.
"uy nro "'ways green and they shed their
,mrk '""tend of their leaves. The bark
r-KH 'ow foe nil the world llko
disheveled hair, making you think that nil
nature has gono Into mourning and thoy
aro the chief mutes at the funeral. Some
of thorn nro very high, comparing with the
big trees of Cnllfornln. There was one
recently felled which measured ISO foot
said to bo tho largest tree of tho world,
PRANK O (' MM'BNTEr!
AUSTRALIA'S OIANT TREES,