Show eat Z OWN nine years since mount morgans was an unknown waste in the aus desert the nearest town of any size was we kg ks away and the journey full of peril none set out on it without long preparation and of 0 those who started tal ing stars and compass as their guide the bone of several lie still in the bush around tonight I 1 go up to my room from the regular five course hotel dinner and switch on the electric light to write writ this article it Is hard to realize that even now one is on the very out skirts of civilization we have luxury untold abundant water both for wash ing and drinkin the furniture of the denue office appeared and morgans today eels feels itself secure men are bringing cheh wives and there Is a schoolhouse open I 1 rom the housewife a point of view this 1 is not an ideal place every mouthful of food has to be brought up or miles by rail coach or camel back and normal rates here mould be considered famine prices elsewhere Ordin ordinary arv cuts of meat are Is ad a pound and better cuts rise up to as iso no one in the town itself attempts to grow anything for while we me have plenty of water for drinking water for agriculture is almost beyond imagination some way between her here V IN av t 7 an V 4 4 14 44 4 r A squatters home room would not discredit maple and possibly came from him I 1 must draw down my blind to shut out the glare ot of the electric arc lamps in the street below mount morgans prides itself on be ing the newest town worthy to be called a town on earth population 1000 two fire brigades a brass band water supply electr c light telegraphs and a weekly news paper there will spon be a railway station for the line from the coast is being laid as us quickly as hands can secure sleeper to sleeper and rail to rail until the locomotive comes we have to be contented with the old fashioned coach and four there are three churches anglican wesleyan and salvation army the number of hotels I 1 cannot give but they must be count ed by the dozens for the business of liquor merchant Is 1 a profitable one oile in We the streets are broad after a manner that london might envy and run in straight lines and at light angles atop of the hill stand out the works of the gold mine on which the towns depends the making of a town like this Is not without interest at first any man can pitch his tent anywhere but after a time the government takes a hand thus when hen population grew the gov eminent warden declared that mount morgans would be made a township and first comers could stake and secure quarter acre residence claims there was a general holiday and each man stood around his arms full of reg pegs and mallet at a given moment a whistle was blown and evera one rushed to peg out his claim there were many fights during the next hour and then it was found that the best claims atre a pegged twenty times over each applicant ready to smear that his pegs were in first it lay with the warden of mount mar afar garets eight miles away to decide the claims must be re staked he de and balcolm one man has found land with wells on it and Is planting a vine yard and garden there people come scores of miles to gaze at his growing bushes I 1 vegetables ege tables are dear the sixpenny novel and magazine fetch a shilling apiece here the price of an ord ordinary frary london penny weekly Is 1 A neighbor of mine bought a good JIn english glish bicycle it would have cost him probably sixteen guineas at home here he paid 32 the great bush around us stretch ing into infinity until it looks from the hilltops hlll tops a great sea of green in fluentes fluen ces all our ou lives and thoughts prospectors are continually passing through our streets tho the camel band walking slowly past the hotel to night may in a month find death or fortune in the unknown beyond every mother warns her children continually that they must never stray in the woods and back her warnings by dreadful tales all too true now and then tribes of aborigines make their way in from the bush begging for food there Is little or no tear fear of violence from them ugly horrible pitiful the most wretched and debased of all peo pies ples no thoughtful white can gaze at them without mixed emotion of re and remorse repulsion at their unattractiveness remorse at the thought of what civilization has brought them to the desert lies beyond desert of 0 and sand ox 01 the hard patchy grass that cut horses hoofs and makes progress almost impossible of sand that parches and drives to desperation those caught in its embraces it li Is desert without shelter and without water and yet there are men here who will repeat the bravest journeys of the great explorers of history and say nothing of them one lime limekiln kiln owner tor for instance went wont right across ahe desert to broken hill in a light cart accompanied by one black track aft k ids t A mait mail coach chang ng rig station dared scarcely were the words out of his mouth before the entire as rushed out toward the new township the town sprang up As men grew rich tents gave way to weatherboard weather board ing mount morgans grew while the neighboring town of margarets declined then the whole town of mar garets transferred itself to morgans rouses and all for a weatherboard weather board ho se ise can aas ly be removed on wheel A post postoffice office and inland rev 4 er a few years ago to buy some sheep and returned home the same way A year afterward he crossed again and his earons drove a a rd of cattle and sheep across the bourney took nine months and mut ank among the most courageous jour eys ays ever done mount morgan Is 1 a town with a fu ture it Is a town of pioneers and of brave men clean order and desera lag ing all the good fortune that is comlat I 1 to it I 1 |