CHAPTER IV

TRAINING-CAMP LIFE

The town of Bendigo received a great increase of liveliness by having
to accommodate four or five thousand soldiers.

It had known some lively times in the old gold days, but when its
"yellow love" became thin, thousands of people went to other fields and
the former flourishing city became a husk and as dull as only a
declining mining city can become; but, as usually happens in old mining
districts, when the gold gives out, the solid wealth of the soil in
crop-growing capacity is developed, and Bendigo is prospering again
through the labors of the tillers of the soil, if not by the delvings
of its miners. Still, farmers have not the same habit of "blowing in
their earnings" and are, admittedly, a little dull. There was a story
that when the town council put a notice at the busy centre--"Walk Round
Corners"--many of the farmers made sure of keeping the law by getting
out of their vehicles and _leading_ their horses round! The old-time
miner was rather in the habit of smashing the unoffending lamp-post
that barred his straight progress to the "pub." where his favorite
brand of fire-water was on tap.

The Bendigoans will never forgive me for having failed to appreciate
the fact that their Golden City was far ahead even of Melbourne. They
would never believe that any one could make the mistake in regard to
_their_ city that an American did about an Australian seaport when he