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    A mixed society, courtesy of University of Queensland Press.

Narration

Title
A mixed society
Description

Polish miner Seweryn Korzelinski was impressed by the harmonious mix of cultures and classes to be found on the diggings.

Published Source
Korzelinski, Seweryn, Memoirs of gold-digging in Australia, Stanley Robe (ed. and trans.), University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1979. Details

Versions

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    Type
    Narration
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    Type
    Transcript

People

Themes

Transcript

This very large society comprises men from all parts of the world, all countries and religions, varying disposition and education…

A colonel pulls up the earth for a sailor; a lawyer wields not a pen but a spade; a priest lends a match to a Negro's pipe; a doctor rests on the same heap of earth with a Chinaman: a man of letters carries a bag of earth with a Hindu, and all of them hirsute, dusty and muddy, so that their own mothers would not be able to recognize them. Many a one would not, a short while before, bother to look at a fellow with whom he now works. Here we are all joined by the designation: "DIGGER".