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Extract

Title
Digger extravagance
Description

An American paper reported, “"In Australia, if one of the diggers enters a baker’s shop to purchase a wedding-cake, which costs forty dollars, he throws down a fifty-dollar bill, and takes a handful of dough-nuts in change."

Date
25 July 1853
Published Source
Australian National Dictionary Centre, The Gold Rushes and Australian English: a resource for researchers, teachers and students, Australian National University, 2005, http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/res/aus_words/gold/index.php. Details
Rights
This material is provided by the Australian National Dictionary Centre, a joint project of the Australian National University and Oxford University Press Australia.

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Transcript

DIGGER EXTRAVAGANCE.—An American paper tells its readers that, "In Australia, if one of the diggers enters a baker’s shop to purchase a wedding-cake, which costs forty dollars, he throws down a fifty-dollar bill, and takes a handful of dough-nuts in change." That the digger is inclined to be extravagant, and especially when about to take the yoke of Hymen on him, is a fact but too notorious; but still, our American friend is not quite correct in his statement, seeing that diggers in Australia do not carry fifty-dollar bills about with them, and that dough-nuts are a commodity unknown to Australian confectionery. Argus,25 July 1853

Created: 16 October 2006, Last modified: 13 February 2007