Hat I had for four-fifths of the ac

[Ebel <san...@sm...>]

Y changed, while not the slightest attention whatever is paid to
sanitation. It is estimated that there are at least 400 small tenements,
from two to five rooms, serving as "boarding" and "lodging" houses, and
in these over 3,000 persons are sheltered.'" Stories of how fortunes are
made and lives are lost in the race for wealth in Western Australia
would fill volumes. A typical story, and a genuine one to boot, is worth
recording. A well-known racing man travelling on a steamer round the
coast was attracted by a seedy, out-of-elbows individual seated all
alone. He got into conversation with him. The seedy stranger was
reticent about himself, but voluble about others, particularly those who
were making their piles in Western Australia--he was going there if he
had to walk. The idea of a man walking was a repulsive thought to a
racing man, so he most generously insisted upon this dilapidated
acquaintance accepting L10 to help him to get to the goldfields. The
stranger was to pay him back some day if he ever struck oil. Time went
on, and one morning the Good Samaritan received a letter with the L10
enclosed and a request to make an appointment. The two met again. The
out-of-elbows fellow-traveller turned up to keep the appointment he had
asked for, dressed in the height of fashion; he not only looked a
millionaire, but he was one! Yet he was sad and depressed, and recited
the history of his good fortune to the good-natured sportsman in a most
dismal tone. Though his words were full of gratitude and thankfulness,
he seemed, strange as it may appear, somewhat reproachful. "Yes, thanks
to you, I have struck a gold mine, the one the world is now talking
about, and you shall have half of it; that is the reason I asked to see
you." "Not I," was the reply. "I don't want it; besides, you have
relatives." "I had,"