Urban Australia 105 



Their adoption of this business was made neces- 

 sary by the financial crisis which occurred in Aus- 

 tralia in 1893, when many families were reduced 

 from wealth to the poorest circumstances in the 

 course of one disastrous week. The young ladies 

 who attend upon the customers are educated and 

 refined, and daintiness is a feature of the furniture 

 and the fare. Prices are strictly reasonable, and 

 everything supplied is the very best of its kind. 

 Our solicitor may not improbably meet the young 

 lady who brought him his cup of coffee, at the 

 house of some friend, and such a meeting would 

 certainly occasion no awkwardness on either side. 

 About half-past four, he will catch a train home, 

 in time for a sail in his little yacht before dinner. 

 One or two evenings each week will probably be 

 spent at the one club of the suburb, where there 

 are tennis-lawns and bowling-greens, with a 

 skittle-alley and the usual billiard and card- 

 rooms. The members of the club all appear 

 in easy flannels, and may be stockbrokers, civil 

 servants of the higher grades, and young pro- 

 fessional men like himself. The local politics of 

 the place he leaves to the local tradespeople, and 

 complains a good deal of the result of his own 

 neglect. At the same time, municipal affairs will 

 never assume any great importance in Australian 

 cities, owing to the fact that many municipal 

 functions are already undertaken by the state 

 governments. 



When he takes a holiday, he may choose among 



