n6 Australian Life 



have personally known cases where the push has 

 provided funds for the legal defence of a member 

 accused of some crime; and I have known of 

 members of the same push who have been utterly 

 deserted in their hour of need. 



The amusements of the push and it exists 

 primarily for the sake of amusement are dances, 

 picnics, and, on special occasions, organised 

 rowdyism. The young women who figure at the 

 dances and picnics have the same taste for feathers 

 and high-heeled shoes that distinguishes the 

 coster-girl, and the same facility of repartee, dis- 

 concerting in its allusive obscurity. The male 

 larrikin at one time favoured a distinctive dress, 

 consisting of a short coat with a velvet collar, 

 an open vest, and narrow neck-tie, bell-bottomed 

 trousers, and a soft felt hat with a broad stiff rim. 

 Of late years, this costume has gone out of vogue, 

 and has been replaced by nothing likely to distin- 

 guish the push member from his fellow-man. 



Push dances are remarkable for their solemnity 

 and observance of push etiquette, and for a weird 

 dance known as a teetotum, which resembles 

 dimly the ghost of a waltz fettered in heavy 

 chains. Push picnics are enlivened by the music 

 of the mouth organ and the accordion, and by a 

 free use of stimulants. They not infrequently end 

 in a free fight. 



It is difficult to make any excuse for the exist- 

 ence of the larrikin and his push, for the oppor- 

 tunities for rational amusement in the Australian 



