158 Australian Life 



or comfort, which was tactfully offered as a tribute 

 to her femininity. The ideals of those good days 

 are fortunately not dead, but the conditions of 

 Australian life are variable in the extreme, and 

 the position of woman in the Australian cosmos 

 has varied with them. In the flood-tide of pro- 

 sperity, the Australian showed a tendency to treat 

 his womankind as the American is said to treat 

 his: to isolate them from every care of business 

 and even of household management. The Aus- 

 tralian woman had good times then, but not at 

 the expense of her home life, and she showed in 

 the crash that followed that she possessed the re- 

 sourcefulness and courage which is a mark of 

 Australian character. Australians have good 

 reason to be proud of the manner in which many 

 of their women, born and educated amidst sur- 

 roundings of comfort and luxury, set to work at 

 a moment's notice, when, by an unexpected turn 

 of fortune's wheel, their fathers and husbands 

 were stripped of their wealth, and hampered by 

 a very general business depression throughout 

 Australia. 



Visitors to Australia have been unanimous in 

 recording the marked difference in type of the 

 Australian woman, for she has adapted herself 

 more readily to the changed conditions of life and 

 climate than the Australian man. Her dress, 

 although following the standard of fashion im- 

 posed upon her by Parisian and L,ondon authority, 

 is modified so as to suit the bright light and 



