62 AUSTRALIA 
A stroll through a suburban street in the cool of the 
evening is quite another thing. Here the houses are all 
single-storied bungalows or villas, as the Australians prefer 
to call them, each standing in its own plot of ground. 
Glance over the famous pettosporum hedge and you may 
see the lawn sprinkler pleasantly at work under the pepper- 
tree in the middle of the grass plot bordered with masses 
of bright phlox and thriving roses and pelargoniums. The 
bamboo blind which has been down all day to keep the 
sun off the house front, is now rolled up, and in an easy 
chair ot the verandah reclines pater-familias, clad in cool 
flannels. Doors and windows are open to admit the even- 
ing breeze, but before each is a wire screen to exciude flies 
and mosquitoes. From the drawiug-room comes the sound 
of voices, mingled with the strains of the latest comic 
opera. ‘Thisis a glimpseof the Australian at home. There 
is a roominess and privacy about these suburbs which afford 
a large amount of solid comfort. The citizen swings in his 
hammock and smokes his pipe without any consciousness 
of being observed from the top floor of some building close 
at hand, for a day’s march through the suburbs of an 
Australian city will fail to reveal anything in the shape of 
‘(residential mansions.’’ The most arduous task of the 
amateur gardener is the constant use of the watering can, 
the rest is done by nature with a lavish hand. The vine 
and fig tree are by no means impossible, and a rough erec- 
tion of wooden laths makes an ideal fern house. These 
things figure very largely in the life of the average 
Australian city dweller who leaves his office at five, changes 
into easy clothing as soon as he arrives home, dines com- 
fortably at half past six, and then remains in his garden 
until it grows dark. The remainder of the evening he 
spends with his family or friends who may call, and the 
office or the warehouse claims him at nine o’clock the next 
day, when, like people on this side of the earth, he 
plunges again into the headlong rush of business. 
