Item #118165 The Fire Stick. Incidents in the Shearers' Strike. A Tale of Australian Bush Life. Wulla MERRII, John CAMERON.
The Fire Stick. Incidents in the Shearers' Strike. A Tale of Australian Bush Life

The Fire Stick. Incidents in the Shearers' Strike. A Tale of Australian Bush Life

[Brisbane, circa 1893].

Octavo, 223, [1] (blank) pages.

Glazed pictorial yellow papered boards a little marked and rubbed, with light wear to the extremities; an excellent copy (internally fine).

The dedication is 'To all honest and industrious workmen located throughout Australasia who are endeavouring to overcome the pernicious influence of socialism and agitators' jugglery'. Ferguson 18915 (suggesting the author, and place and date of publication: 'This work of fiction is written around the ... Strike in Queensland in 1890, 1891 and the early part of 1892. The [four-page] Preface is a factual review of the threat to law and order and praise of the firm stand taken by those in authority'). The title leaf and last leaf are cancels, raising the possibility that the absence of details about a publisher or printer is no accident. Indigenous locals are some of the main protagonists. Last but not least, the book appeared in an exhibition of yellowbacks at Monash University in 1991-92, curated by Richard Overell; to him we are indebted for the important fact that John Cameron was the brother of Mary Gilmore.

Item #118165

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