And I’m still sniffling and I says, ‘But what if I mark me dress?’
She says, ‘You won’t. Here, see this?’ and she give me this little apron to wear behind me back to front like, only under me skirt. ‘There, you are,’ she says. ‘Now you’ll be right as rain.’ I must have looked not sure still, cos she says. ‘Cheer up, you ain’t going to die. Ethel and Dolly got it at your age, and Mabel too and so will Maisie when her time come.’ Then she left.
I stood there for a bit feeling I don’t know what. I don’t know what it is I got or why, all I know is it ain’t plague. Thank goodness.
31st March, Saturday
It were Ma’s birthday today, the same day as they tell us our house is coming down, along with Reggie’s next door and them’s the other side. Ma said it weren’t a very nice thing but to tell a body on their birthday, specially when the body don’t know where it’ll be spending the night. Fred and Artie give her a picture of roses they got from a second-hand shop up town and said it come out of their rat money. Ma said it were lovely. Me and Maisie give her samplers we done at school and she said they was lovely too.
I hope we don’t have to sleep out in the open tonight with them big piles of rubbish and all them dead rats. I don’t know what’s worse, live rats scuttling over up in the ceiling or dead ones lying all round me.
The people in Orange want the capital city to be built there. They say they got nice rainfall and even with hot days the nights are cool and good for chests.
1st April, Sunday
We slept in Ragged School, on the floor next to the Cooks and other families. Some have gone to other halls or, if there’s room, to friends or family that’ll have them. It felt strange sleeping in your own school even with all the desks and chairs pushed aside. Only the Salvation Army and City Mission brung in mattresses and blankets and they give us sandwiches and cups of tea tonight. All the churches stayed open with special prayers for plague.
2nd April, Monday
Reggie’s still not said nothing about his Valentine. I asked him real casual like how’s he like cleaning up and he said he’s too busy to scratch hisself. Seems to me he’s forgotten and all he thinks about now is rubbish. Least that’s all he talks about.
He said there’s thousands of tons of rubbish every day gets dumped out at sea. I thought he were joking that there couldn’t be that much and I told him April Fool’s were yesterday. Only he said he weren’t and to come and see for meself. So then he took me down the wharves where all the barges was loaded up ready. Garbage, silt, even sewage, he says is piled up on them.
And I said, ‘You mean what’s straight from the privies?’
And he said yes. He says they’re filling in all the open cesspits and from now on houses’ll have to connect up to the sewer.
‘What’ll that mean?’ I said.
He said, for starters, we’ll get a toilet that flushes, not a drop closet or night man as comes round each night to change the pail.
I heard Pa tell Ma there’s yards he’s seen would give her the horrors. Cesspits in butcher’s yards right next the chopping block and the joints and sausages hanging up all covered in flies. I felt sick when I heard him and didn’t feel like any tea only the stew they give us smelt all right and since it come in from outside the Rocks it must be safe.
There’s been somebody died of it today, over North Sydney and another in the city. That’s two more.
3rd April, Tuesday
The Herald says there’s New South Wales Mounteds been in some fighting yesterday at Karee Siding. There were a thousand British and Colonials with forty-two guns up against three thousand Boers with even more guns and a maxim besides. Reggie says that’s some sort of machine gun. In the end but the British lost nineteen dead and a hundred and fifty-nine wounded. I don’t know if the Boers lost any.
Ma read out today about this lady doctor as got herself a job with the government. She’s been in India and is real good with plague, even though she comes from Tasmania. Her name’s Dr Sadie Morie and Ma said isn’t that nice, a lady doctor. I think that’d be a nice thing to be if I hadn’t already said I were going to be a typist or a telephone lady.
There’s a young man died of plague, 24. Not much older than Bertie and yesterday was to have been his wedding day. And when he come down sick and went into quarantine on the 25th of March his fiancée said could she nurse him, only they said no. And now he’s dead.
Mr Oliver’s been to see more places and says there’s maybe a couple in Monaro would make good capital cities. Bombala and Delegate but I’ve never heard of them.
4th April, Wednesday
Queen Victoria’s been on a visit to Ireland and they put up nine miles of decorations just for her to drive through from where she come ashore to where she got out of her carriage in the park. There was £10 000 spent on fancy lights as well. Fred says that’s an awful lot to spend on lights.
5th April, Thursday
Fred’s birthday today only we told him he had to wait till Saturday to get his present cos he’s getting a present to share with Artie. Just as well his comes first. Artie couldn’t have waited.
6th April, Friday
You’d hardly know our street any more. I went there today and it looks more like some place in Africa where there’s been fighting, not like Sydney. I know they had to pull down houses that you couldn’t live in no more and they’ll put up new ones instead only they’ll be different so the Rocks’ll never really look the same again, will it? That’s a bit sad really.
Two more today.
There’s been no word from Bertie now for ages. I hope he’s all right and that he got my letter. Ma used to worry about him all the time, only now she says she’s got so much to worry about what with where we’ll be living after clean-up and if Pa’ll have a job, that she don’t have time to worry about Bertie too. He’s just got to look after hisself.
Mr Oliver’s gone to look at Bombala.
7th April, Saturday
It were Artie’s birthday today and we give them their present. It’s a billycart Pa’s been making out back behind the school when they was in bed. He done it from bits he’s scrounged on clean-up. Miss Collins let him hide it in a shed out back during the day. Harrington Street’s on a bit of a hill, only not real bumpy with bricks and stuff lying round so they’ll be safe there. They were that happy when they seen it and couldn’t wait to try it out. Pa says they got take turn and turn about dragging it up the top of the street. All the other kids round wanted a go as well, so after a bit they was all taking turns.
8th April, Sunday
Tonight Pa brung home some Sunday paper he found, just to show Ma the adverts in for plague. He says there’s people around who’ll try and sell you anything as makes money. ‘Like this: Plague! The Black Death! The Scourge of the East! Take Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills and avoid it! There, what’d I tell you?’ he says only Ma says there’s nobody’s going to start telling her what to take.
Then he finds an advert for PROTECTIVE ANKLETS and Maisie wants to know what anklets is.
Ma says they’re like socks only for round the ankles. Then Maisie wants to know what they do. Ma says she’s getting worse by the minute with her questions and the anklet’s s’posed to stop the fleas getting up your leg.
Only Pa laughs and says he bets all them people on the trams are wishing they had a pair ever since Fred and Artie carted all them fleas up town.
9th April, Monday
There’s someone from Woolloomooloo got it now. And there’s been lots more rats round. Bondi this time and Ma says they’d be after the picnic scraps. Fred and Artie been out again today looking and Ma says they can take them up Bathurst Street so long as they’re stone dead and dumped in boiling water first. She told Pa it’s only got to take one to run up their leg and they’ll soon change their minds.
Fred and Artie wear short pants still, as just cover their knees. They’d get a terrible fright. Reggie’s too tall now for short trousers and he wear
s his pa’s cut down a bits.
10th April, Tuesday
There’s a little boy died of it. Three and a half he was. They took him to North Head and he died before his ma could see him. Now there’s another two come down in Waverley.
Moore Park tips’s to be covered over with sand and the open sewer that goes from George Street to Blackwattle Bay’s being closed in. Wexford Street as runs off Campbell where Mr Ah Han lives has that many rats all through, they’ve had to send a clean-up gang specially. The whole street and all its houses is to come down. Chinese men come forward and said they’d like to work on clean-up, only they weren’t allowed. It don’t seem fair when you think it’s their houses and they got no other work.
It makes me feel funny when I hear whole streets are coming down. There’s streets round here me and other kids used to play in, lanes some of them, real narrow and barely twelve feet wide maybe. Now they’re gone. Dead ends good for hiding or playing ball and none of them there now. Nothing’s going to look the same any more.
11th April, Wednesday
There’s a little girl, Emily Shaw, come down with it. Her family took her to Children’s Hospital, only they said she had it and they went off to quarantine.
13th April, Good Friday
Ma said we was all to go to church this morning, that she’d take us girls and Pa was to take Fred and Artie. She said it’s Good Friday and the least we could do was say thank you for us not getting plague. City Mission held prayers and hymns in Ragged School for everyone as wanted them, only Ma said she was going to St Mary’s, even if she had to crawl under the barricades to get there. They put a cross up, all draped in purple for Easter. And Pa said there was lots of people at St Andrews, only Artie wouldn’t sit still cos the lady in front had a big hat with feathers and he said he couldn’t see.
There’s been a hundred and four people sick with it so far and thirty-six dead besides.
The paper had adverts in today for fish, it being Good Friday, only they’re saying none of it come from Sydney Harbour. It’s all from up north round Brisbane Waters where there’s no disinfectant killed them off.
15th April, Easter Sunday
It’s raining and turned real cold all of a sudden and the wind’s that strong Pa says it’s times like this he’s glad he don’t have a boat, cos he wouldn’t want to be out on the harbour with it blowing a gale like this. At least now he says the rats’ll start to disappear. Maybe.
It’s still pretty crowded in Ragged School what with the families living there, and sometimes there’s fights between us kids, only there’s always some ma or pa steps in to stop it on account of nobody can help not having a house no more and having to camp. The food’s all right but. Nothing special. North Head were better, but there’s bread most days and we get soup or stews at night.
16th April, Monday
Freezing cold still. Thought I’d freeze to death last night the hall’s that draughtly and we only got a thin blanket each. But me and Maisie snuggled up together and shared both ours to keep warm.
Fred and Artie ain’t found theirselves one rat since Saturday.
Pa says there’s people down Chinatown been attacked in the street and stones thrown at them. And one man’s gone and killed hisself on account of he’d been beaten up and his business ruined and he had no work and no money. Pa says it’s like a war almost the way people are treating them and Mr Ah Duck—that were his name—didn’t deserve to be treated that bad. The Chinese got every right to live in the city same as the rest of us.
A letter come from Mabel today from Woodstock up the Blue Mountains wanting to know how we are and do we need anything. Mrs Alexander got her to write, only Ma said she probably just wants to know if we’ve come down with something nasty for when Mabel visits on her next day off. Pa said that weren’t fair but Ma said all she knew was Mrs Alexander took Mabel up the mountains cos she couldn’t do without a maid, not cos she were worried about Mabel.
I were surprised to hear Ma talk like that, specially when she’s always wanting me to go into service too. Only maybe Ma’s starting to think different now? I hope so.
17th April, Tuesday
Still cold and no rats about but that don’t stop the adverts. There’s sales on at all the big shops, because people are nervous going out to shop Pa says. And there’s adverts for bicycles so you won’t have to go on the trams or buses. You can even buy insurance for plague only it wouldn’t have done Cannibal Tom much good.
18th April, Wednesday
Today were the coldest day in April for forty-one years the Herald said. Doesn’t surprise me. My arms is covered in goose bumps and have been all day.
Ma’s reading real well now, only it’s harder to give her practice what with lots of other people round. Pa still brings the paper home when he can find one, only Ma don’t want the other ladies to know she’s learning. I told her that were silly that there’s some of them can’t read neither. I told Miss Collins who said Ma was welcome to come in her office any time. So now Ma takes herself off there whenever she got a spare moment. There’s books there too she can read as well and that’s more interesting than adverts and bits of paper.
19th April, Thursday
There’s no word come from England yet on whether they’ll let us have a federation. Pa says they’re probably more taken with the war and besides federation got nothing to do with them.
The wind died down this morning and finally the sun come out. Now Fred and Artie are hoping all the rats’ll come back. They’re the only ones in Sydney as does but. Fred says he’s saving up to buy for fireworks for Empire Day.
20th April, Friday
Today a letter come from Bertie. We were that excited everyone wanted to open it only it were addressed to me on account of I wrote to him first so I got to. I read it out and now everyone’s heard it and I’m going to slip it in the pages of my diary to keep it safe.
Dear Kitty
Thanks for your letter which were delivered to me in hospital in Bloemfontein where I come down with typhoid. Our lot’s taken over the Parliament House here for a hospital because there’s an epidemic on that’s pretty bad. Most of us got typhoid drinking river water not knowing it was crook from bodies of men and horses floating further upstream. And there’s been a lot died of it but I’ve been just lucky I guess. The women of the town pitched in to help the army nurses take care of us and now me and my mates are mostly on the mend.
We were almost done for when we rode in. I’d had nothing to eat for thirty hours except a biscuit and half a corn cob. But if we were plum tuckered out, the horses were worse off, half-starved poor things and ready to drop most of them. We lost two thousand on the ride in. Just had to leave them on one side and hope we could maybe walk the rest of the way, if we couldn’t get another horse. We can usually pick up a remount, a horse that’s lost its trooper, if we’re lucky. Otherwise, it’s Shanks’ pony.
Most of the way you could hear the sound of shots every time a trooper put his horse down rather than make him go on. And now we’re here, there’s mounds of dead horses piled up, three hundred in some places and twelve hundred others sick besides.
Bloemfontein’s a town of probably five thousand people only for now there’s maybe 50,000 to 60,000 troopers as well, so it’s pretty crowded. The townspeople weren’t at all keen to see Australians. Almost hostile some of them, saying we shouldn’t have come. We’re farmers like them and how come we joined the British? Threw me back a bit I can tell you. All I know is, I come over for a bit of adventure and so far, I’ve not seen much of that. Just a lot of dead horses and sick men, those that aren’t wounded or killed outright. Most of what I’ve seen’s been on a pretty empty stomach at times. Seems to me there’s more troopers dying of sickness in this war than there are of bullets. Anyway, I hope all’s well with you at home love to all from your gloomy
Bertie.
And Ma said, ‘There, what did I tell you? The army’s not looking after him.’
Pa said,
‘No, that’s because it’s the army.’
21st April, Saturday
There’s two more cases in Paddo and Summer Hill but the good news is clean-up gangs have finished round here and the barricades are down in Kent and Druitt Streets. There’s some down in Liverpool Street and part of Sussex. Now the gangs have moved on. The men that come from outside will stay up town from now on, them and the cooks that feed them.
There’s sixty-two people still in quarantine not counting contacts and a hundred and thirty-four rats was burnt in Bathurst Street yesterday only the paper says the old furnace is nearly worn out now and they’ll have to get a new one.
Now the barricades are down the schools’ll be going back. Pa says some people will still keep their kids away till there’s no more bubonic at all. That could take months. And there’s kids roaming the streets whose pa or ma’s maybe died of it and Miss Collins got to try and get them to move in. She says she’ll take a class down one end for older kids and Miss Nunn can teach the littlies up the other. Ma and the other ladies just got to do their sewing quiet, not chattering round the sides. Ma gets on real well with Miss Collins now and that don’t do me no harm, specially if she talks Ma out of sending me off to service.
23rd April, Monday
George come round to see Pa today. He said he were that sick of coffins and dead people he just had to get away for a bit. So his boss said he could have the rest of the week off just so long as he’s back again Monday. Pa told him he looked tired and he ought to get away down the coast, maybe do some fishing. Only George said all he wants to do is see Lily and try to talk her round. It’s only because she’s scared she won’t see him so he got to make her understand he’s had his needle and has had all this time and he’s ever so careful round bodies. Besides somebody has to bury them. They can’t just leave them lying out on top can they?
Plagues and Federation Page 6