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A LARRIKIN LEADER'S EVOLUTION.
'Jonali," by Louis Stone.." {Methuen and
Co., London.) Australia is, par excellence,
the land of unions; and in the organisation I
of "the push." Sydney has established a
ï lead in united larrikinism that reduces to j
! comparative insignificance the hoodlum and
hooligan gangs of old world cities. It is
true that the "Apache" bands of Paris far
exceed in viciousness and violence the most
' aggressive of Australian "pushes ;" but they
fall fai° short in systematic unionism for the
defiance of law and order. Henry^Lawson,
j who discovered
That even the creed of the outlawed push
Is chivalry-upside down,
has been the laureate of larrikinism; and Mr.
! Stone, with evidently much first-hand know-
ledge of the methods, manners, ethics and
practices of the Sydney "push," has now
come to the front as its novelist. Mr. Dyson
in his "Fact'ry 'Ands " has written matter
of fact chronicles of Melbourne larrikins,
spattered abundantly with slum slang and
comic incident ; but the author of "Jonah" has
dealt with the push question artistically yet
realistically.. He combines, in fact, the ideals
of a Lawson with the practicalities of a
Dyson. His sketches of the push "dealing"
with an obnoxious individual, and of "coster"
bargaining at grey dawn in Paddy's market,
his larrikin wedding, and, above all, his de-
tailed description of the curriculum of a
"two-up" school, are admirable in their vivid-
ity and fidelity. Moreover, the sordidity of
the scenes depicted is relieved by an ever
evident recognition of the fact that the larri-
kin is not a human monstrosity, but largely
the creation of his environment, and of a
spirit of lawless liberty engrafted ou au
hereditary instinct of revolt against police
control, and the cast-iron canons of well-to
do respectability. The primary objective of
the author evidently is to show how the germs
of good may be developed in the char-
acteristics which constitute qualification for
"push" leadership. He gives us four main
larrikin types, two male and two female,
and develops their characters under the in-
fluence of primary emotions common to all
humanity. Jonah is a big-headed, 'subtly
inteUigtSfo., and calculating, courageous
hunchback, whose brains and fighting power
have made him leader of the Cardigan-street
push. Chooke is a nuggety, resolute, and
fistically skilful costermonger, the lieutenant
and fighting champion - of the gang, who
thoroughly recognises the superior intellect
of his leader, aud is heartily loyal to bim.
Neither of them is exactly honest, but cer-
tainly neither is a thief, and both have dor-
mant capabilities for good, awaiting the de-
veloping influence of an objective. Jonah is,
very reluctantly and tardily, but powerfully,
moved upward by the paternal instinct. He
has no moral'or sentimental ideas of family
responsibility. His illegitimate child does
not in the least appeal to him, until he
comes under the magnetic attraction of its
personality, recognises in the infant a men-
tal counterpart ol' himself without his. physi
I cal deformity, and is brought to feel that
I "it is up to him to give the kid a chance."
j How he marries-in true larrikin fashion
? the slatternly,- lazy mother for the sake of
the child, how he undertakes persistent work
on its account, and how he applies his brains
J and force of character to business, the tale
¡ tells in absorbingly interesting fashion. With
his trusty lieutenant Chooke, a different mo
. tive operates. Chooke- falls unawares into
honourable and abiding love, with a straight
going, strongly affectionate "red-headed little
moll," knowii as Piukey. Like the operatic
larrikin, whose stage warble, "Down the
Bai-y," enraptured Melbourne a decade ago,
Chooke
Chucks up the push for the donah,
and th 3 true wedded pair of larrikins
struggle up gallantly, from the coster's bar-
row to the suburban greengrocer's shop and
the respectable hawker's horse and cart.
The book abounds in graphic portraitures,
striking characterisations, humorous situa-
tions, and, above all, in genuine human
nature. "'Jonah" ;s to modern Sydney what
the "Scenes de la Vie do Boheme" was to
.Paris in the days of the Empire. It is a
book to be. read, and especially by Aus-
tralians.
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