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Date Posted: 14:01:11 05/04/00 Thu
Author: Chris
Subject: I'm sorry I missed the last book

I'm about 130 pages into Twain and I think I'm going to give this book to my parents due to the fact that nearly the entire first portion deals with Australia.

I thought that the account of the civilized servitude of the pacific island "recruits" in Queensland was really entertaining and informative. It really made me think of the sugar/rum industry of Antigua and the nearby island of Barbuda. I don't want to disrespect the history, so I'm hoping that Dave can elaborate on it later on. It basically evokes the thought of a group of people cloistered and forced to reproduce so that their best attributes would be cultived.

My favorite part thus far relates to the severity of punishment in Britain vs. that of Australia:

When I was in London twenty-three years ago there was a new penalty in force for diminishing garroting and wife-beating--25 lashes on the bare back with the cat-o'-nine-tails. . . That penalty had a great and wholesome effect upon the garroters and wife-beaters; but humane modern London could not endure it; it got its law rescinded. Many a bruised and battered English wife has since had occasion to deplore that cruel achievement of sentimental "humanity."

Now that's probably one of the points on which I would diverge from the ACLU.

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