young man's first freedom still hangs some
illusion. With apparently impregnable health and unsubdued spirits, he
has the illusion of present immortality; life is a world without end.
But when youth begins to sober and health shows cracks and gaps, and
hard labour comes, then the realities, indeed, crawl out and show
themselves. My early work in New South Wales seemed to me then like
sport. America was real life; it was for ever putting the stiffest
questions to me. I can imagine an examination paper which might appal
many fat graduates.

1. Describe from experience the sensations of hunger when prolonged over
three days.

2. Explain the differences in living in New York, Chicago and San
Francisco on a dollar a week. In such cases, how would you spend ten
cents if you found it in the street at three o'clock in the morning?

3. How long would it be in your own case before want of food destroyed
your sense of private property? Give examples from your own experience.

4. How far can you walk without food--(_a_) when you are trying to
reach a definite point; (_b_) when you are walking with an insane view
of getting to some place unknown where a good job awaits you?

5. If, after a period (say three weeks) of moderate starvation, and two
days of absolute starvation, you are offered some work, which would be
considered laborious by the most energetic coal-heaver, would you tackle
it without food or risk the loss of the job by requesting your employer
to advance you 15 cents for breakfast?

6. Can you admire mountain scenery--(_a_) when you are very hungry;
(_b_) when you are very thirsty? If you have any knowledge of the
ascetic ecstasy, describe the symptoms.

7. You are in South-west Texas without money and without friends. How
would you get to Chicago in a fortnight? What is the usual procedure
when a town objects to impecunious tramps staying around more than
twenty-four hours? Can you describe a "calaboose"?

8. Sketch an American policeman. Is he equally polite to a railroad
magnate and a tramp? What do you understand by "fanning with a club"?

9. Which are the best as a whole diet--apples or water-melons?

10. Define "tramp," "bummer," "heeler," "hoodlum," and "politician."

This is a paper put together very casually, and just as the pen runs,
but the man who can pass such an examination creditably must know many
things not revealed to the babes and sucklings of civilisation. From my
own point of view I thi