[Editor: An anecdote (possibly by “Dryblower” Murphy) published in the “Variety Vamps and Sunday Satires” column in The West Australian Sunday Times, 28 April 1901.]
[A dusty old dryblower from the Fields]
A dusty old dryblower from the Fields recently arrived in Fremantle and put up at a local private boarding house, and having subsisted for many years on dog and damper, spread himself out for a long course of fish diet.
One day he returned home unexpectedly from a fishing excursion with a decent basket of whiting, and the cook being temporarily absent, set to work to clean, cook, and eat the marine delicacy. “I say,” he remarked to the cook, who arrived just as he had finished his meal, “I managed some of that anchovy sauce of yours, but it ain’t the best I’ve tasted.”
“Where’s the bottle?” asked the curious chef.
The whiting-wolfer pointed to a bottle without a label.
“Should think not,” guffawed the culinary artiste, “THAT’S BROWN BOOT POLISH!”
Source:
The West Australian Sunday Times (Perth, WA), 28 April 1901, p. 1
Also published (with some differences) in:
The Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA), 28 April 1901, p. 4
Editor’s notes:
artiste = (French) a skilled or talented performing artist, such as an actor, dancer, or singer; an expert with an artistic flair, such as a talented chef; a talented creative person
wolf = to eat ravenously, to devour voraciously; to wolf down one’s food (from the perceived ravenous appetite, and eating manner, of a wolf)
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
The Institute of Australian Culture
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