[Editor: This postcard, which incorporates a map of mainland Australia (with a gum leaf made from leather), is dated 27 June 1911.]
[Front of postcard]
A Gum Leaf from the Golden South.
The Bush without it’s Gum Leaves
(Although it’s lost this one)
Would be to fair Australia
As the sky without the sun.
[Description: A map of Australia, with a gum leaf (made from leather) attached, accompanied by a poem.]
[Reverse of postcard]
[Handwritten text, in italics]
43 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne
27.6.11
Dear Lock
Yours to hand. Am going up to Kilmore for a few days from date.
Will see you when I come back I hope.
Great enquiries for you at a Ball I was at on Tuesday last. One lovely dream floated up and said Where is your friend Miss O’Leary tonight? Never even asked me how I was. Hell.
Yours as ever
“Dollar Dan”
Source:
Original document
Editor’s notes:
Dimensions (approximate): 142 mm. (width), 88 mm. (height).
This postcard was manufactured by Harding & Billing. The trademark of Harding & Billing was an artist’s palette with “H&B” in the middle (this can be seen on the reverse side of this postcard, at the bottom-left).
Unlike the earlier postcards in “The Gumleaf from the Golden South” series, this version includes Tasmania (albeit in an inset box).
See two examples of other postcards from “The Gumleaf from the Golden South” series:
1) A Gum Leaf from the Golden South [postcard, version 1, circa 1907]
2) A Gum Leaf from the Golden South [postcard, version 2, circa 1907]
Even though this postcard was sent after the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia (1901), it has a Victorian postage stamp; nationwide postage stamps were not produced until 1913, with the introduction of the “Kangaroo and Map” stamps.
This postcard uses “it’s” as a possessive (“The Bush without it’s Gum Leaves”) and “it’s” as a contraction (“Although it’s lost this one”).
Bush = bushland (areas in the country which have lots of bushes and trees; an area which is predominantly untamed wilderness)
it’s = [1] a contraction of “it has” (“it’s” can also be a contraction of “it is”)
it’s = [2] (archaic) a possessive term, regarding something that belongs to “it”; the old form (it’s) included an apostrophe, whereas the standard modern form (its) does not include an apostrophe
See: 1) “Grammar: It’s and Its”, The Institute of Australian Culture
2) “The tangled history of ‘It’s’ and ‘Its’: A tale of two really similar words”, Merriam-Webster
3) “its (pron.)”, Online Etymology Dictionary
[Editor: For ease of reading, the original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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