Australian author (1855-1913)
Of what use are good words to an evil heart?
LOUIS BECKE
"Solepa", By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore and Other Stories
And they all, sailers as well as the few steamers, where manned by sailor-men, not by gangs of foreign paint-scrubbers, who generally form a steamer's crew of the present day--men who could no more handle a bit of canvas than a cow could play the Wedding March--in fact there are thousands of men nowadays earning wages on British ships as A.B.'s who have never touched canvas except in the shape of tarpaulin hatch covers, and whom it would be highly dangerous to put at the wheel of a sailing ship--they would make a wreck of her in any kind of a breeze in a few minutes.
LOUIS BECKE
The Call of the South
She looked lost, abandoned, out of place, and my heart went out to her as my eyes travelled from her shapely lines and graceful sheer, to her lofty spars, tapering yards, and curving jibboom, the end of the latter almost touching the stern rail of an ugly bloated-looking German tramp steamer of 8,000 tons.
LOUIS BECKE
The Call of the South
Thou dost not understand the foolish things that creep into the hearts of us white men when we love a woman, not for her beauty alone, but for something that wise men say lies beyond the black gates of death, and the woman who loves and the man who loves shall yet meet again.
LOUIS BECKE
"The Woman from Sangir"
Give me some more grog, dear friend; when I talk of the days of my youth my belly yearns for it, and I am not ashamed to beg.
LOUIS BECKE
"Solepa", By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories
All women are beautiful when they are young, and their eyes are full and clear and their voices are soft and their bosoms are round and smooth.
LOUIS BECKE
"Solepa", By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories
This woman is a stranger, and your wives will surely kill her because of that alone.
LOUIS BECKE
"The Woman from Sangir"
My love is like the suckers of the octopus.
LOUIS BECKE
By Reef and Palm