Notable South Australians/Frederick Harvie Linklater
trapper, and the third was an Englishman. The country was in a disturbed state, and the travellers were taken prisoners by the Mexicans on the charge of treason. They were incarcerated and chained to the wall of their prison and were only taken out to learn the result of their trial, which had been by lot and without their knowledge. They were drawn into the square of the fort; one American and the Englishman were shot, and Mr. Linklater and the trapper were set free. This was as fair a trial as could be expected from a Mexican. Returning to London Mr. Linklater gave up attorneydom for the more ambitious profession of the Bar and entered at Lincoln's Inn. Partially suspending his studies during the Franco-Prussian war, he followed the campaign with the second Daily News pass and was present at Worth, Metz, and the siege of Paris, and at the opening of the gates of the city was one of the first batch of Englishmen who passed in. Here he rescued his sister, Mrs. Girdlestone, and found her jewels in a manure heap, where she had hidden them. Mr. Linklater pursued his legal studies under Mr. Rowland Vaughan Williams (whom he aided in the drafting of the famous Judicature Bill), Mr. Marcus Martin, the conveyancer, and Mr. Kekewich, and was called to the Bar in 1873, During his studentship and afterwards, while practising in the Court of Chancery, he was appointed dramatic and operatic critic to the Pall Mall Gazette, a position which he occupied for two years and a-half, contributing also to Routledge's Magazine and other periodicals. Mr. Linklater left for New South Wales in 1876; joined the Bar there, and had a considerable practice, wrote a treatise on the Law of Divorce, and was Government reporter in the Supreme Court. But, in spite of these engagements, which would have exhausted the energies of a less zealous litterateur, he found time to serve the newspapers as dramatic critic and to furnish contributions based on his experience as a traveller and a soldier. Leaving Kew South Wales in 1880, he came to South Australia, where he practises his profession in spite of the dramatic taste which has resulted in some theatrical successes, and which has earned him the confidence of the editor of the leading London theatrical journal, whose correspondent he is. His contributions to dramatic literature in Adelaide include "Pinbehind," which was produced at the Academy, "My Uncle's Wife," in which Bland Holt acted at the Royal; an adaptation of the "Field of the Cloth of Gold" played at the same theatre; the "Debutante," and a Pantomime which came out at the Academy. This last was a great feat, for the order was given on one Friday, and the rehearsal took place on the next. On the following Friday the Pantomime was exhibited, and alas! on the fourth Friday the Academy was in ashes, and the Pantomime extinguished. And now we have brought down to date a very active, diversified and romantic career, which before its close may attain to the brilliancy which it has narrowly missed.