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Columns / Short Stories
Shep was always writing. . .

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April 1971

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Lahaina Town, Maui, Hawaii



Great Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries had a tradition that was practiced by its elegant monied upper classes. They were plagued by swarms of over-educated, elegant, unworldly offspring who were the world's first Children Of Affiuence. After the Old Man had hacked a fortune and a title out of the unfriendly world, he wound up a tough old bird wise in the ways of Man, saddled with male offspring given to gambling, drink, opium puffing, faggotry, and the penning of limp poetry, dealing mostly with Love. There was only one thing to do, and the tough old bird did it in style. He shipped the simperers off to the far reaches of the Empire, to languish away their lives amid tropical decadence far away from the family. They were called Remittance Men. A few very ancient survivors of this 19th Century English tradition can still be found in Sumatra or Pango Pango, still receiving their checks from a Post Office box in Dorset. . .


Copyright: 1971 Car and Driver