Item 03: T. J. Cleary diary, 25 August 1918 - 5 July 1919 - Page 35

[Page 35]

of words which I don't know. I then pull him up and ask him to find the words in the Dictionary for me. I'm damned if he can. He I understand the sense of what he's telling me but would like to get those words as I want to study them, but its no good. The old – starts off right from the beginning like a child that has been interrupted in a lesson & sometimes he will do this two or three times. Naturally I am quite fed up and spend a lot of my time dodging him. Its no use telling him that I only want this word or that word, as a matter of fact he can't read too well. He is always telling me of wonderful things in the paper. I ask him to show me the paper and almost invariably I find that he has misread it. I can't read French quite as well as he can, but I can go over an item and show him where he has made a mistake. These people are very keen in business or in their particular trade, but as regards the world or big things generally, say Science, politics or anything past the bottom of the street, they know absolutely nothing. He asked me to speak Australian to him the other day. He thought Aussies, Canucks and Yanks all spoke different languages.

19-3, Wed.
M. Murray-Prior put me in my place the night before last, beat me twice, this makes four consecutive games I have lost.