Economic Research: Benevolent Mischief

Sunday, 6 January 2013

Benevolent Mischief

Jules François Archibald (1856-1919), journalist, was born on 14 January 1856 at Kildare, Geelong, Victoria, and baptized John Feltham, son of Joseph Archibald, sergeant of police, and his wife Charlotte Jane, née Madden. His father was enlightened, sober and sceptical, with a great love for classical literature. By contrast his mother was impulsive and sunny-natured; having lost her first baby, she loved her eldest living son with special intensity and must have vitally influenced his wit, mischief, and faith in human beings. When she died on 21 October 1860 the family was living at Warrnambool; an aunt and a grandmother cared for the children while Joseph Archibald served on the goldfields. Young Archibald went to both the local Roman Catholic and National schools; each left him a few but derisive memories of heavy-handed authority. For about a year he attended Henry Kemmis's Grammar School, where his horizons were widened generally and his literary ambition developed. At 14 he was apprenticed in the printery of Fairfax & Laurie, lessees of the Warrnambool Examiner; when they founded theStandard in 1872 he went with them.