A reviewer in The Queenslander found much to like about the book but also noted its limitations: "..most of the sketches can best be described as Bulletinesque, the evidence of their having been written with a view to appearance in that popular weekly being unmistakable. There is plenty of variety in the book; fun and pathos, and the two commingled, with running through nearly all a note of cynicism - not altogether spontaneous in the author, but rather inspired by his associations — which one has come to expect in the writings of Henry Lawson."[2]
Similarly the reviewer in The Australian Town and Country Journal: "They are just such anecdotes and snap-shots of general conversation which would be in keeping with the time for rest and jest around camp-fires, and of course the author picked up his materials under such circumstances. They can scarcely all be denominated "stories" - inasmuch as many of them are merely impressions of men and things, and are no more tales than the descriptive writing of a journalist. These impressions give anything but a cheerful view of Australian life up country, The stranger who knows not Australia will doubtless apply Mr. Lawson's description to the whole country outside the towns, but the stories do not deal with the country as a whole, but with that part of it referred to as "out back.""[3]
Film adaptation
Several of the stories in this collections were adapted for the screen in a 1921 film. It was written, directed and produced by Beaumont Smith.[4] It is considered a lost film.
