January-December 2010, vol. 1

he left for Australia. Then, after only about five or six years ofnormal family life, she had to look after her terminally sickhusband, and the young family, right up to Antonino’s death. Inever got to know Giuseppa, being only very young when shewas in her years of decline, and living in a different city. Duringthe few times I saw her on visits to Geelong, she always seemedvery quiet, almost in the background of the Palamara familywith whom she lived. She loved Mary and Maggy’s children. 36However, I wonder whether she ever fully recovered fromthose early trials. She seems to have been a woman of devoutfaith, like many Italian women of the time. At the time of herdeath, she had a well-used book of prayers and meditations inItalian, some 900 pages long. Inside the cover, the first blankpage bears her name, apparently in her own handwriting. Hersurname is spelt “Lazara.” So, unlike Antonino, she could writeas well as read. She survived Antonino forty-one years, dying in1946 having suffered from dementia for several years.1896. 39 Battista and Angelo lived at No 53 Bouverie Street,Carlton from 1898 to 1900, only two doors from theSantospiritos. 40 Angelo occupied No 17 Lansdowne Place in1907 and 1908. 41 Nos 17 and 27 shared a common wall andwere less than a minute’s walk apart. Angelo and Antonio musthave known each other well.Antonio had several gifts which he used to the full and, by doingso, developed into a most successful businessman. He had anenormous capacity for hard work, combined with a singlemindeddedication to his business. At the age of eleven, whenAntonino went back to Italy seeking a cure, he began pushingAntonino’s barrow, loaded with fruit and flowers, peddlingthem on street corners. 42 He would even haul the barrow withhis own hands from Carlton down to St Kilda in summer, put ina day’s work down there, and then haul the barrow back toCarlton.At one stage, he tried to induce his young brother Lawrence tojoin him in his business. Lawrence rejected his overturesoutright.“That’s horse’s work,” he said to Antonio.“Well I’m the horse then,” Antonio replied. 43Apart from doing that sort of work, Antonio would rise at 3amon market days, that is, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday everyweek, and go to Victoria Market, a short walk from his home, tobuy his stocks of fruit, vegetables and flowers. He used to loudlyadvertise his flowers as “fresh cut.” In later years when he hadbecome well established, he only needed to rise at 5am to go tomarket as his wholesale suppliers would be waiting for him. Theonly holiday he ever had consisted of an enforced time off workin about 1941 because of injuries he received in a caraccident. 44Fig. 3 Giuseppa Lazzaro. Image courtesy of Tony Santospirito.At the time of his father’s death, Antonio was 13 years old. Heand Mary had to bear a large part of the burden of earning thefamily bread. Mary also used to do jobs forAntonio, such as bunching flowers. 37 Antonio was used tohaving to earn money for his family. At the age of six, he wasselling newspapers outside Flinders Street Station. 38 At the ageof nine, he used to sell violets from door to door. This was notunusual for a young Italian migrant boy at the time. In about1903, one Angelo Russo, also from Malfa, had a team of boysabout that age selling flowers on commission for him on PrincesBridge, Melbourne. Angelo himself was only about sixteen atthe time, having come to Australia with his uncle, Battista, in36 Ron Costa.37 Tony Palamara, oral source.38 Smith’s Weekly, 3 December 1949, p. 13.Having grown up and survived such difficult circumstances, it isonly to be expected that Antonio would have becomestreetwise and would have learned to play the game hardsometimes. In a letter to his son Gerard, who at the time wasstudying medicine in Mildura, he urged Gerard to study hardand succeed so that he would not be “pushed around” asAntonio himself had been. 45 He did not explain how he hadbeen pushed around, but one can imagine how some peoplemight have treated a boy thrust into the highly competitivebusiness world at a very young age.Antonio used to arrive home from work at about 7.15pm,including Saturdays. Unfortunately, he did not sit down to eatdinner with his family. He would put down his newspaper and39 Bonifacio Zurli, p. 372.40 Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages: Sands &McDougall; Anthony Russo, oral history interview, Italian HistoricalSociety, n.d.41 Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages: Sands &McDougall, 1907, 1908.42 M. Triaca, p. 38, n.6.43 Ernest Virgona, oral source.44 Smith’s Weekly.45 M. Triaca, p. 38.10 | IHSJ ITALIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 18 2010