Miner Dan's Lament (1912)
Come, listen, boys, from far and near
And let us kneel and pray
That we won't have to spend our days
Down Kosciusko way.
For Mr. Jones has just returned
In his big motor car--
From the Guv'ment Kosciusko pub.,
Where drinks are few and far.
For beer is eighteenpence a pint,
Lor' lumnie, that's all right !
A bloke could only have one drink
On every Sat'dy night.
S'pose I says lager, Bill says ale;
And English beer, is Mick's,
Well, blime, 'stead o' ninepence,
It's four, and bloomin' six !
And if you has your motor car.
You mustn't make a row--
If in the motor shed is housed
A blanky bloomin' cow.
But Lithgow is the place for me,
I'm here to bloomin' stay,
No pay in' eighteen pence, when I
Can get it for a tray.
So listen, boys from Hermitage,
From Zigzag, and Old Vale ;
We'll spend our cash, grow fat and wise,
On good brown Lithgow ale.
--HERR BONE DUST.
BlackHeath.
Notes
From the Lithgow NSW Newspaper the Lithgow Mercury Mon 9 Sep 1912 p. 4.