The Wearin' o' The Badge (1912)
"Now tell us, Mr. Tramwayman, what all the row's about--"
"It means," the answer came, "a wholesale Countess Street count-out ;
Because we will not bend the knee, or rat, or cringe, or cadge,
We're told 'there is no work for you thro' wearin' of that badge.' "
Chorus ;
For the wearin' of the badge, my boys,
The wearin' of the badge !
We'll best old Badger yet, my boys,
And still retain the badge.
"It looks a little tiling, perhaps, this token that we wear,
But manhood, faith, and unity are trebly symbolled there ;
The biggest of dictators one day met his Waterloo,
And Badger--who's no Bonaparte--will likewise find that true."
Chorus.
A soldier gets a medal for brave slaughtering of his kind,
But values more the locket from the girl he left behind ;
'Tis the emblem of fraternity we wear upon our chain,
In loyalty we hung it there--and there it will remain.
Chorus.
"For Brisbane isn't Frisco, and we want, no Yankee Boss
To set up as a dollar god beneath the Southern Cross.
We'll never flinch, or budge an inch, or scab, or smoodge, or cadge,
But beat old Bully Badger yet by wearin' of that badge."
Chorus.
Notes
From the Queensland Newspaper the Worker Sat 3 Feb 1912 p. 10.