Electioneering Scene (1899)
(Air Killaloe.)
The following are selections from the topical songs sang at Mr Hoolan'ssuccessful entertainment in the Centennial Hall, on Thursday night:-- There is going to be a stir, and its one you'll all prefer,
There'll be speeches that will galvanise the line ;
All the candidates will pull, and the papers will be full
Of the happiness that comes at such a time. For the contract has been made in the interests of trade.
Not free trade, but political tirade ;
And the bogie soon will call, both the stumpy and the tall.
To the music of the blattering brigade. Chorus:-- There's the Labor party,
Whose case we hear ex parte,
That party with the forty planks,
And noisy hullabaloo.
With its programme nice and tarty.
And its tongue so long and smarty ;
With its A.L.F. and W.O.P.
Well soon see who is who. Jas. R. Dickson is the crack, but they say he wont get back ;
Harry Turley, too, is going to the wall ;
And the forty-one plank push is coming with a rush,
And Higgs will give old Mac a wondrous fall.
For the Valley goes to Higgs, and sweet Login goes to Briggs, And Sydes will cop Bundamba sure as fate ;
Sammy Grimes he smells the times,
When the National Anthem chimes,
For he knows that Culpin's got his loyal sale.
Have you heard the Labor team copped the Federation scheme,
Its as true as gospel I tell to you,
It is added to the planks, and Tom Glassey gets the thanks, So instead of forty-one there's forty two.
But be jabers they're no good, not the kind of solid wood
That's required by railway lines like Chillagoe ;
Faith, I would not be surprised to hear they were demised,
And Mat Battersby made King Incognito.
Dear Walter Bentley Begg, hung his lantern on a peg,
And is chasing Justin Foxton for Carnary. The electioneering scene, through the magic lantern screen,
Reminds you of Lane's Paraguayan starve.
Better, Walter, on your part, for your pocket and your heart,
if you lave the gallant major quite alone ;
When, the numbers are put up you will want a little sup,
For to cheer you on your dreary journey home. There's two parties in the State, we learn from Dickson's pate,
With policies and planks and schemes galore :--
Well, faith I won't dispute these words of solemn truth.
But, begorra I'm convinced there's twenty-four. For Jack Hoolan's on his own, and Danny Keogh goes alone ;
John Fogarty no longer follows Bell,
And its said that Daddy Groom knocks Johnny out of tune,
But the old one's game you never can foretell. Notes
From the Queensland Newspaper the Northern Miner Feb 1899 Page 2.
Graeme Smith writes:--
Hoolan seems to be a character. I wonder if he sung the song himself. The article seems ambiguous on this.
Killalloo certainly was popular in the 90s. I was looking to see if his verses were parodies of the original
or 2nd order parodies of drovers dream or wooloomooloo. But seeing the original has the ..arty rhyme as well as
the longer third line then it looks like he had the original in mind.