There's a capital expression
Which -- to make a slight digression --
Had Australia for its birthplace, though it's in the Saxon tongue.
For beautiful simplicity
In showing up duplicity
Of every sort, you cannot beat the phrase, "Gone Bung!"
When "a wild cat scheme's" promoted,
And eventually floated,
Through the pertinacious way in which its praises have been sung
By some papers interested,
Do the "lambkins" who invested
Ever fully grasp the meaning of the words, "Gone Bung?"
When a man has made his money
By a " lucky spec.," it's funny
Just to hear his brother-climbers, who are on a lower rung,--
"If it hadn't been for me, Sir,
"Where the devil would he be, Sir ?
" Why, if I'd not stood his friend, Sir, he'd have just ' Gone Bung.' "
We have all heard, too, of nations
That won't keep their proper stations
In the World's rank, but must "go the pace " - especially the young
Why they throw away their chances
And they ruin their finances
By insensate emulation, with result -- "Gone Bung ! "
I might moralise for hours,
Were it not for failing powers
(Though don't think that I'm referring to my powers of brain or lung,
As they never have been stronger).
But I can't write any longer,
For the ink-pot's nearly empty and my pen's "gone bung!"
First published in The West Australian, 17 September 1894
