The big empty estates make the railways lose money, and then there's the deficit, and then comes the necessity for cheapness to make up the deficit, and then there's the smash. - BULLETIN (23/7/'10)
No one should step on a train without a silent prayer for the safe-keeping of himself and fellow-passengers; or step from a train in safety without lifting up his heart in thanksgiving to God. - Victorian clergyman.
Lord, Who made the Fatman,
Who owns the runs afar,
Where the rotting townships
And useless railways are,
Punish not Thy servant
For his greed and vice;
Let some other traveller
Be the sacrifice.
Lord of politicians
Of an olden day,
They who built the railways
That never, never pay,
Visit not Thy vengeance
On my guiltless head;
Let some Tory traveller
Pay the cost instead.
Lord, Who knoweth in what year
The car in which I sit
Was built, and that it runneth still
To meet the deficit,
Hold its planks together, Lord,
Stay its crazy bolts;
Let some godless traveller
Bear the shocks and jolts.
Lord, Who knoweth who's to blame
For the railway smash,
Thou Who marketh how thet scheme
To make up squandered cash,
If Thou still ordainest
A sacrifice must be,
Hold it till a later train -
Mercy, Lord, on me!
Lord, who made the Fatman,
Who grabbed for sake of cash,
The land that made the deficit
That made the railway smash,
Send Thou not Thy lowly folk
To be the sacrifice -
They that sin the sin, O Lord,
Should surely pay the price.
First published in The Bulletin, 11 August 1910
Author reference sites: C.J. Dennis, Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
