Recently in Railways Category

It is stated that many railway lines in the State that have never paid and are considered never likely to pay, will shortly be closed.  They were mostly built out of loan money. - News item.

Long since a roadway used to go

Down to the town of Windywoe,

   And teamsters' waggons on the track

   Carried our trade goods forth and back,

But Joseph Jimpson-Jones Esquire,

The leading light within our shire,

   Proposed a railway line as well.

   The interest?  Pah!  A bagatelle.

Now this same Joseph Jimpson-Jones,

At that time owned -- in fact still owns

   Vast tracts of land about the place.

   He said it was a gave disgrace

That Windywoe possessed no train;

And so he labored might and main

   To pull at certain secret strings

   (In those dark days they did such things.)

The ultimate result was fine,

And Windywoe secured its line;

   And cash from certain public loans

   Bought certain lands from Jimpson-Jones

At certain fancy prices which

Inclined to make him passing rich.

   The interest?  Pah!  What should we acre?

   That was posterity's affair.

Then twice a day the train came down

To wake our slumbrous little town;

   And twice a day the train puffed out

   A pretty sight, which marked, no doubt,

Great progress, tho' I've heard them say

The line was never made to pay.

   'Twas progress, and unwept, unsung,

   The old-time teamsters all went bung.

Time mooched on slowly, year by year,

And motors started to appear

   Upon the road to Windywoe.

   More progress, as of course, you know,

As for the railway, we confess

Its revenues grew less and less.

   The interest?  Well, as you're aware;

   Taxpayers see to that affair.

We owned, in backward days of yore,

One blacksmith's shop, one pub, one store,

   Today we have, as times enlarge,

   One pub, one store and one garage.

There's progress for a little town!

They railway?  Oh, they shut that down.

   The train that used to run is gone...

   Of course, the interest still runs on.

First published in The Herald, 19 December 1934

Author reference sites: C.J. Dennis, Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library

"There was I, waiting for a car,

Waiting for a car,

Waiting for a car,

When I thought of how the thing would jar,

Lor! How it did upset me!

By and by I heard a little word,

Wasn't it absurd?

This is what I heard:

'Can see my way to carry you to-day

Moncrief -- (Boom! Boom!) won't let me.'"

First published in The Gadfly, 4 September 1907

Author reference sites: C.J. Dennis, Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library

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)

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!

First published in The Bulletin, 11 August 1910

Author reference sites: C.J. Dennis, Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library

This is the line that Boom built.

This is the loan that lay on the line that Boom built.

This is the plan that floated the loan that lay on the line that Boom built.

This is the man that pushed the plan that floated the loan that lay on the line that Boom built.

This is the citizen all foresworn that elected the man that pushed the plan that floated the loan that lay on the line that Boom built.

This is the grandson, afterward born, that followed the citizen all foresworn that elected the man that pushed the plan that floated the loan that lay on the line that Boom built.

This is the debt that proved a thorn to burden the grandson, afterward born, that followed the citizen all foresworn that elected the man that pushed the plan that floated the loan that lay on the line that Boom built.

This is the interest none could scorn that doubled the debt that proved a thorn to burden the grandson, afterward born, that followed the citizen all foresworn that elected the man that pushed the plan that floated the loan that lay on the line that Boom built.

This is the lien on our kine and corn because of the interest none could scorn that doubled the debt that proved a thorn to burden the grandson, afterward born, that followed the citizen all foresworn that elected the man that pushed the plan that floated the loan that lay on the line that Boom built.

This is the dawn of the fateful morn, due date for the lien on our kine and corn (while we search our pockets all tattered and torn at the call of the mortgagee forlorn) to look for the interest none may scorn that doubles the debt that proves a thorn to burden the grandson, afterward born, that follow the citizen all foresworn that elected the man that pushed the plan that floated the loan that lay on the line that Boom built.

First published in The Herald, 31 July 1930

Author reference sites: C.J. Dennis, Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library