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Collected from JOE WATSON Caringbah, NSW Recorded 1973 onwards The Shearer and the RouseaboutA shearer and a rouseabout they met the other day,They lit their pipes and had a yam to pass the time away, So the shearer, as he struck a match, asked: "What are they doing out here about the new agreement That the squatters have for shearing?' 'They're doing,' said the rousie, "what honest men should do, Refusing everywhere to sign, and sticking to it too. Of course, the squatters, they talk big and rely on Whitely King.' Said the shearer, 'Damn and blast him, his neck I'd like to ring! I;ve travelled many hundreds of miles, and men I've seen but few, And if we stick up for our rights, what can the damn squatters do? For soon the flies and the grass seeds, they wffl destroy their wool, They've got no hope of beating us—if we all together pull. "Well now, I must be going lad, I've a mighty way to go.' Says the rousie: Til be going but I haven't far to go. But Just one parting word, my boy, that we may meet no more: We'll all have cause, for years to come, to think of 1894. For Labor's curses are its trials, it's either do or die, So let us act as true men should'. Says the shearer. 'So says I.' |