G'day again,

These are the words of, essentially, the version of "Texas Jack" that I sing:

A Word to Texas Jack

(Sung by Alan Scott, traditional tune: The Old Bark Hut)

Texas Jack, you are amusin'. Great Lord Harry how I laughed
When I seen your rig and saddle with its bulwarks fore-and-aft;
Holy smoke! From such a saddle how the dickens can you fall?
Why, I've seen a gal ride bareback with no bridle on at all!

What? You've come to learn the natives how to sit a horse's back!
Learn the blooming' cornstalk ridin'? W'at yer giv'n us, Texas Jack?
Learn the cornstalk! Flamin' jumptup! now where has my country gone?
Why the cornstalk's mother often rides the day afore he's born!

No, before you teach the native you must ride without a fall
Up a gum, or down a gully, nigh as steep as any wall -
You must swim the roarin' Darlin' when the flood is at its height
Bearin' down the stock an' stations to the Great Australian Bight.

As poet and as Yankee I will greet you, Texas Jack,
For it isn't no ill-feelin' that is gettin' up my back;
But I won't see this land crowded with each Yank and British cuss
Who takes it in his head to come a-civilizin' us.

Though on your own great continent there's misery in the towns.
An' not a few untitled lords, and kings without their crowns,
I will admit your countrymen is busted big an' free,
An' great on ekal rites of men and great on liberty:

I will admit your fathers punched the gory tyrant's head -
But then we've got our heroes, too, the diggers that is dead,
The plucky men of Ballarat, who toed the scratch so well,
And broke the nose of Tyranny and make his peepers swell.

So when it comes to ridin' mokes, or yardin' up a cow,
Or stickin' up for labour's rights, we don't want showin' how.
They came to learn us cricket in the days of long ago.
An' Hanlan came from Canada to learn us how to row.

An' "doctors" come from Frisco just to learn us how to skite,
An' pugs from all the lands on earth to learn us how to fight,
An' when they go, as like as not, we find we're taken in,
They've left behind no learnin' - but they've carried off our tin.

32 lines, in 8 4-line stanzas … edited from Henry's original 64 line / 8 stanza poem, as published in The Bulletin, 29 March 1890.)

This was published in the Bush Music Club's booklet Songs from Lawson, 1956 … and re-printed, around 1974/5, by me during my spell as Secretary.

The version I picked up, in the early 1960s, at the Bush Music Club, reflected current politics of with the first two lines of the last verse as:

An' "doctors" come from Denver just to learn us how to skite,
An' generals and admirals to learn us how to fight, …

The version in the BMC's 'Songs from Lawson', is headed: "Sung by Alan Scott, traditional tune". As far as I know, the song was not collected from … or by … Alan – and the setting to a 'traditional tune' is credited by Chris Kempster, in his 'The Songs of Henry Lawson' as: 'Trad., "The Old Bark Hut", Arr. John Meredith (1953).

I take this to mean that Alan had settled into performing the song to Meredith's reworking of a popular traditional tune … and the words had been trimmed – and 'adjusted' to the politics and visitations of the day. These days, I'll stick to Henry Lawson's version that remains 'generally accurate' for the broad run of visiting politicians about the place!

The 1953 date suggests that it was one of the songs integrated into the New Theatre's long (Dec 1953 – mid-1955) Sydney performance run of Dick Diamond's musical play Reedy River, set around the 1890 "Great Shearer's Strike". More current political references may well have been common in their performances in other venues between 1953 and 1957.

If someone wants to drop the song ... as I've posted it about ... into the DT, I have a MIDI file of the une, as published ... and roughly as I sing it ... that I can forward to whoever handles MIDIs to DT.

Regards,

Bob