Lyr Req: Paid the smart - meaning?

Subject: Lyr Req: Paid the smart - meaning?
From: Arnie
Date: 07 Mar 06 - 11:45 AM

I've decided to try out that old chesnut 'The Recruited Collier' but have never really understood the following lyrics in verse 2:

'My father would have paid the smart
And he ran for the golden guinea'

Can anyone enlighten me - I have this strange notion that I should know what it is I'm singing about!!

Cheers

Arnie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paid the smart - meaning?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 07 Mar 06 - 12:01 PM

It's a sum paid to redeem a recruit from the recruiting authorities (supposedly to enable them to recruit somebody else). More properly 'the smart money'. I'm sorry I don't know the derivation, but it was in common usage during the Napoleonic Wars and later.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paid the smart - meaning?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 07 Mar 06 - 12:09 PM

It was the smart because it hurts to pay so much- maybe a month's wages. He ran for the golden guinea- he'd got that sum laid aside at home for just such emergencies.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paid the smart - meaning?
From: Arnie
Date: 08 Mar 06 - 09:14 AM

Thanks Les & Paul - that seems to make sense so it must be right!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paid the smart - meaning?
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 08 Mar 06 - 09:20 AM

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