TWO SIDES OF THE QUESTION
I.—CLANCY OF THE OVERFLOW. " The Banjo " in an old Bulletin. I hod written him a letter which I had, for want of better Knowledge, sent to where 1 met him down the Lachlan, years ago, He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him, Just "on spec," addressed as follows, " Clancv, of * The Overflow.'" And an answer came directed in a writing unex pecked, (Which I think the same was written with a thumbnail dipped in tar) 'Twos his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it: " Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know whero he are." In my wild erratic fancy visions come to mc of Clancy Gone a-droving "down the Cooper" where the Western drovers go; As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind thsm sincrinc, For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know. And the bush hath friends to meet him and their kindly voices greet him In the murmur of the breezes and the river on it« bars, And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended, And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting; stars. I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between ihe houses tall. And the foetid air and gritty, of the dusty, dirty city Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all. And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle Of the tramways and the 'busses making hurry down the street, And the language uninvituur of the gutter children fighting. Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet. And the hurrying people daunt mc, and their pallid faces haunt mc As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste, With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy, For townsfolk have no time to grow ; they have no time to waste. And I somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change ' with Clancy, ! Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons : come and go, j While he faced the round eternal of the cashbook and j the journal— But I doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy, of "The I Overflow." j
TWO SIDES OF THE QUESTION
Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9315, 16 January 1896, Page 2
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