JIM THE MILKER.

NZ Truth, Issue 198, 3 April 1909, Page 6

JIM THE MILKER.

Yer will notice m all the daily rags long yarns m praise of a joker named Bhackelton, who went to see if he could find the South Pole. Premiers wire Shackelton, who went to see if he could great bravery, but so far I have not neered of Kings, Premiers, or. any other cove wiring to any member of. the crew. This' seems strange, for every member of the ship's company did as much as the cove called Shackelton. Who is this cove called Shackelton ? Well I will tell yer, he, is a chap that is making a big pile for himself. He came cadging , around the colonies to get money to start him on his v/ild gose chase, and he got it, and now he says he haw, he haw. A fine sort of a chap he is one of the bull-dog boasting blokes that coves laugh at. But what did yer go but for to see "a reed shaken by the winds?" No. iNo such thing, he went after money. . It is said if he can beg enough from the blasted colonies he will go back again. Now, this coot Shackelton wants to be dealt with m a reasonable way, and that is a lift under the jaw, and told not to come back again. Why should he get all the credit and dollars, when there were on board the Nimrod superior men both fore and aft. But, m any case, what has he done ? Was he wandering about for a place where the needle of the compass would stand upside down ? And if he did find it (and we have only his word) m God's name what the hell is the good of it, except to Shackelton? If the members of the crew got anything out of it, it would not be quite so bad, but they get nothing, it all goes to Shackelton, and be damned to him. He is under the nobody can do it but me act, and there is no man m the Empire who knows better how to blow his own trumpet than Shackelton. He is tooting on it all the time. Now with all Shackelton's skite the bosses wife thinks that he (Shackellon) is a sell'-seekirig swab who is making a name at the expense of poor coves who had the misfortune to l;e under him. Who cares a damn whether the needle stands upright or not? Yer .can't grow [wheat at the Pole, and no good can be done there. Every cove has read the wearisome lies told by the jokers who pretend to be searching [or the eurssed Pole. Anyhow most of the wasters like Shackelton make their piles and live on the fat of the land. The crew gets the scurvey and told to go to hell and look for a ship. Now the bosses wife thinks

that Shackelton would, have; 'bfeen much better employed if he had been" appointed to go round the dairy districts to prevent the noble farmer from killing little children with work.. He might have done some good m that way instead of making an ass of himself down South. Perhaps the same chap has been no further than Stewart's Island, but, m any case there is too much fuss made about this tin-pot Joss Shackelton. Let Shackelton go and do some graft, get worrick and so become a decent man helping along the Empire instead of trying to skim it of its good splosh. The bosses wife has been told that Shackelton is a bounceable chap and is always bullying his subordinates. Well, if he comes to me I'll give him what for, I'll belt his soul case to such an extent that Shackelton won't get out of bed for a month. But Shackelton won't do that, he likes men who can't reply to him no matter what he says. He knows the Mutiny Act all right, if it had not been for that same Act Shackelton would have been as meek as milk. If he had not he would have been pitched overboard, and maybe it might have been a good job. Well, I tell- Shackelton, through "Truth," the people's paper, that he can go to licll and that is a long way from the Pole. JIM THE MILKER.