E. Iveagh Lord

“ And now the toast of the evening, the dinkum drink with McKay.
Bung, the Bookie, proposing, hear what does he say!
“Gentlemen, all charged your glasses? I stand on my feet to-day,
Claiming the longest acquaintance with our guest, our friend, McKay.
I knew him when he couldn’t walk—you saw him like that—maybe?
That’s an apprenticeship, that all men serve in this village by the sea.
I saw him playing football, ’against Anglo-Wales, I ween,
Every man a chamipon, and only he between
Our line and certain disaster, he stopped them as fast as they came ”

“ And now McKay replying: “I thank you one and all
For the kind things sopken, ’tis pleasant to recall
The happy days together we’ve sepnt both you and I.
Distance lends enchantment—au revoir—but not good-bye.”
(Here a man put in a fiver, and said in a quiet way—
“Chairman, it would give me pleasure to help old George McKay.
Just put it in his wallet, with all good wishes and
Don’t tell him where it came from. Keep quiet, You Understand!”)
Now “Chalkie” “stopped and looked and listened,” but didn’t tell all he knew
Then “Ogie” proposed the “Ladies,” with well-chosen words and few. ”

“ How the old mob honoured a man they knew—knew to be dinkum through and through—
A man who’d gone right thro’ the mill, yet was laughing and fighting still—
They honoured him not for position or fame, they honoured him not for hope or gain,
They honoured him but for this alone, he was a man—and one of their own.
••••
November, nineteen twenty, was the send-off to McKay,
At the Recreation in the good old West Coast way,
Bung, the Bookie, held the chair. The Bull he held the cash,
And did “Italiano” with vim and fire and dash. ”

“ We say a man is “addled,” “aled,” “alcoholed,” or “on the booze,”
Is a “Bacchanalian Buster,” “bottled,” “blithered,” “beered,” excuse,
I nearly forgot to mention, “blue blind,” “bunkered,” and brimful,”
As well as on “a bender,” “in the bats,” if he don’t pull
His heroic self together, and stopped being “cupped” or “canned,”
He'll get “chloroformed” in “celebrating” something great you understand. ”

“ Lindsay, W. A., ex-soldier, guaranteed to sell
Any old sort of hardware, or dress circle seats in hell.
Lord, E. I, surveyor, drew a rabbit on his head,
To show there was a little “hare” when all his “hair” was dead.
Moncrief, R. V., sailor, hails from the Shetland Isles;
A woman’s heart is shattered every time he smiles.
Mullins, T. J., ex-soldier, with “tabbies” Boss-Tom of the lot ”

“ No matter what the weather,
These are the boys of the good old mob
that always pull together.
These are the boys that laugh and pass
Still young, the years they weather;
These are the boys of the good old mob
Who always pull together.
••••
Adams, F. V., pioneer, ’twas his noble brother Bill
Who won the Battle of Waterloo, they tell the story still.
Allen, R. C., postal clerk, a novice in the crew,
Shaping well at “mopping up”—think that he will do.
Bakor, I. V., railway head, is rather on the serious side;
Gags from William Shakeseare at any time supplied. ”

“ Williamson, J. W., steamer engineer, and hard man in the main;
He never forgets the password—it’s “Fill ’em up again!”
Winchester, H. V., carpenter, they say very quiet and shy;
But when he got the “glad” from a flapper naturally shut one eye. ”