The Range Writers presents "A Word to Texas Jack" by Henry Lawson.

Sketch by Charles M. Russell

Texas Jack, you are amusin'. By Lord Harry, how I laughed
What I seen yer rig and saddle with its bulwarks fore-and-aft;
Holy smoke! In such a saddle how the dickens can yer fall?
Why, I seen a gal ride bareback with no bridle on at all!
Gosh! so-help-me! strike-me-balmy! if a bit o' scenery
Like ter you in all yer rig-out on the earth I ever see!
How I'd like ter see a bushman use yer fixins, Texas Jack;
On the remnant of a saddle he can ride to hell and back.
Why, I heerd a mother screaming' when her kid went tossin' by
Ridin' bareback on a bucker that had murder in his eye.

What? yer come to learn the natives how to squat on horse's back!
Learn the cornstalk riding'! Blazes! -- w'at yer giv'n us, Texas jack?
Learn the cornstalk -- what the flamin', jumptup! where's my country gone?
Why, the cornstalk's mother often rides the day afore he's born!
You may talk about your ridin' in the city, bold an' free,
Talk o' ridin' in the city, Texas Jack, but where'd yer be
When the stock horse snorts an' bunches all 'is quarters in a hump,
And the saddle climbs a sapling, an' the horse-shoes split a stump?

No, before yer 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.

You can't count the bulls an' bisons that yer copped with your lassoo
But a stout old myall bullock p'raps 'ud learn yer somethin' new;
Yer'd better make yer will an' leave yer papers neat an' trim
Before yer make arrangements for the lassooin' of him;
Ere you 'n' yer horse is catsmeat, fittin' fate for sich galoots,
And yer saddle's turned to laces like we put in blucher boots.

And yer say yer death on Injins! We've got something' in yer line --
If yer think your fitin's ekal to the likes of Tommy Ryan.
Take yer karkass up to Queensland where the allygators chew
And the carpet-snake is handy with his tail for a lassoo;
Ride across the hazy regins where the lonely emus wail
An' ye'll find the black'll track yer while yer lookin' for his trail;
He can track yer without stoppin' for a thousand miles or more --
Come again and he will show yer where yer spit the year before.
But yer'd best be mighty careful, you'll be sorry you kem here
When yer skewered to the fakements of yer saddle with a spear --
When the boomerang is sailin' in the air, may heaven help yer!
It will cut yer head off goin', an' come back again and skelp yer.

P.S. -- 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 crowde by each Yank and British cuss
Who takes it in his head to come a-civilisin' us.
So if you feel like shootin' now, don't let yer pistol cough
(Our Government is very free at chokin' fellers off);
And though on your 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 yer 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 right well,
And broke the nose of Tyranny and made his peepers swell
For yankin' Lib's gold tresses in the roarin' days gone by,
An' doublin' up his dirty fist to black her bonny eye;
So when it comes to ridin' mokes, or hoistin' out the Chow,
Or stickin' up for labour's rights, we don't want showin' how.

They come to learn us cricket in the days of long ago,
An' Hanlan come 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 or not, we find we're taken in,
They've left behind no larnin' -- but they've carried off our tin.
Henry Lawson

       Henry Lawson was an Australian poet and writer, whom many believe was the foremost poet to capture the Australian way of life. It is apparent that he also captured the spirit of the Old American West in his poem Texas Jack. He was not only a first rate poet, he was a novelist and short story writer. He was born on the goldfields of New South Wales in 1867. In his early years he suffered from deafness; and was often teased as a result. His parent separated in 1883; and Henry went with his mother to Sydney. He eventually married and had two children. His life, however, was not a happy one. It has been said that Lawson was manic depressive, and sought refuge from his mood swings in alcohol. Henry was also in and out of institutions for his alcoholism, and in and out of jail for failing to support his family. He died in 1922, in Sydney.

    His unhappy life does not diminish his importance as a writer... He was simply one of the best. The first flowering of the short story in Australia, of which Henry was a master, occurred in the 1880s and 1890s. Much of Lawson's work was set in the Australian bush, or was about bush life. By the 1890s Australia had been settled for a little more than 100 years and Lawson was arguably the first Australian-born writer who really looked at Australia with Australian eyes, not influenced by his knowledge of other landscapes. He was the first perhaps to give voice to interpretations of an 'Australian' character. He was also from the bush, had lived on a selection, had been brought up in bush poverty, had suffered hardship and unemployment, and knew of the characters and lifestyles he talked about. His work reflected Australian experience with an integrity readers recognized.
|