I had written him a letter, which I had, for want of better Knowledge, sent to where I 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, "Clancy, of The Overflow. "And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)"Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it :
"Clancy"s gone to Queensland droving, and we don"t know where he are. "In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of ClancyGone a-droving "down the Cooper, " where the Western drovers go;As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,For the drover"s life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.
Drawn by John Rowell
The Drover
And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet himIn the murmur of the breezes and the river on its 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 stingyRay of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,And the fetid 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 rattleOf the tramways and the "buses making hurry down the street,And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp offeet.
And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt meAs 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,While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and thejournal-
But I doubt he"d suit the office, Clancy, of The Overflow.
Andrew Barton Paterson
Author.-Andrew Barton Paterson ( "Banjo ") was born in New South Wales in 1864 and became a lawyer and journalist. He served in the South African War and as a remount officer in Egypt. He wrote for the Sydney Bulletin many stirring bush ballads, which were afterwards published in book form-The Man From Snowy River, Rio Grande"s Last Race, Sallbush Bill, Old Bush Songs (edited), as well as prose works-A n Outback Marriage, Three Elephant Power, etc. His people were pastoralists. "He is the poet of the man who rides, as Lawson is of the man who walks. "General.-Describe the character of Clancy as revealed in the poem. What do these mean- " on spec, " " verbatim "? Find the Lachlan and the Cooper on the map. Argue the point whether the writer"s life in the city was or was not preferable to Clancy"s in the open. Is it generally true that townsfolk have pallid faces, stunted forms, greenly eyes, and jangled nerves?