OLD BENDIGO.

NZ Truth, Issue 63, 1 September 1906, Page 8

OLD BENDIGO.

IV {For "Truth.")

I am heart-sfck and tired- of -struggle and strife, But thoughts will drift back m the twilight of life, To , the old days, the gold -days, of long, long ago, .When I stood by, the stampers on old. Bendigo. ■ .

My- head it is bent, and my, step it -is: slow, I've wandered this wide world for years to and fro ; There's a music that haunts me wher-. ever I go, 'Tis the ring of the stampers on-old. Bendigo.

I have watched the white star of the - Comstock decline,' And the sunset of Thames Caledoniamine ; I have seen the proud crest of Mount , Morgan laid low, But they're still paying • divvies- on, old Bendigo. Against luck m Coolgardie I've .played a lone- hand, I've studied the problem of race on the Rand ; • But a country that won't give a white man a show, ... Isn't fit to be mentioned with old Bendigo.

With.vEyetalions- of- every, calling and creed, I fossicked 1 Otago with -Gabriel Reed, And Gabriel's Gully it wasn't too slow, It would make a- good- patch uponold Bendigo.

When I'm dying I'll -.leave $0 the Church •• m my will, The calls that I paid-pn played.': out Broken Hill, ' And my blessing bequeath to Sol Cohen and Co., Who sent me- a broker from-old-Ben-digo.

Now I'm working>my way 'back to Kangaroo Flat, Where I- toiled m the fifties with , Hobart-town Pat ;

At the back of The Ovens poor Paddy lies low, But I've ordered my. bone-box for old Bendigo.

Though I ne'er may recall those glorious days. Of Brooke, Butler, Bishop, and Catherine Hayes ; When I go to that place where all good dialers go, My^host will steal back to thee, old Bendko. JACK VINCENT.