The Price of Meat [poem by “Humdinger”, 21 February 1920]

[Editor: This poem, by “Humdinger”, was published in Smith’s Weekly (Sydney, NSW), 21 February 1920. The poem is also known as “The Old Bull Stag”.]

The Price of Meat

The price of meat can only be reduced by the sale of inferior cattle. — News item.

The bull-stag leaned against the post,
Too poor was he to walk,
And as the butcher sharp’d his knife
The beast began to talk.

“Misguided man,” the bull-stag said,
“Don’t perpetrate this crime;
You’ll sell me to your customers,
And kid them that I’m prime.

“I was thirty-two last Christmas Day,
Bred by old Johnny Rudd,
And nineteen long and happy years
Was monarch of his stud.

“But then old Johnny wagged his pow,
And I was put to work;
The hair and hide flogged off my back,
From Bega out to Bourke.

“For years across the parched Paroo,
With ne’er a day to spare,
My master kept me to the yoke,
And, Lord! how he could swear!

“At length grown old and broken up,
With cancer in my side,
My master swopped me with a Chow
For a dog and a piece of hide.

“With cancer, bot, and pleuro,
I scarce can draw my breath,
Pray, let me draw my bones outside,
And die a natural death.”

The butcher laughed a greasy laugh,
And, poking out his tongue,
He said: “You’ll pass for a lucerne-fed;
I’ll kid them that you’re young.

“They never know of what they eat,
Those simple folk in town.
God sends the like of you, old chap,
To keep the prices down.

“Should any of the poor fools die,
Partaking of your ills,
I pray to God it may be those
Who never pay their bills.”

With that he pushed the bull-stag down,
And cut him into scrag.
Next day he winked a cunning eye,
And dealt us out the stag.

—— “Humdinger.”

Source:
Smith’s Weekly (Sydney, NSW), 21 February 1920, p. 24

Also published in:
The Mullewa Mail (Mullewa, WA), 1 June 1922, p. 4 [entitled “Butchery”; authorship attributed to Alf Dempsey; begins “The bull stag leaned against the fence” (i.e. this version uses the word “fence”, not “post”)]
The Daily Telegraph, North Murchison and Pilbarra Gazette (Meekatharra, WA), 2 June 1922, p. 4 [entitled “Butchery”; authorship attributed to Alf Dempsey; begins “The bull stag leaned against the fence”]
The Northern Miner, (Charters Towers, Qld.), 9 January 1926, p. 3 (in the “On the Track” section), columns 3-4 [entitled “The Old Bull Stag”; no author listed; begins “The bull stag leaned against the fence”]
The Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative (Mudgee, NSW), 9 September 1926, p. 9 [entitled “The Old Bull Stag”; authorship attributed to Herbert O. Stevens; begins “The bull stag leaned against the fence”]
West Coast Sentinel (Streaky Bay, SA), 25 December 1931, p. 8 [entitled “The Bull Stag”; authorship attributed to Tom Ryan; begins “The bull stag leaned against the post”]

Editor’s notes:
In addition to the original author, “Humdinger”, three other people have been credited with writing this poem (Alf Dempsey, Herbert O. Stevens, and Tom Ryan); however, it may be the case that some or all of those names belonged to people who merely sent the poem into newspapers for publication, rather than actually claiming credit.

bot = (plural: bots) the larva of a botfly, which typically develops inside the bodies of horses, sheep, cattle, and human; “bots” (also spelt: botts) is a disease affecting various mammals (especially horses), caused by the attachment of the parasitic larvae of botflies to the stomach or intestines of the host

broken up = very tired

Chow = a Chinese person (may also refer to something that is Chinese in origin or style, e.g. a “Chow restaurant”)

Lord = in a religious context, and capitalized, a reference to God or Jesus Christ

lucerne = a leguminous forage plant with trifoliate leaves and blue-violet flowers grown widely as a pasture and hay crop; alfalfa

ne’er = (vernacular) an archaic contraction of “never”

Paroo = the Paroo River, located in the South West region of Queensland and the Far West region of New South Wales; the Shire of Paroo, a local government area in the South West region of Queensland; a locality in Western Australia; a large pastoral property in Western Australia
See: 1) “Paroo_River”, Wikipedia
2) “Shire of Paroo”, Wikipedia
3) “Paroo, Western Australia”, Wikipedia
4) “Paroo Station”, Wikipedia

pleuro = pleurisy (also known as “pleuritis”): inflammation of the pleura (layers of tissue in-between the lungs and the chest wall), symptoms being sharp or stabbing chest pain (especially when breathing, coughing, sneezing, or moving), commonly caused by bacterial and viral infections (having pleurisy can lead to pneumonia)

scrag = the neck, the back of the neck, or the lean end of the neck, of mutton or veal

sharp’d = (vernacular) sharpened

swop = (an alternative spelling of “swap”) to exchange

wagged his pow = (Scottish) wagged his beard (i.e. spoke, or spoke at length); the phrase was typically used regarding someone preaching in church (e.g. “he wagged his pow in the pulpit”); the word “pow” can refer to a beard, a head of a human or an animal (or the crown, scalp, or skull of a head), or the head of an item (e.g. an axe-head)
See: 1) “Pupit, n.”, Dictionaries of the Scots Language
2) “Pow, n.1, v.”, Dictionaries of the Scots Language

[Editor: Changed “your ills.” to “your ills,” (swapped a full stop for a comma).]