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ON STRIKE
by Charles Pond (1906)
Recorded by Stanley Holloway (1957)
When
I lays dahn my tool. I lays 'em dahn,
I laid 'em dahn seven year ago over a matter of three shilling
a week.
Now there's people 'oo'll say, 'Fancy a man being aht o' work
seven year over a matter o' three shilling a week.'
People what don't understand the principle of the thing,
The principle of a fair living wage and that's wot I'm a-standin'
aht for.
And I wouldn't let my old woman work for the money she do
in the steam laundry,
Only somebody's got to keep the 'ome up.
It would never do for both of us to be aht.
She was only a-sayin' to me the other morning as she was a-bringing
me up my cup o' tea and a bit o' toast afore she was goin'
aht t' work,
' Why don't you get into Parliament?'
And that's where I ought t' be and the first Act o' Parliament
I should pass 'd be concerning the hover-crowdin' on the hearly
mornin' trams.
A woman can't git t' 'er work, she's got t' walk and walk
'ome again.
Now you know there's 'eaps o' fings want haltering in this
'ere country,
But you'll never get nuthin' done so long as they won't fink,
Fink! Why, they won't even read.
Why you can see 'undreds and fahsands goin' out t' work wivaht
even 'avin' read their mornin' paper.
Why you know the most terrible fings might 'appen during th'
night,
The most frightful disaster, the most 'orrible national catostrophe.
Why Bass's Brewery might be burnt to the grahnd
And a man'd start work in a state of blind hignorance.
Now I remember th' time when there was a interest took in
politics,
I remember the time at hour political club when you couldn't
get near the bar on a Sunday morning.
And wot do yer find nah? A few bicycles outside and arf the
trade in the place small lemons.
And that's wot old England's a-driftin' to.
Now the Chancellor of the Hexchequer said the other day,
'E says - and I quite agree wiv' 'im fer once,
'E says the falling off in the consumption of beer is halarming.
The falling off in the consumption of beer is halarming.
But there's something more halarming what the
Chancellor of the Hexchequer did not tell you.
And that is this,
That concurrently simultaneous and identical wiv the fallin'
off in the consumption of beer
Is the total and utter disappearance of the conversational
powers of man.
For I defy anyone to get hup a political hargument on cocoa.
It can't be done.
Now I'm a paper-'anger by trade I am and wild 'orses can't
drag me from paper-'anging,
The very last time I picked hup my tools seven year ago
They tried it on wiv me but it didn't come orf,
They didn't know 'oo they was a-deal in wiv.
I got the money what I arsked afore I started on me job which
was the stripping of a wall.
Well, I 'adn't been a-workin' for a couple of hours before
I comes across an old bell wire in the wall.
I called up the foreman. 'What's the matter wiv vou?' 'e says.
I says, 'Look at this old bell wire in the wall.'
' Pull it aht,' 'e says,
'What?' I says.
'Pull it aht,' 'e says.
I says, 'You'll pardon me, that's plumber's work.' And I lays
down me tools.
And when I lays dahn me tools, I lays 'em dahn. |
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