Railway Poet - His Wierd Work

The Bathurst Times Friday 11 September 1925

There is a poet in the Railway Department. He is the young man who invents luscious phrases with which to beguile railway passengers to contribute more to the railway revenue. He is an anonymous poet, and perhaps it is just as well that he is.

Judging by his work, he has long hair, burning eyes and the habit of pacing up and down his office while deeply engaged in coining adjectives for those fruity messages which are so arrestingly displayed in railway carriages. Probably he does not sleep well at night. As a rule this young poet (he must be very young) does not merit any particular mention, but there is one of his delicious creations which ought to have a wider audience.

In writing of the charms of Mount Buffalo, he says: —

"There are regions where leafy forest paths lead on through shady groves of tree fern, blackwood and beech, or beneath stupendous eucalyptus; by tumbling, rainbow-hued waterfalls and along side chattering crystal streams, and where the wallaby and the lyre bird still hold sway, so primitive is the wilderness."

Leafy forest paths and pathsshady groves! Stupendous eucalyptus! Stupendous nonsense! Tumbling rainbow-hued waterfalls! Doesn't your spine go all goosey? And chattering crystal streams! If ever that young man goes to Buffalo the lyre birds and wallabies will chase him until he falls into the chattering crystal streams, and it will be his own fault. He created the wretched things.

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