The Saddle On The Right Horse

[RichardB]

THE GRINDERS

OR "THE SADDLE ON THE RIGHT HORSE"

THE Sheffield Grinder's a terrible blade

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

He sets his little ones down to the trade -

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

He turns his baby to grind in the hull

Till his body is stunted his eyes are dull

And the brains are dizzy and dazed in his skull -

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

Social science sits on his case -

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

And over him pulls a very long face -

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

It takes him up, and it writes him down

And pronounces Sheffield a terrible town,

And the Grinder of all its ills the crown -

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

He shortens his life, and he hastens his death -

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

Will drink steel dust in every breath -

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

Won't use a fan as he turns his wheel,

Won't wash his hands ere he eats his meal,

But dies as he lives as hard as steel -

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

These Sheffield Grinders of whom we speak -

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

Are men who earn a pound a week -

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

But of Sheffield Grinders another sort

Methinks ought to be called in Court,

Ere Social Science can make its report

And tally-i-ho the Grinder !

And that is the Grinding Government Board

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

Who contracts at a price life can t afford

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

But Competition's tide runs strong

And work is slack, and workers throng,

So father and child work late and long

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

When we call Sheffield Grinders over the coals -

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

For their blighted bodies and blinded souls

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

When we charge them with wilfully breathing death

And short'ning their own and their children's breath,

What is't the recording angel saith

To our tally-i-ho the Grinder ?

At whose door lies the blacker blame ?

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

Where rests the heavier weight of shame ? -

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

On the famine price contractor's head

Or the workman's under-taught and fed,

Who grinds his own bones and his child's for bread ? -

Tally-i-ho the Grinder !

---------------

Dr Hall asserts on the authority of some of the largest Sheffield

manufacturers that the Government accepts tenders lor Sheffield

goods for army use at prices so low that it is impossible to

fulfil them unless children are employed in the works

See Dr Hall's Letter to the Times"