Shiner, The

DESCRIPTION: "Uncrowned king of the knights of the banjo, Star of the great southern trail, With his blanket of blue, The Shiner fought through...." The Shiner takes all things in stride. He uses tricks and wits to survive. Now he "can bank on a well-deserved rest"
AUTHOR: Words: George Meek
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Meek, Station Days in Maoriland and Other Verses, according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: hobo travel trick
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1840-1927 - Life of Edmund Slattery, known as "The Shiner"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 44-45, "The Shiner" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [631 words]: Although Edmund "Ned" Slattery seems to have been a bum (in the technical sense of a rambling man who did not seek regular work), he was sufficiently clever that apparently he became a figure of folklore. There are at least three songs about him, this one, Phil Garland's "The Good Old Way," and the better-known "The Swag and the Shiner" by Paul Metsers, recorded by Graham Wilson and Gordon Bok among others. Apparently there is a deep desire among New Zealand folk poets to live by cheating others rather than by working.
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ has a whole chapter, entitled "Swags to Riches," about swagmen of this sort. Slattery gets the lion's share of it, pp. 118-127. Ell, p. 232, has a much shorter but, I suspect, more accurate account. In the entry "The Shiner," he writes:
"'Shiner' Ned Slattery was more than 50 years on the road avoiding work. John A. Lee [the other rambler in "The Swag and the Shiner"] recorded the folklore in two books about 'the champion of 'anti-sweat.' When Lee was a runaway from a boy's home, he met the Shiner, then an old man, and ever after collected yarns about him. Edmond Slattery was born in 1840 and reached New Zealand in time to become a figure on the road during the Otago gold rush of the 1860s; he died aged 87 with a reputation throughout the land, but largely earned in Otago and Southland. Slattery was a 'professional' tramp who bludged his meals and drink whenever he could, usually targeting publicans and others whom he thought above themselves. He would set up elaborate tricks to get a drink, for example pretending to survey a road through a bar and consenting to change direction only when appropriately bought off.... John A. Lee published the tales in Shining with the Shiner (N. V. Douglas, Auckland, 1950 [NewZealandEncyclopedia, p. 505, says 1944]) and later expanded on the theme with Shiner Slattery (Collins, Auckland, 1964)."
Another one of Slattery's pranks is described on p. 238 of Ell, in which he offered to pay for a drink with stamps, was taken up on it, and proceeded to "stamp" with his foot. All I can say is, if most of his tricks worked, New Zealand has the stupidest bartenders in the known universe.
NewZealandEncyclopedia, pp. 504-505, also has an article about The Shiner: "SLATTERY, Edmond (1840-1927) was the historical figure behind the legendary swagman known as 'The Shiner'. He was born in County Clare, Ireland, worked there as a ploughman and farmhand, emigrated with his family to Australian in 1869 and on to NZ in 1873. He was a tall, well-made, charming man who chose to live for more than 40 years as a swagger, mostly on the roads of South Canterbury, Otago and Southland, working only when he had to at seasonal tass on farms. He was a clown, practical joker and a charming rascal, a familiar figure at fairs and carnivals on his beat. He is buried at Andersons Bay Cemetery in Dunedin."
NewZealandEncyclopedia has a portrait of him on p. 505.
NewZealandEncyclopedia, pp. 312-313, also has an entry on Lee, who made The Shiner truly famous: "LEE, John Alfred Alexander (1891-1982) was one of the most remarkable New Zealanders of his time, spending time in prison as a young man, serving with distinction as a soldier in World War One, becoming an outstanding politician between the wars and, over nearly 50 years, writing fiction and political and social commentaries." Born in Dunedin, he was an ordinary laborer before the Great War, in which he won a Distinguished Conduct Medal and lost his left arm. He was an MP for most of the period 1922-1943 (although he was kicked out of the Labour Party in 1940). He began writing in the 1930s; his last book was published in 1981. The entry notes that "The Shiner stories are generally fictionalised tales about swaggers." - RBW
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