Publication: Melbourne Herald
Date: 12 October 1933
You can't get away from the Smiths. Though admitting the clan of that name All the rolls dominate, they proportion is great That achieves to high honor and fame. I am not a believer in luck And I scorn superstition and myths; Yet see something queer and mysterious here, Oh, you can't get away from the Smiths. 'Twas a Smith back in far 'eighty-three Tis city elected for May'r. Laggard time drifts away. Fifty years to the day, And another Smith hops to the Chair. Why Smith? Why could not it be Brown, Jinks, Jones? -- names for conjuring with -- And why fifty years? Put it up to the seers, And they'll tell you it had to be Smith. When Australia first took to the air, 'Twas a Smith who was early a-wing. And the first to alight from a distant world's flight, And today, Smith is at the same thing. Oh, you can't get away from the Smiths! I could quote for you cases galore. Hyphenated and plain, 'tis a dominant strain That defies all statistical lore. Oh, you can't get away from the Smiths, In politics, commerce and trade, They are here, they are here; but most frequently where Fame beckons and fortunes are made. But good luck to their totem, say I. Carve their deeds upon proud monoliths! ... It's a tough name to rhyme; so for the last time -- You can not get away from the Smiths.