| Good evening, ladies, gentleman,
good evening one and all,
I hope I shan't intrude too much while making this short call,
I've just stepped from the train, you see, a little while ago,
A railway lately built to here - the Great I. B. and O.
I left this country years ago, strange land I meant to see,
Strange places I have seen a few and strange they were to me,
But the strangest sight of all of them, I'd have you all to know,
Was when I came to Baptiste Lake on the Great I. B. and O.
When first I knew this land some folks had never seen a train
The C.O.R. was lately built and mountains rose amain
'Tween us and that, and labouring teams o'er rocky steeps went slow,
But now all smoothly comes the freight on the Great I. B. and O.
'Tis very different to step into a carriage neat and warm
Shut in a cozy lightsome place, from hail and snow and storm,
To traveling over mountains, facing all the winds that blow;
We need not when the C.O.R. meets the Great I. B. and O.
When we started from the junction I could not well make out
How we should get to Baptiste Lake, I almost felt a doubt,
For I knew how wild the country was, my heart was I a glow
When we coasted round the rocky shore on the Great I. B. and O.
I've traveled on the C.P.R. some thousand miles or more
But such a bridge as spans the lake I never saw before
We might have passed them in the night, but such work I do not know
As the railway bridge at Baptiste Lake on the Great I. B. and O.
Once Bancroft was a little place, and Bird's Creek was a less,
Something I'd whisper in your ear, I wonder if you guess,
We are ahead of Bancroft now, as I will shortly show,
(Don't tell outside) we're nearer to the Great I. B. and O.
Once such a thing was never dreamed of as a telephone,
That came as a forerunner to give the country tone,
Now children listen at the poles as home from school they go,
They want to hear the message to the Great I. B. and O.
So first, here's to the Government whose money comes in true,
And here's to every one of us, we've helped to bring it through
Here's to the Tally's and the staff, they're bound to make it go -
Clear grit in spite of dismal days, on the Great I. B. and O.
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