(_Song of the Suburban tree-slaughtering savage, whose axe and
saw and cord are rapidly making umbrageous neighbourhoods
hideous._)
Woodman, spare not that tree!
Leave not a single bough!
In youth it sheltered me,
So I'll destroy it now.
Tall trees infest the land,
Rurality is rot!
Nought but a stump shall stand
On this once shady spot.
An old umbrageous tree
Makes suburb less like town;
It spreads too far for me,
Up, axe, and hew it down!
Woodman, ply stroke on stroke,
Till prone on earth it lies;
(Oh! isn't it a joke?)
Once towering to the skies!
Woodman, and woodman's boy,
Bring axe, and saw, and spade,
Hack, lop and top, with joy;
Destruction is your trade!
It grew for many a year;
It's growth, fools say, is grand.
Eh? Spare its charms? No fear!
No bough of it shall stand!
When comes again the spring
No leafage forth 'twill send;
No bird thereon shall sing,
No breeze its branches bend.
Old tree, no more thou'lt wave
O'er this suburban spot!
If _I_ my will might have,
The axe should fell the lot!
* * * * *
"HOI ADELPHOI" (the Messrs. GATTI), the Adelphians, or, as friend WAGG
would necessarily call them, the "Fill-adelphi-uns," have a stirring
Life-boat Scene in Messrs. SCOTT and THOMAS'S drama _The Swordsman's
Daughter_. Where there are so many rapiers flashing--not one of them
pointless--the piece might have suffered from cutting. As it is, the
display of fence is most exciting. Mr. TERRISS the swordsman, Miss
MILLWARD his daughter, are excellent; and this is true of the entire
performance. As for Mr. ABINGDON, he is becoming a greater villain in
every play of his life. He'll end by being hung in the Royal Academy. Of
course, first of all, he will have to be "taken from life" by the hand
of some distinguished painter.
* * * * *
POT-LUCK.--A sportsman named Mr. ALLAN GILMOUR, junior, has been
credited with recently shooting "the first specimen of the solitary
snipe" that had been seen in England. Writing to a Scotch paper, he
says, "As snipe-shooting has been my favourite sport for the last
twenty-eight years, during which time I have killed over 4,000 snipe
without ever getting a shot at a 'solitary,' I am naturally very
pleased."
For years he'd hunted all in vain,
But when the time was ripe,
His fortune changed--he really bagged
A solitary snipe.
There are who find their chiefest joy
A friend, a feast, a pipe;
But Mr. GILMOUR'S heaven is here--
A solitary snipe.
O PETER MAGNUS[A] GILMOUR, we
Must tears of envy wipe
That you can count it bliss to pot
A solitary snipe!
[A: "'It is calculated to cause them the highest
gratification,' said Mr. Pickwick, rather enjoying the ease with which
Mr. Peter Magnus's friends were amused."]
* * * * *
[Illustration: "LA GLOIRE!"
FRENCH SOLDIER. "I SUFFER--I DIE! NO MATTER!--OUR VICTORY WILL ANNOY
JOHN BULL!" (_Vide French Press._)
"What the French have to consider is the balance of advantages for
France, not the balance of disadvantages for England."--_Times, Oct.
9._]
* * * * *
[Illustration: WANTED, A REPARTEE.
"PLEASE, SIR, GIVE ME A PENNY!"
"YOU SHOULDN'T BEG, MY BOY. WHY SHOULD I GIVE YOU MY MONEY ANY MORE THAN
YOU SHOULD GIVE ME YOURS?"
"I AIN'T GOT NO MONEY, AND YOU 'AVE!"
"AH, BUT SUPPOSE YOU'D GOT A PENNY AND I HADN'T!"
"THEN I'D GIVE MINE TO _YOU!_"]
* * * * *