Punch, or the London Charivari, page 19 by Various Authors
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s 'eart takes better Than a couple o' big chaps out to get her Through a dozen o' dustin' rounds or so.
"Bet my bonnet it strikes you funny, Seein' I'm risin' seventy-three, To think o' me once as sweet as honey; Lor' how their fists went 'long o' me! Jake Poltevo and Pembroke Bill, I saw 'em then, and I sees 'em still, Eh, how their fists went--thud! crack! thud! None o' your booze-house scraps, Lor' love 'em; Turf to their feet and the sky above 'em-- Stripped, bare-knuckle and mucked wi' blood; Queer thing, ain't it, I still thinks pleasure In the strength o' a man, bein' old, by measure, And plain, you'd say, as a pint o' mud?
"Scared me fine at the time, though; weepin' I 'id my face in the 'azels low; Tip-toe soon I was back a-peepin', Couldn't 'a' helped were it never so; Each as good as the other chap-- Bad old woman I be, may'ap; But eh, I loved 'em, the fine young men. Marry a one of 'em? Why no, never; They wasn't a-marryin' me whatever; But I likes to think of 'em now and then; For, of all the compliments, that was candy, And--ain't them dicky-birds at it dandy? I knows the pride o' their pretty 'en! Eh, but I loved 'em, me fine young men!"
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[Illustration: FROM FIFE TO HARP.
MR. ASQUITH. "ONE MORE BONNIE TOOTLE, AND THEN BACK TO THAT DREARY OLD HARP."]
[Illustration: A FORETASTE OF HOME RULE HARMONY
"Mr. Devlin here interposed with a remark which was not heard in the gallery, and Mr. W. O'Brien, turning round to where the hon. member was sitting, called out in an angry tone something which was not clearly heard."--"Times'" Report.]
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[Illustration: If only Sir EDWARD CARSON belonged to some other oppressed nationality--Armenia, for instance!]
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ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.
(EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF TOBY, M.P.)
House of Commons, Monday, April 6.--At third time of asking Home Rule Bill read a second time. Odd feature, in curious sitting that hotly contested