By gilded grotesques, And embossed arabesques, The whole cover, in fact, is pervaded; But, alas! in a taste That betrays they were traced At the will of a Spirit degraded ! As for paper the best, There's a note on the Bank, Who will care to appear Is a question to morals most vital; It's the public belief, EPIGRAM. THE SUPERIORITY OF MACHINERY, A Mechanic his labor will often discard But a clock and its case is uncommonly hard--- Will continue to work though it strikes. JOHN DAY. A PATHETIC BALLAD. "A Day after the Fair. " OLD PROVERB. JOHN DAY he was the biggest man With back too broad to be conceived The very horses knew his weight And wished his box a Christmas-box To come but once a year. Alas! against the shafts of love, Soon Cupid sent an arrow through The bar-maid of the Crown he loved, From whom he never ranged, For tho' he changed his horses there, His love he never changed. He thought her fairest of all fares, And often, among twelve outsides, One day as she was sitting down Said she, my taste will never learn So I must beg you will come here As little as you can. But still he stoutly urged his suit, In vain he wooed, in vain he sued; He fretted all the way to Stroud, At last her coldness made him pine But still he loved like one resolved O Mary, view my wasted back, Alas! in vain he still assailed, Worn out, at last he made a vow For he was so reduced in size Now some will talk in water's praise, He drank himself to death. The cruel maid that caused his love, For looking in the butt, she saw, The butt-end of his woes. Some say his spirit haunts the Crown, But that is only talk For after riding all his life, His ghost objects to walk. NUMBER ONE. VERSIFIED FROM THE PROSE OF A YOUNG LADY. Ir's very hard! — and so it is, To live in such a row, And witness this that every Miss But me, has got a Beau. For Love goes calling up and down, But here he seems to shun; I'm sure he has been asked enough To call at Number One! I'm sick of all the double knocks And one in blue, at Number Two, It's very hard they come so near |