THE PESSIMIST

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1677, 18 February 1913, Page 9

THE PESSIMIST

("Evory night when I go to bed, and every morning when I awake," says a well-known squire, "I am in a terrible state of anxiety for tho future of the country"). Each day,'when I nriso (at nine) And view this fatherland of mine . Rushing along in swift decline Upon the downward path, My bitter tears convert to brina The water in my bath; I feel'too mortified, too shaken, . To face my plate of eggs and bacon. Each ni£ht, when to'my couch I creep. How uncontrollably I weep, Beatin'gj my head, with curses deep, Against the bedroom wall! ' I often cry myself to sleep, ■ \ Thinking of England's fall; And what with sniffing and with sobbing, My noso requires perpetual swabbing! And though by nows of "booming" trade, Of offers Canada has made To como to' Mother England's aid, In times of storm or stress, Mv grief is more or less allayed, ■Tis only "more or less"; For if the Empiro won't start crumbling, j What is tho good of all my grumbling P —H.G., in the "Observer" (London).