THE “SMILER” AND HIS BILL.

Evening Star, Issue 3292, 8 September 1873, Page 3

THE “SMILER” AND HIS BILL.

The following squib was circulated in the House of Representatives to-day. It is entitled : The Destruction of the Gold Mining Bill. The “ Smiler ” came down like a wolf on the fold, All bunkum and brass, with a Bill abjut gold, And deluded constituents thronged to behold— When away with the “claimant” the steam packet rolled. As a lord of creation, so buoyant and keen, The “ Smiler ” at sunrise so happy was seen— Like the ghost of Vexation, so changed was his tone, That man in the evening sat silent and lone. And there lay the Bill cast for ever aside. The hope of the “ Smiler,” his strength and his pride: Its Shepherd was absent on billiards intent, Forgetting the mission on which he was sent. And there sits the “ Smiler”—now purple, now pale — As he thinks what the papers will make of the tale. The tables are silent, the cues left alone, The Bill is refolded, its trumpet unblown, And the diggers of “ Dunstan ” are loud in their rail; The electors of “ Tinkers ” shall ne’er cease to wail; And the “Nasebyites” know, and have cause to remember, This cussed Bill has melted like snow in December.