Page 7 Advertisements Column 1

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 123, 7 July 1871, Page 7

SELECT POETRY. WHERE ARE THE FRIENDS OF MY YOUTH ? In moo Is sentimental we're apt to ask ques - tions • That were best left unasked, if I must tell the truth ; And some time ago, in a flush of emotion, I scribbled a poem on " Friends of my Youth:" "Oh ! where are the friends of my youth" was the title Of lines I thought tender, and touching and terse ; Twas all very well, but I rather regret it— That bursting into interrogative verse. You'll see what I mean if you'll listen a moment — A nice set of creatures they turned 'Out, forsooth ; The next time I gush out in poetic rapture I'll not be so anxious concerning my youthThe letters that reached me were simply astoundingThey seemed to pour in from the earth's distant ends ; Conveying the tidings I'd rashly requested— The doings of early and intimate friends.

John Smith wrote to say his was just then in prison " (I couldn't see him at that moment, twas plain), And Jones, who in youth had a turn for the drama, Was gallery "checker" at old Drury Lane ! And Brown, who in-boyhood was such a wild fellow (I often had trouble to keep him in bounds), He dropped me a line, with apologies many, To know if I'd lend him a ,couple of • pounds. Young Aaron, who had a bend in his proboscis (We la is looked him up when a trifle was lent), Down Whitechapel way, is a flaring pawnbroker, And lends out his money at sixty per cent. And young Thomas Tomkins had turned out quite horsey •(I mini me he talked of the turf and its ways); And Green who we thought would -grow up to be pioas, Was starring about on the "'flying trapeze." And Simpkins—poor dolt—who was no end of stupid, , e .. As clown in a circus »was passing'his life ; -And big Billy Bowles, whom we used to call " Cupid," ' Had bolted last summer with somebody's wife,! • But why go on further ? 'Tis but an affliction, , Each name, as it turned up, presented a blot, I think, on the whole, you'll join in the conviction— The " Friends of my; Youth," were a rather bad lot. •

GAMBETTA'B BALLOON FLIGHT. Adieu ! beleaguered' heart of France, Adieu ! till succour come. Away, swift airy carrier, .■' O'er square, and roof, and dome ; O'er town and girding rampart flit, O'er sullen bastion-boom ; O'er fort, and. mound, and neutral line, And tightening belt of doom. Oil! northern eddies, grasp the car, And whirl it high amain, Further than Uhlan charge can dash, Or lire-drove ball attain ! 1 The courser's hoofs may spurn the earth, The bullet spurt on high ; But sinewy grace and fiery force Must faint and fall and die. The captive city gleam 3 afar, , In isolation throned, Full-orbed within concentric flames, Like Saturn fiery zoned. "While, triumphing o'er foe and law, Swayed by ethereal tides, ■ Like some old storm-god mid his blasts The sphsre-ycked chariot rides. A bark so frail was never tossed On ocean's furrowed round ; A firier spirit never chafed In fate's relentless bound ; A nobler quarry never burst Through ring so fell and sure, And loftier hopes ne'er buoyed s soul In destiny so dure.