Mr Gerald Massey.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 120, 25 April 1885, Page 3

Mr Gerald Massey.

As a spiritist Mr Gerald M'assey must bo proijo'inceil a failure, but as a jumping Jinijo he i« really by no means bad. His sonj? m the N«w T«mes this week? 1 on " Th« Czar Nicholas and the British Lion " is one that the London music hulls would be glad of :■— Czar Nicholas called to North and South, . . "Come see the world's great show ! I'il thrust my head m the Lion's niouth," Aud he laughed' " Ha ! ha ! ho ! ho 1" Mr Massey's Czir is a music hall Czar from the point ol'his spiked helmet to the sile of his military boot. He " stands like a statue of Satnn,'' (ha, ha?) and "chuckles and lowlying laugh " (ho, ho !) [a " low-lying liiugh " is perhaps poetic for a swampy smile], and his notion of hosting the British lion and "making the old brute quail," is to thmst his head into the lion's mouth. At this remarkable proposal — The Lion shook his incredulous head, And wagged his dubious tail, ' as well he might. Nicholas, however, is not iio be said nay; the lion re luctantly opens his jawa, he Czar inserts lit* bead, when, not unnaturally the laws open upon it, and "clenched teeth held him there." In this uncomfortable situation the Cswr makes a short' Hpeecl) to the ' spectators, " with, a voice of a spirit m ibfliil ° — which v word probably .ought* to be spelt bale. Apparently it is an allusion to the captive condition of a cow when V. bailed up "for milking purposes. With the voice of a spiiit m bail the Czar exclaims— ! Now God a mercy on my soul, Does the Lion wag his tail ? The inquiry is not so irrelevant as it ; looks. Adcording to the well-known Van Anibugh tradiHbn, the lion always wags his tail before biting off the* head of the lion-tamer. The peculiarity of this case, however, is that J,he Czar is able to ask the question sifter the lion's, teeth have clenched about his neck. With this we may bracket the physiological difficulty a ' few lines later, where " the Czar's hear 1 / melts like snow m his mouth !" Czars are evidently not built on the same line* as other people. The end of the story, of course, is that the lion^a " bravo and magnanimous beast," whose heroic conduct is beyond all praise — bites off, the head so generously thrust into bis jaws and then — The poor old Beast, at whose aspect mild The meanest thing dared rail, Shake his inane like a conqueror's bloody plume, • And—quietly wags his tail ? This is a jumping Jingo's vision of the origin, history, and glorious ter r ruination of a Prussian war ! Unfortunately, I »m not able to believe if, but my belief shall not hinder me from praying So moteitbel — "Civut" m Otago Witness.