FOR THE FREE LANCE.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 8, 25 August 1900, Page 18

FOR THE FREE LANCE.

As I was walking adown the Quay along of the Government Pile, I seed a smartish kind of a chap rigged out in a nautical style : 'E was doin' the Block like a swaggah bank clerk, and I sez to 'im " Oo are you?" Sez 'e, " I'm a minah, a submarine minah — minah an' mistah, too 1 " Now, 's work begins as the clock strikes ten, an' it's kid-glove work to do ; 'E don't know men of the tradesman's style, and 'is blood's of the blueiest blue ; 'E's a kind of a gilded patricianite, minah an' mistah, too. An', after, I met 'im all over the place — playin' 'ockey with dooks and earb, A rowin' 'isself in a Star Club boat 'fore the pick of sassiety girls ; In camp 'e's a bunk, for 'e don't sleep on straw, an 1 'e dines with 'is officials, too, An' 'e fools with electric wires an' things in th' depths of the briny blue. For there isn't a thing on the face of the earth that the beggar don't think 'e can do, An' 'e thinks that a different kind of a god made 'im from the one as made you — E's a sort of a swaggah amphibiousite, minah an' mistah, too. We've seen 'em in mufti, we've seen 'em in camp, when they dine with the Bishop in state, When they called us the 'ay band rank an' file, an' we asked 'em " 'Oo belched on 'is plate ? " An* when the messengers — low-born men — appeared in apparel of blue, They appealed, but in vain, 'gainst this insult profane, till the Minister obdurate grew. Though they thought of their castle, and spoke of their caste, yet the message men still robe in blue ; So the Corps retired from the field of Mars, as gents of their class should do, For they ain't no special patriotutes, these minahs an' mistah, too.

Zealandia's sons have shown such pluck And steadiness when under fire, That more are off to try their luck Against the Boers in war attire. It's my advice that ere they start, Sound health and strength they will secure, All coughs and colds will soon depart On taking Woods' Great Peppermint Cure. — Advt.