THAT AIRSHIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 68

THAT AIRSHIP.

A weird and ghostly'visitant Came to our shores. No, no; Far .worse than -that — came to our skies,—* And filled us all with woe. It was a ship — a phantom ship, — And it had wheels and sails, Anfi wings and lights and hazy muatm. And mystic heads and hula. " A mystery," the papers said. "At last New Zealand hath"; And type two inches, bold and blaclr, Adorned the paragraph. The scholars coming borne from school. Not sixty miles from Gore, Described its shape, and also told What clothes the monster wore. The workmen going to their toil At 12 o'clock at night, Sober as any district judge, Took oath they saw the light. * Nay, more, to prove -what cause they £mu£ To get their teeth on edge, They heard the working of "the thing !*• " Just like a suction dredge." Fair damsels — out so late because They'd been to see the play — Perceived an awful creepy light Rise, soar, and glide away* And curly four-year hopefuls, who'd Been listening to their pa, "Wok© up from fevered slumbers with 3 " I've seen the airship, ma." Some said it was a German scout, Seme said it waa the French, Searching round Tapanui for A nice place to entrench. And there were those to whom this f&te Was worse than taking pills, For they had dreamed in battle-tim* Of sheltering in these hills. Their fear, however, now is gone, For. strange it is to say, ' The phwvtom ship to Melbourne iowxt Has made its airy tray. But whether there ox to the moozr. Whene'er they learn the worst, New Zealanders can safely say:, "We saw the airship first."-«-3i *•