BOYCOTTING EXTAORDINARY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 381, 30 April 1881, Page 2

BOYCOTTING EXTAORDINARY.

Appropos< of the custom of the countryin Ireland at present, the following axnust ing ditty appears-in the Irish Times ’Twas in a pleasant village, not A mile from Lee's sweet waters; Where Venus boasts a matchless lot Of captivating daughters. Mirth seemed the happiest spot: to.crown*, It knew no foul contentionTill the Devil turned; it upside downWith his Boycott invention.. ■lt only I one small shebeen (And at was closed on Sunday),, Where Pat might treat his sweet- colleen. Li spite of Mrs Grundy ; : - A little church, a little-school,. A nailer and a sawyer,, One Johnny [Dwyer, the parish fpol, u And not a single lawyer. A half-a-dozen cabins smiled At skies that smiled above them. And half-a-do:.en fathers tailed For those they knew to love them. And left at home, tobleastheir lives When daily labor ended,. A half-a-dozen cheerful; wives, Who stitched, and patched,and mended ’Till one fine day the village green, The haunt of dance and laughter, . Beheld another kind of scene, That changed its aspect after, A crowd assembled there at noon, With flags, and cheers, and clamour,. With bands that didn’t play in tune, And speakers scorning grammar. Well, after this the world went wrong Entirely in our village ; The children seased their joyous song, Their sires gave up the tillage ; The maiden wore an ugly frown, And ceased to coax or wheedle, The housewife flung her mending down, And spat upon the needle. The people wouldn’t go to church — They quite despised their pastor ; i They left the schoolhouse in the lurchj And Boycotted the master. The boneens quarrelled in the stye (Example’s so contagious), And when the gander passed them by Tile geese grew quite outrageous. The cocks began to crow at night, The hens ne’er ceased to cackle ; The jackass, boiling o’er with fight, Tried hard to pump the tackle ; The bull, embittered with his wrongs, Sought out the cow to choke her ; The kettle “ busted,” and the tonga Looked daggers at the poker. The girls, no longer free or kind, They Boycotted their brothers ; Their fathers wouldn’t be behind, So they Bence-Jones’d their mothers; For madness was the only rule, In all its moods and tdnses, And Johnny Dwyer, the parish fool, Alone preserved his senses.