DINNERS AND DIDDLERS.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 167, 24 November 1883, Page 11

DINNERS AND DIDDLERS.

(By a Dineb Out.)

Let {esthetes sadly sit and sigh, And contemplate the snow-white lilies, The pleasures of the world decry, The weak-brained, sentimental sillies. Though flowers be sweet and skies be fair, Though every glutton be a sinner, No mortal man can live on air — What is a man without his dinner ? See in the busy lunching-room, In this dry, unsesthetic, coarse age, The hungry clerks, with looks of gloom, Survey the small and meagre sausage ! They want to get their soup and fish, A bit of fowl — (as I'm a sinner) — Or any other kind of dish, And pay a shilling for the dinner.

And while some pompous, ugly coon, Not very young or fascinating, Beholds the clerk, in Dalleu's, spoon And ogle lovely maids in •waiting, With all the arts the masher knows, And fond, soft nothings tries to win her, The hungry, angry swell oft goes Too long without that precious dinner.

Or else some miserly old boy A threepenny roll of bread devours ; He brings a monster saveloy, And reads the paper there for hours. The -waiters scowl, the girls look glum, And vote the man a mean old skinner j But still each clay he's sure to come— What could he do without his dinner ?

:I*efc maidens lire on -lpye and rhymes,<.•• '■ < And; dresß*in;fasliionß fantas#or*jphetfimgß pfciaiajdmedifißTal^injes „ . . A *\. . ; ;T?^e^H^g«^^b '$• :' >■ ..•;••• r .,.

While soulful poets sonnets make, And sad-eyed, pale aesthetes grow thinner, Let me enjoy a juicy steak — What is a man without his dinner ? Great Soyer, let me chant thy fame I The praises of the gastronomic, Let hungry men thy skill proclaim, Thou gaVst us dinners economic. The sesthetics still may growl and fret, And mortify their nature inner, But we'll be happy if we get A solid, comfortable dinner.