VARIOUS VERSES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8283, 10 November 1906, Page 3

VARIOUS VERSES.

THE SNEEZE OP DEATH. (A MISERY-BALLAD.) (A theatrical mana«er recently posted notice forbidding bis artists to cougti or sueeze upon the stage expect by direction under pain of instant dismissal.) 'Twos my tiret big part in London— A ohauoe in the great West .End—. And my futurra hung on favours The critical gods might send; Bat I gathered myself together And had made sueuess a fact, Till a terrible situation Occurred in the second act. I was pleading my love for Mona, Eutreating her hears tor miue, And, playing with all aiy power, My star nad begun to shine, When I fostered a now sensation As 'light as a summer breeze, And I felt, to my iuboru horror. The dawu of a guiitle sneeze 1 Then flashed through my frenzied being The hideous dangers rife: In place ot a brilliant future, A ruined and broken life. Dismissed at tuo point of greatness! Cost out with the dregs and lees With a record of degradation— And all ior a gentle sneeze! 1 wrestled to hold it under, And Mona perceived my woe, And i sought me a duzeu ohauoea For letting the dashed thiug go; But the manager's eyes were watching, And I struggled to keop at ease, Whilst 1 suffered the pangs ot Hades Set np by that gentle sneeze. Times were whenl thought I'd chance itLet tichow and trust to luok; But the thought ot my wife and children Played havoc with my pluck. Ye'gods, how it rose and tickled! I felt It must surely come, And I uursed the cruel edint Of the modern curriculum.

But I suddenly found a refuge Id the action of my part: I had wou tuy sweet girl's affection, And, clasping her to my heart, 1 rushed her across to a corner. In time for the fell,attack, And as she exnlaimed," Oh, Gerald" I sneezed down dear Moua's fcaclr! IN A FINE WOOD. In dark luxuriance they nobly stand, Ihe dusky majesty of pines, sopienie, Yet homely in their grandeur as tbey seem' To hold a parley with the sea and land; Or else to whisper to the sea girt strand. When mystic shadows dull the matin fcleam, Ihe woven music of a wondrous dream, The lisping speech which vagrant winds have spanned. The sinuous pathways vanish in the ] gloom, The trodden earth is softened with'deoay Of shrivelled cones that meet the common doom; Yet through the darkness summer's lessening ray, Ohastening the shadows of my silent way, Has still the magic power to illume I Isidore G. Asoher. TO LEOPOLD OF BELGIUM. (Whom Mr. William Watson has attacked.) Misguided King, thy prostrate form Is now a thing to dance gavottes or, For thou hast raised a fearful storm Within the breast of William Wat son. No longer Adbni 'tis that's Damned, Tis you who choose now to bonnet, And all your failings he has crammed Within the compass of n sonnet. Yet need you feel but small alarm, For he did Abdul little harm. —The World.