"NOW" AND "THEN."

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 278, 23 April 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

"NOW" AND "THEN."

* TO THK EDITOR. Sir, —You published a poem last .Saturday comparing the present with the byegone days of 1808. It's easy to see where the shoe pinched the poet. He has probably gone through an experience such as I have described in the enclosed verges, which I have taken tho liberty of throwing into the same metre as that adopted by T.W.D.—Yours truly, THE BUNG UP G.M.C. Yes boys ! its most provokin' that A tough old chap like me Who's knocked about this colony Since 1863, Aint got sufficient nous and braiua iSlowed underneath his hat To keep his hard earned dollars from The claws of a wild cat. I went to town a year ago To trade my crop of wheat And buy the missus and the kids Some clothes to keep 'em neat, And walking up the street I saw A building with a clock, In passing which amonf; the crowd I got a sudden shock. A fellow bumped against me, and On looking in his face I saw he was a chap that once Lived up about my place. Why, Jack ! he said, what a surprise ; What, Bill ! It's never you ; You're got up as regardless as A race bookmnking Jew. Why, Jack ! he said, a lucky chance, Let's go and have a wine ; (An invitation such as this I never can decline). He took me to a little room Beside a private bar, And when he'd ordered in tho drinks He put the door ajar. In manner most mysterious He from his pocket took A formidable document With an official look. He look it from the envelope And handed it to me, And said " That's the prospectus of The Bung-up G.M.C." A pile, old man ! beyond a doubt, A regular Waihi ; The knowing ones have all the day Been chasing after me. In short, after some further talk And whiskeys one, two, three, I left a full shareholder in The Bung-up G.M.C. When I got home and told the wife That I had made my pile, She didn't seem to seo it quite, She didn't; even smile. The corners of her mouth went down, Her nose tip sought the sky, But what she muttered sounded like That it was " all her eye." Some ir.onths age I met a chap That cams straight from Waihi, And asked him if he knew about The Bung Up G.M.C. " Oh, yes," he said, " I've worked it well, The shares went off like smoke, But as for getting gold, why, man, It's just a bloomin' joke." A crop of good Waikato wheat Melted in calls away, But what the Mrs calls me now I must decline to say. But if I meet that chap again It will be odd to me If both his eyes aint bung up like His bloomin' G.M.C.