AUCTION EXTRAORDINARY.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 145, 15 May 1900, Page 3

AUCTION EXTRAORDINARY.

I dreamed a dream in the midst of my slumbers, And as far as I dreamed it, it came into nuuibeis ; My, thoughts i an along in such beautiful metro, I'm suve I ne'er saw any poetry sweeter : It seemed that a law had been recently made That a tax on old bachelors' should be laid ; And in order to make them all willing to marry, The tax \va3 as large as a man could well carry, The bachelors grumbled, and said 'twas no use, 'Twaa hoind injustice and horrid abuse, And declared that to savo their own heaits' blood fiorn spilling, Of such a vile tax they would not pay a shilling, But the rulers determined them still to pursue, So they set all the old bachelors up at vendue : A crier was sent through the town to and fio, To rattle his bell and a trumpet to blow, And to call out to all he might meet in his way, " Ho ! toity old bachelors sold here today." And piesently all the old maids in the town, Each in her very best bonnet and gown, Fiona thirty to sixty— fair, plain, red and pale, Of every description, all flocked to the sale. ' The auctioneer then in his labour began, And called out aioud, as he held up a ! man, How much for a bachelor ? who wants to buy?" In a twink, every maiden responded " I — I." ! In short, at a highly extravagant price, The b.icheiois all were sold off in a trice : And forty old maidens, some younger some older, Each lugged an old bachelor home on her ehouldez. i E.N. I New Plymouth.