A funeral sermon, wherein we must tell Its faults and virtues, as we sound its knell; The record of events we've just gone through, There, for a sober introduction that will do— Not in a grum, fault-finding mood, Stir up the wicked with the good: Well, 1855 With war and strife was all alive, From 1854, And still, contentious and prolix, (pro licks,) Hands down, to be again renewed, The dismal heritage of blood. The scene of that long wasteful strife, It seems to my poor weak idea, For sure its history, at this time, Is one great, foul, o'ershadowing crime, All of them, must one day answer, The judgment time shall soon reveal And when the Malakoff was taken She to her very core was shaken. The Czar instanter started 'way off England hurra'd, and France was frantic As if he had not heard the fray; Told of their hopes, their doubts, their fears; Nuff said of them-and so we drop them, Say what we will, we cannot stop them. Like old Kilkenny's feline fighters, These most unfeeling human biters Till men, and arms, and money fail, And nought is left them but-a tale. "Our own, our native land”—and pray Of her what shall the Carrier say? She's carried us thus far along, And we've stuck to her, right or wrong, We've had our strifes,-now ups, now downs- We've had our skirmishes and battles, And do our stabbing and our shooting, The Whigs are down. The Dems are-where ? Native and Hindoo, make such pother, I can't distinguish one from t'other, And they, themselves-(I mean the soldiers) Don't know whose heads are on their shoulders. Our war is over-the upshot Is one's elected-one is not; And both, with stoic satisfaction, Strike where you will, but pierce us not. Till Time carves out a new slave State. We've heard of Kane, how he turned jailor, And t'other Kane, the re-turned sailor, How one, resisting a contempt, Shut Passmore in an ugly hole; T'other persisting in the attempt To find one pass more, and the pole; We've had-but not a word of that- All in the lists, awards to claim; And then, we've had our Courts and Judges, Of quaint and entertaining thought, Harry Know-Nothing; OR, WHICH END WILL YOU HAVE? him. The ARRY was a genu- When Harry was a very little boy, ine know-nothing- he had a kite given him, which was not such an one as taller than he was himself. He did not we have about now- know how to manage it, and would not a-days, who profess wait, till his father came home, to show great love for their He rushed out, at once, into the country, but show only love to His mother followed with little themselves; who know nothing Charley, and offered her assistance. But of the trué interests of their Harry, as know-nothings generally do, country, but know enough of thought he knew all about the matter. other things to be able to do a vast He laid the kite down on the ground, deal of mischief. Harry was a real and then, unrolling his string, ran furibona-fide know-nothing-an ignoramus, ously off, without heeding which way who loved play, and hated work, who the wind was blowing. As might be loved idleness, and hated books, and expected, he ran the wrong way. who, consequently, never learned any-kite did not rise, but was dragged along thing useful, or failed to learn anything in the dust, till it encountered a stone, mischievous. His mother was very in- and then, snap went the back-bone, and dulgent, and gave him a great variety the kite was spoiled. Harry took up of playthings, seeming to have no other the wreck, found the paper torn in wish than that Harry should "enjoy several places, and the whole toy utterly himself." His father did not quite ap- past mending. At this he cried violently, prove this kind of education, and used and blamed his mother, for not preoften to say, that, if Harry did not soon venting it. And then-for thoughtless alter his course, and learn something boys are always unreasonable-he fell useful, he would certainly "come out of into a passion with Charley, because he the little end of the horu" at last. laughed, and said "Mamma goodHarry naughty." Just then, Harry's father came along, and, when he saw how things were going, he took Harry into the house, and had a long talk with him, trying to show the folly of passion, and the evils of idleness. Harry, my dear," said he, "if you do not improve, you will surely come out of the little end of the horn." |