"A CUT OFF THE JOINT."
Swish! swish! Sweet is the sound of steel 'gainst steel
To him who's hungering for a good square meal.
This joint is juicy, and the carver skilled,
But many plates are waiting to be filled.
The Restaurant is famed for popular prices,
A clever Cook, and oh! such whopping slices!
What wonder then that customers are clamorous,
That appetites, of good cheap victuals amorous,
Sharpen at sight of that big toothsome joint?
The carver does not wish to disappoint;
He is no Union Bumble, stingy, truculent,
He knows his dish is savoury and succulent,
That "Cut and Come again's" a pleasant motto,
But deal out "portions" all this hungry lot to?
Amphitryon feels the thing cannot be done,
Though he should slice the saddle to the bone
With all the deftness of a Vauxhall Waiter.
First come first serve! some claims are less, some greater;
Some of them may secure a well-piled plateful,
Others, though the necessity be hateful,
Empty away must go. Won't there be grumblings,
Waterings of mouths and hunger-gendered rumblings!
But the great Surplus-Joint, although a spanker,
Won't satiate all the appetites that hanker
After a solid slice of it. Cook Goschen
Of careful carving has a neatish notion,
Yet, though his skill be great, his judgment sound,
He will not make that whopping joint "go round."
