STRIKING HOME.
Punch loquitur:—
Well, you have got your way, my lad,
And may it prove good all round.
Liberal pay is your right, I say,
For your grim work underground.
Rise of pay and a shorter day?
Excellent things, belike,
Yet would they were sought in another way
Than the cruel road of a Strike.
I see you've been having a smoke, my lad;
What did you see in the smoke?
Why, some things good, and many things bad,
And nought that is matter for joke.
At every puff there's a picture of gloom,
A moral in every pull.
Motionless wheels and idle loom,
What is their meaning in full?
Capital's greed and Labour's need
These be fair matters for fight.
Must Trade, though, suffer and poor hearts bleed?
Must wrong be the road to right?
Glad there is talk of a better way,
Truly 'tis worth the search;
For little you'll profit by higher pay
If Commerce be left in the lurch.
