LITERATURE AND LOTTERY.
(By a Patron of the Popular Press.)
Yes, I've "a literary taste,"
And patronise a weekly journal;
'Tis what is called Scissors and Paste,
The paper's poor, the print's infernal.
But what of that, when, week by week,
High at the sight of it hope rises?
What in my Magazine I seek
Is just—a medium for Prizes!
I can't be bothered to read much,
I like my literature in snippets.
My hope is, with good luck, to clutch
Villas, gold watches, sable tippets.
A coupon and some weekly pence
Give me a chance of an annuity.
Oh, the excitement is intense!
I read with ardent assiduity,
Not what the poor ink-spillers say
In sparkling "par," or essay solemn;
No, what I read, with triumph gay
Or hope deferred, is—the Prize Column!
On prose my time I seldom waste,
And poetry is poor and pottery.
But oh! I have an ardent taste
For Literature when linked with Lottery!