FRIEND OF HUMANITY.
Needy axe-grinder! whither are you going?
Sad is your visage, sadder far your raiment,
Rimless your hat, your coat has got a hole in't,
So have your trowsers!
Seedy axe-grinder! little know the great ones,
Who buy fat jobs, and steal the public lucre,
What times befall the poverty-stricken devils
Who grind their axes!
Tell me, axe-grinder, how you came so seedy?
Did some great man ungratefully entreat you?
Was it Fernando, first king of our Gotham,
Or the Collector?
Or did some evil Weed set you to burning
The Cataline, and pocket all the plunder;
Or did the patriot Ben engulf your little
All in a lottery?
Tell me, axe-grinder! 'tell me how you cum so:'
'Drops of compassion tremble on my eyelids,
Ready to fall the moment you have told your
Pitiful story.'