The following lines, printed in "Faces in the Fire," were written as an affectionate tribute to the memory of one of the sweetest and most loveable of women:
MY MOTHER'S SONGS.
Of all the songs from sweetest voice,
In the sweet days of old,
That made my inmost soul rejoice,
However oft they're told,
Are those sweet songs my mother sung
While we were round her knee;
When all the world seemed blythe and young
And fresh and fair to see.
O, I have wandered far away
In sunny lands of song,—
And I have heard the minstrels play
That thrilled the listening throng;
Tho' sweet the charm when beauty sings,—
And sweet the minstrelsie,—
There is no charm that memory brings
Like those old songs to me.
Oft in the calm clear starry night,
Among the leafy trees,—
Or on the weird lone mountain height,
And in the gentle breeze,—
Or on the rough wild stormy sea,
When all is dark and drear,
The dear old songs will come to me,—
My mother's songs I hear.
Sweet is the strange enchanting spell
That lures all thought away,
To warm fireside or woody dell,
Where we were wont to play.
Around my boyhood's happy home
Glad mem'ries fondly cling;
And oft' the sweet old songs will come
My mother used to sing.
Through many years of joyous life
I reach the sere and old;
Now all the battle and the strife,
The fierce sun, and the cold,
Are o'er for me, and calm I wait
Until the "joy-bells" ring;
For I shall hear at Heaven's gate
My angel mother sing.
George Dalziel.
Of the many art contributors, it will be sufficient if we state the names of the principal men whose works have adorned the pages of Fun and Hood's "Comic Annual." Of these, naturally, the cartoonists take the foremost place. Paul Gray, who held this position on Hood assuming the editorship, was a young Irish artist of very considerable promise, and displayed much fine feeling for black and white work. He also made drawings for some of our "Fine Art Books." He was a man of delicate constitution, and within twelve months of his joining the Fun staff he fell into a consumption and died. Shortly before the sad event, writing to us on other subjects, he said:
"I take the opportunity of saying how very pleased I am with the way in which the cartoons are engraved—some of the latter, more especially, could not possibly be better."