Now he’s had a little rest
Wales can go it with the best,
And he never felt so jolly in his life—
In his life.
The Strong Men.
HEY lined the quays on every shore,
They fought for ships to take them o’er;
They filled those ships from stern to stem,
And still there was no end of them.
They came by river, road, and rail,
By every Continental mail,
By White Star, Inman, and Cunard,
And sent the managers a card.
With iron bars and chains of steel,
A mixture of the sham and real,
With mighty weights and cannon-balls
They sought the London music-halls.
From every land beneath the sun,
And each of them the strongest one,
They all performed the self-same feats,
And still they played to big receipts.
Still fiercer grew the strong man boom,
And still for more the shows made room;
For, since so much one strong man drew,
What wealth might there not be in two!
The halls were crowded night and day
To see strong men with dumb-bells play;
The playhouse saw its public lost,
And all but “strong man” was a “frost.”
They put a strong man in the play—
The first in “London Day by Day”;
Then Willard cried to Jones, “A plan!
Put Sandow in ‘The Middleman.’”