What time, in sooth, his ‘Mirror’ flashed its rays,
Like Barnum’s ‘drummond’ on the Broadway gaze,
When lisping misses, fresh from seminaries,
Worshiped ‘mi-boy’ and ‘brigadier’[9] as lares;
Then Bayard Taylor—protégé of Natty,
Dixon-like walked into the ‘literati;’
And first to proper use his genius put,
Like ballet-girls, by showing ‘Views Afoot.’”
In another part of his squib the lampooner returns to the charge against Willis as follows:—
“I almost passed by Willis—‘ah, mi-boy!