Curiosities of Street Literature

by Unknown

Then put your shoulder to the wheel,—Little Johnny, O,

Then it’s pressure you won’t feel,—Little Johnny, O,

Flare up and be a brick,

And none of your shuffling tricks,

Or you had better cut your stick,—Little Johnny, O.

Let us say,

And now Johnny, thou most excellent of all state coachmen, to thy Fatherly care, we, an overtaxed, ill-paid, and half-starved people do consign ourselves, trusting that you will take our lamentable condition into thy kind consideration, and spare us from being poisoned with meat that has had the measles, and from being cheated by a set of greedy butchers; and save us from the Fenianites, we implore you; and grant us most merciful Johnny, that at the forthcoming Christmas, every mother’s son of us may be plentifully supplied with beef, pudding, and stout, so that we may boldly shout, slap bang, here we are again, and sing in thy praise now and for evermore. Amen.

Thus endeth the Lesson of the day.

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Henry Disley, Printer, 57, High Street, St. Giles.