The clanging crow-bar rings the pile’s decay
The busy labourers make their work complete
Daily the well known buildings glide away,
And space and brightness grow upon the street.
This was the first verse of a long parody which appeared in the “Free Lance” a paper published in Manchester, many years ago. A celebrated chop house stood in Newall’s Buildings, and the parody describes its principal frequenters, but the allusions are too local to be of any general interest.
——:o:——
The Scales.
The piano sounds the knell of parting day;
Next door the singing pupil shrieks high C;
The cornet practices across the way,