He seized on Mr. Romeo Jones,
In Græco-Roman style:
He got what they call a grape-vine lock
On that leading juvenile;
He flung him into the orchestra,
And the man with the ophicleide,
On whom he fell, he just said—well,
No matter what—and died!
When once the tiger has tasted blood
And found that it is sweet,
He has a habit of killing more
Than he can possibly eat.
And thus it was with the Hunky Kid;
In his homicidal blindness,
He lifted his hand against Rosalind
Not in the way of kindness;
He chased poor Celia off at L.,
At R.U.E. Le Beau,
And he put such a head upon Duke Fred,
In fifteen seconds or so,
That never one of the courtly train
Might his haughty master know.
* * * * *
And that's precisely what came to pass,
Because the luckless carles
Belonging to the Am. Dram. Ass.
Cast the Hunky Kid for Charles!
—New York World.
A BALLAD OF A BAZAAR.
BY CAMPBELL RAE-BROWN.
First Day.
He was young, and she—enchanting!
She had eyes of tender grey,
Fringed with long and lovely lashes,
As he passed they seemed to say,
With a look that was quite killing,
"Won't you buy a pretty flower?
Come, invest—well, just a shilling,
For the fairest in my bower!"
Though that bower was full of blossoms,
Yet the fairest of them all
Was the pretty grey-eyed maiden
Standing 'mong them, slim and tall,
With her dainty arms uplifted
O'er her figure as she stood
Just inside the trellised doorway
Fashioned out of rustic wood;
And she pouted as he passed her,
And that pout did so beguile,
That he thought it more bewitching
Than another's sweetest smile.
Fair as tiny dew-dipped rosebuds
Were the little rounded lips;
And the youth ransacked his pockets
In a rhapsody of grips.
Then he went and told her plainly
That he'd not a farthing left,
But would gladly pledge his "Albert";
So with fingers quick and deft,
She unloosed his golden watch-chain—
Coiled it round her own white arm,
Said she'd keep it till the morrow
As a souvenir—a charm.