"THE PROMISE OF MAY."
(As the Proletariat paints it.)
"Since it is incredible that the economic balance can be universally disturbed by local changes, and always in one direction, we must assume a kind of moral contagion as an efficient agent in the wide-spread demand for a revision, of wages and hours of labour. Identical theories and demands, preferred simultaneously in Austria, Germany, France, England, and America, must be largely due to the force of example operating through the modern facility of communication. A universal movement in favour of shorter hours would seem best fitted to secure the amelioration of the labourer's lot."—The Times.
Enthusiastic Operative to his Bench-Mate, loquitur:—
We must wake and turn out early, bright and early, comrade dear;
To-morrow'll be the biggest day of all the sad New Year;
Of all the sad New Year, mate, the biggest, brightest day;
For to-morrow's the First of May, chummy, to-morrow's our First of May.
There'll be many a dark, dark eye, chummy, by Thames, and Seine, and Rhine,