RHODESIAN RHYMES.

Evening Post, Volume LII, Issue 161, 28 November 1896, Page 2

RHODESIAN RHYMES.

In Bpite of a". . the troubles in Rhodesi-* they still find time at Buluwayo to writ verae. Here is a "Lay of the Matabel" Mounted Police ° ' from che Mutabele Times < Your account-book may be faky, and your credit may be shaky, And your balance at your banker's may be nil, You may make the sad confession that there isn't a profession That onables you to pay your butcher's bill. Sti.i, do not be downhearted, though your last shirt has departed, And the larder is as empty as can be, If you want your pocket filling, you can take the Chartered shilliug, And go and join ihe M.M.P. You need no Mathematics, Euclid, Soienoe, Hydrostatics, No Latin, German, Hebrew, Frenoh, or Greek, There are no exams, whatever, and you need not be too olever, For you're very seldom called upon to speak. *, But you must keep steady trigger on the deprodating nigsrer, £nd perhaps some day a Boer may cross tho V; Ho will be behind a boulder, but your oarbine's at your shoulder, And they want you in the M.M P. But your courage must be ready, and your hand be cool and stoady, And somotiraes you'll have to sleep upon your mount; You will just lo as you're told to, and your life you needn't hold to, For, whatever happons, that will never count ; And the lone veldt will receive you, and perhaps your dog will grieve you, And the news will travel somehow o'er the ■ia, And the grass will wave above you, and one 1 perhaps still love you, When you're vanished from the M.M P. •THE ROAD TO 'DONGOLAY.'" In view of ihe arrival of the Soudan expeditionary force at Dongola {'uys the Westminster) the last verse of the ditty written by one of the English officers during the journey up the Valley cf the Nile has a new interest : — Here's a health and best of luok, boys, To you all in the E.A., F-om Sirdar down to Drummer, May we get to Dongolay 1 WUh a Kttle help from England, And no one to say us nay, Wo'lt spend a merry Xtrms Further south than Dongolay I Oh the road to Dongolay, Where i be anoient railway lay, And we toiled, and moiled, and sweatedJust to make one mile a day — Chorus — On tho road to Dongolay, Where the dying oamels lav. And the sun struck down li«.e helifire, And grew hotter day by dcy. There were, as ihe Standard's special correspondent pointed out at ( he time, considerable possibilities fur this song, aud the next verse may be expected to run something in this strain : — There's a chance for Tommy Atkins Aud i'.ie fc»ikh to see some fun, : we take the work and finish What the Gyppy's well beguaj F^r there's still a bib of "oun ry Lies stretohi-.j south, away From Dongola to Dur/ur, On tho road to UGAN-DAY. But we shall know more about this later