CURRENT VERSE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LI, Issue 9101, 25 May 1906, Page 2

CURRENT VERSE.

A GENTLEMAN.

A soul, incapable of fear, ■. Unselfisn, modest and sincere, Of stainless honor; underfilled In speedh and action as a ohild ; Observe fheeae precepts, if you can, And you shall be a gentleman. • — Reginald Lnca?, in Wesbmdnster Gazette.

THE WORLD IS NOT SO FUNNY.

The world is not so funny as it used to

seem to me. When I thought the note of laughter gave

the orchestra itjs&iey; When its men were merely mummers and

its women Columbines, And I said tbe deuce might follow and might catch the chap that whines. Twas a fig for care and woe ! And a ha ha ha! ho ho! Was an easy commentary on tfoe humor of the show;

And the gay 'grotesquery

Of this life appealed to me, Till it seemed the bread of pleasure dipped in nectar made of glee. Ah me, to live in those old days was just to Kve a song, But now the world is smiling less the while its rolls along

The little things, t!he little things; they

were so very quaint; They'd call for oaohinnation from a sor-row-plighted saint. And though the world has rolled since

then, to sadder realms, I vow That T can raise a sickly smile at mem'ry ,of them now. It was ho! ho! ho! Well done! Let the merry burlesque run. '■

For we've all been shovelled earthward just to (hare a little, fun. Watch a woman hold her dress To reveal her— well, you guess — The white ahe talks of modest ways she

feels impelled to And, oh! the men who strut and swell,

with ten-ounce brains or so — Have you never felt it called for ha! ha! ha! and ho! ho! no!

But one day .through, all tbe laughter came the echo of a shriek, And I checked a shriek of pleasure just to idly wonder why; And then I knew that 'math the foam that on tine surface whirled There flowed the grief and 'heartache' of a weary, weary world. And tlhe ha! ha! ha! ho! Drowned tbe bitter sogh of woe. And other mummers than, the clowns were in the earfhly show; There was merriment, indeed. But beneath it pulsed the -need »">f the weary, weary player for the things that higher lead; . And though since then I see right well the show's grotesquely,

Tho world is- not so funny us it used to seem to me.