THE WORLD IS NOT SO FUNNY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10659, 12 May 1906, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE WORLD IS NOT SO FUNNY.

The world is no so funny as it used to seem to me, When I thought the note of laughter gave its orchestra the key; When its men were merely mummers and its women Columbines, And I said the 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 the honior of the show ; And the gay grotesauery , Of this life appealed to me, Till it seemed the bread of pleasure dip- - ped m nectar made of glee. Ah me, to live m those old days was just to live a song, But now the world is miling less the while it rolls along. .

The little things, the little things ; they were so very quaint; They'd call for cachinnaton from a sor- . row-plighted saint. And though the world has rolled since then, to sadder realms, I vow That I can raise a sickly smile at raem'ry of them now. It ivas ho ! ho ! ho ! Well done ! Let the merry burlesque run. For we've all been shovelled earthward just, to have a little fun. Watch a woman hold her dress To reveal her— rwell, you guess — The while she talks of modest ways she feels impelled to press ; 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 ! ho ! But one day through all the laughter came, the echo of a shriek, And I checked a shriek of pleasure just • to idly wonder why; And then I knew that 'neath the foam that on the surface whirled There flowed the grief and heartache of a weary, weary world. And the ha ! ha ! ha !ho! ho ! drowned the bitter sigh of woe. And other mummers than the clowns were m the earthly show; There was merriment, indeed, ,But beneath it pulsed the need Of the weary, weary player for. the things that higher lead; And though_sincc then I see right well the show's grotesquely, The world is hot so funny- as it used to seem to me.