The Scrape of the Flock.

Observer, Volume XXXII, Issue 51, 31 August 1912, Page 23

The Scrape of the Flock.

(With apologies to Pope). [For the Observer.] Come muse of mine, if muse of mine thou art, And let us bear in politics a part. The mighty Isitt is at pains to know What drove his party from the warmth and glow Of office, to the place where knightl shades Rustle and Carroll in the gloomy glades, And brought—although it seems exceeding queer, His own ambition to an early bier. Oh, cruel fate ! Oh, irony of woe 1 To treat the prohibition prophet so I Now hear him speak ; let him the cause disclose: " Twas slander, hatched and spread by ruthless foes, That barred my name from ministerial scroll And placed another Joseph in a hole. His multi-coloured coat, so wel designed To catch each vote and please each vagrant mind, Inspired his brethren with but hate and spite, And plunged 'the party' in Egyptian night. The Masses of our foes came on once more And with the Lib.-Lab. heroes wiped the floor." —T. W. D.