THE PRESENT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 36, 27 December 1889, Page 27

THE PRESENT.

Thibd Tableau :— An Eviction. Scena.— An old man lying on straw ; children (eight or nine if possible), half -clad, pale faced, huddling together ; a young peauant woman in a pleadiug attitude. Sheriffs, landlords, and all the limbs of the law. RECITATIVE. Unfurl the banner of coercion ; turn the human cattle out ! We are Saxons, we are free men, let us give the slaves the rout I They Bhall pay the rent in money, or their hearts' blood we can draw ; »ljor eviction and oppression show the majesty of law. " O, my good sir 1 one more season leave us 'neath the old roof-treei Tidings glad full soon will reach us from our Shawn beyond the sea. havo sown in weary labours many times these last few years ; W» have reaped for our endeavours but a harvest of salt tears. " Landlord, mercy 1 there, bedridden, our grindsire in pain doth lie ; Eighty jears tbia cabia sheltered him, and now is he to die On the roadside, in the piercing cold of this Decemerber night / U great Got | can deeds like this be done in thine avenging sight ?

" Sir, the children, starving, caked, helpless, hopeless, weary, cold, Bhiver round the fireside desolate : Oh, where can we get goldt We would give it if we had it, but if ibis time we most fail, We will work the hearts' blood out of ns to meet the coming gale. Rally round us, baton-bearers, bailiffs, sheriffs, soldiers brave I Fire the thatch, throw out the chattels, nothing Irish dara to W I Let the smoking ruins of homesteads tell to all the landlord's " Right." We'll maintain it by eviction. Send the beggars from our eight t Solo and chorus with harp accompaniment, " The Coolin." Fourth Tablba.it.— The Evicted not Homeless. Statue Scene : Tbe leaders of Home Rale, in statues of " Kilkenny marble," pleading in Parliament for the tenants, and bringing succour to the evicted .