THE FIGHTING RACE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 2, 13 May 1898, Page 28

THE FIGHTING RACE.

" Read out the names !" aud Burke sal back And Kelly drooped his head, ' While Shea—they call him Scholar Jack— Wt nt down the list of the dead. Officers, seumen, gunners, marines, The crews of the gig and yawl, The bearded man and the lad in his teens, Carpenters, coal-passers —all. Then knocking the ashes from'out his pipe, Said Burke in au off-hand w uy : " We're all in that dead man's list, by cripe ! Kelly and Burke and Shea." " W£lW £ 11 .', b l re's to the Maine, and I'm sorry for Spain." Said Kelly and Burke and Shea. '• Wherever there's Kellyt there's trouble," said Burke • v» herever fighting's the game, Or a spire of danger in grown man's work " Said Kelly, " you'll find my name " ' " And do we fall short," said Burke, getting mad, v hen it's tout h and go for life ?" Said Shea : •' It's thirty odd years, bedad, Since I charged to drum and fife Up Marye's Heights, and my old canteen Stoppod a rebel ball on it- way. There were bl ssonis of blood on our sprigs of greenKelly and Burke and Shea— And the dead didn't brag." " Well, here's to the flag !" Said Kelly and Burke and Shea. '• I wish 'twas in Ireland, for there's the place " Said Burke, " that we'd die by right, In the cradle of our soldier race, After one good stand-up fight. My grandfather fell on Vinegar Hill, And fighting was not his trade ; But his rusty pike's in the cabin still. With Hessian blood on the blade-" " Ay «V^ ye'" Baid Kel] y> " the Pike' B were great When the word was ' clear the way 1' We were thick on the roll in ninety-ehzht— Kelly and Burke and Shea." " Wi ll- ll J h S rei 181 8 t0 the pike and the swor<l and the like !" baid Kelly and Burke and Shea'" And Shea, the scholar, with rising joy, Said : " We were at Rainilies. We left our bones at Fontenoy, And up in the Pyrenees. Before Dundirk, on Landen's plain, Cremona, Lille and Ghent. We're all over Austria, France and Spain, Wherever they pitched a tent. We've died for England from Waterloo To Egypt and Dargai ; And still there's enough for a corps or crew Kelly and Burke and Shea." " Well, here is to good, honest fighting blood ! Said Kelly and Burke and Shea. •l Oh. the fighting races don't die out, If they seldom die in bed. For love is first in their hearts, no doubt," Said Burke ; then Kelly said ; " When Michael, the Irish Archangel, stands, The angel with the sword, And the battle-dead from a hundred lands Are ranged in one biyr horde, Our line, that, for Gabriel's trumpet waits, Will stretch three deep that day, From Jchosaphat to the Golden GatesKelly and Burke and Shea." " Well, here's thank God for the race and the sod !" Said Kelly and Burke and Shea. —Joseph I. C. Clarke in New York Sun.

The cat-o'-nine-tails came into use in the army about 1770 and did not become obsolete until early in the present century After each stroke on the back of the unfortunate culprit it was dipped into a pale of brine, and to prevent the man's screams being heard the regimental drummers kept up a constant roulade on the drums J be use of the '-cat" in the army and navy was abolished when a Bill introduced by Mr. C. S. Parnell, and supported by the whole Irish party, became law." Divers in the royal navy, before being passed as proficient in their craft, have to be able to work in 12 fathoms of water for an hour, 15 fathoms for half an hour, and 20 fathoms for a quarter of an hour. , ...*; Gawne, of Dunedin (soys the Southland Times of April 13, 1891), has just been on a visit to Invercargill to push business a little. i\ot that it wants much canvassing, for since he commenced the manufacture of his Worcestershire S,uice, the demand has kept pace with his capacity to supply it. Ho makes a really good thine, indistinguishable from the famous Lea and Perrin's, which he places upon one s table at a much lower price, and trusts to that to secure a steadily "rowing trade. Those who have not yet tried the colonial article should put their prejudice aside for a time and test the question with a bottle or two.—Advt. h