Volume 93 — THE WAIL OF THE WIRE.
Reading edition
(With apologies to the Poet.)
"It is stated that Mr. Swinburne's new poem was cabled to New York." Had I wist, wailed the wire in sea's hollow, That thousands of lines I should list, Pumped forth by a son of Apollo, I would not have lain here, not I, 'Twixt Briton and Yankee a tie: No messages through me should fly, Had I wist. Had I wist, they would make me swallow, Huge poems all moonshine and mist, In addition to "speeches" all hollow; They shouldn't have cabled a thing, They shouldn't have used me to wing, Leagues of rhymes that the word-spinners sing, Had I wist.
Valuable Opinion.—We understand that the Authorities have consulted Mr. Briefless, Junior, Q.C., (Queer Counsel) on the right claimed by indifferent passers-by to stand between the police and the mob, in view of the Chief Commissioner's statement that such passers-by cause the chief difficulty in quelling disturbance; The learned Counsel has given a lucid opinion to the effect that any mere sightseer may be arrested and imprisoned, unless he or she can prove the having come to the spot for a riotous or other unlawful object.