Volume 25 — THOUGHTS ON THE SAVAGE LIONS OF LONDON.
Reading edition
BY A FRIEND AND A BROTHER.
You may talk as you please of magnetic attraction, Electro-biology, media, and stuff: Rapping for Spirits don't give satisfaction, The relatives never relate half enough. Tables on castors, and castors on tables, All I have turn'd to alike in their turn; Mesmeric stories are nothing but fables, Stories indeed, which intelligence spurns. In all these sensations I own I'm a scorner, Never in them have my feelings a part; But, where Gordon Cumming was, near Hyde Park Corner, Oh! there, there is something that touches the heart! His exhibition of skins show'd the ravages Hunters can make with the savage wild beast; But now they have got there a troupe of wild Savages, Who have not (as yet!) of their guests made a feast. Kafirs from Borioboola, or somewhere— There are delighting the civilised world: Belles from Belgravia in afternoons come there; Thither the fairest of May-fair are whirl'd. Dowagers craving for something exciting, Gentlemen blasé with Fashion's dull round, Those who find novelty always delighting, With those dear Kafirs may daily be found. And delightful it is there, to see them transacting Their business of marriage, and murder, and war; Delightful to sit there, and know that 'tis acting, And not the real thing—which, of course, we abhor. We see in each movement such truth of expression, Their stampings and kickings are done with such grace, That ladies of title e'en make the confession That they in the Savage—nobility trace! But chief the delight, when the acting is ended, To go to the room from which Cumming is gone, And there inspect closely their figures so splendid, And, timidly, even shake hands with each one, And their dear little baby we smother with kisses, And stroke and admire its darling bronze skin, And think that there ne'er was a baby like this is, As a lion of London its life to begin. It is all very proper to say that a baby Might be found nearer home, if we sought for a pet, And that in the back courts of St. Giles's, it may be, Hordes of young savages there we could get: But, they've no fancy dresses to set off their figures, And nothing is thought of an every-day sight; And "Uncle Tom"'s roused such a penchant for niggers, That dark skins must now take precedence of white. That little dark baby could never have vices Like those which degrade us in civilised life; And though he may p'raps chop his father in slices, His country has customs that legalise strife. But, really—what humbugs call—Civilisation, Seems spreading everywhere under the skies, That soon, I suppose, we shall not have a nation To furnish a savage to gladden our eyes.
A BENEFICE IN THE MARKET.
In moving, on Wednesday, the second reading of the Simony Law Amendment Bill—deferred, to the delight no doubt of certain prelates, to that day three months—Viscount Goderich is reported to have asked:—
"What was it which the right of presentation conferred? It was a right to select a man who, as a Minister of the Church of England, was to be intrusted with the spiritual affairs of a certain place."
Yes, indeed, of a certain place—and, one would think, when the right of presentation is simoniacally purchased, of a certain place (not to be mentioned to ears polite) where the cure of souls would be a farce.
Strength Apparently Accounted For.
Notwithstanding the small size of the Aztec children, they are exceedingly strong. An incurable punster says they doubtlessly derived this strength from Gymn-aztecs, from whom it probably descended in a straight line.
HIBERNIAN TACTICS.
The military ability evinced by the Irish Brigade is of a peculiar kind. It is chiefly conspicuous in besieging; for almost the only talent in the whole party has been displayed in taking places.