THE FATE OF ACTION. 7 



I am the showman in the midst of the din^ 



Hurrying- my strolling facts all in ; 

 While line by line, 

 You may well divine, 



I'm really just a g'oing to begin. 



My second simile's yet more clear — 



*' Get back Yenus j what do you do here? 



Hie ! 5W5— Action ! here boy, here." 



Like a well-bred dog- he hears my call — 



The curtain rises, and — attention all. 



Once on a time — when time was young, 



And his chronicles either said or sung, 



But seldom printed — there dw^elt in Thrace, 



Or just on the borders of some such place, 



A gentleman greatly attached to the chase. 



This term, though, '' attached," is rather conventional, 



And if, in this place, not permitted to mention all 



The items and likings that led to the phrase. 



Being thus introduced, I'll still, ^' if you plaze," 



Take a moment or two to make out an invoice 



Of a few leading points in the man of my choice. 



And first — lucusa non — I'll just show you what 



The gentleman was, by what he was not ; 



A course that may sound not a little indicative 



*^ Of proving," as counsel would tell us, "a negative.'' 



He wasn't a satin-tj^ed sweet-scented swell, 

 A London-built buck for a Leamington belle ; 

 Nor did he make hunting for gaming the net. 

 To be wound up with cards, or to bring on a bet ; 

 He wasn't a varmint, 'cute, pattern-slang knave, 

 Whose virtue was linen as clean as his shave— 



