Page:Adams - Essays in Modernity.djvu/226

214 Bloomin' idol made o' mud— Wot they called the Great Gawd Budd— Plucky lot she cared for idols when I kissed 'er where she stud! On the road to Mandalay 'I am sick o' wastin' leather on these gritty pavin'-stones, An' the blasted Henglish drizzle wakes the fever in my bones; Tho' I walks with fifty 'ousemaids outer Chelsea to the Strand, An' they talks a lot o' lovin', but wot do they understand? Beefy face an' grubby 'and— Law! wot do they understand? I've a neater, sweeter maiden in a cleaner, greener land! On the road to Mandalay

'Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst, Where there aren't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst; For the temple-bells are callin', an' it's there that I would be— By the old Moulmein Pagoda, looking lazy at the sea; On the road to Mandalay, Where the old Flotilla lay, With our sick beneath the awnings when we went to Mandalay! O the road to Mandalay, Where the flyin'-fishes play, An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!'

A hundred years hence some appreciative and inquiring person may be searching in the British Museum for any other work done by the man who wrote 'Mandalay.'

Truly like unto angels' visits are the books which