Page:Two Mock Epics (Hanuman and Tantum Religio), Lyrics, Post Meridian Verse, The Turret Captain's Toast and other Verses.pdf/53

 Ay! hardy looks they even dared on your ward-

-robe, king, to fix, and murmured ever bolder,

‘We’re out at elbows, our broadcloth’s all rusty,

There on the shelves by thousands fine suits moulder,

And moths are pasturing on those samets musty.’

“Ah! ha! methought, the social crisis: full sure

We’ll lay the knife to this corrupting ulcer:

Lynx-eyed I watched: chastised with knout and rope-end,

Only at last my eyes were fully opened.

“In base degraded souls ’tis deep implanted

The will to bring all down to their soiled level;

In others, if the ideals they once vaunted

Their breath of scorn can tarnish, how they revel!

Thus e’en this worn-out riff-raff of the slum

Against the well-to-do beats loud the drum,

And neat, well-kept costumes with venom acrid

Reviles, and all things which to us are sacred.

One of them sat to-day ’mid yon birth-wort’s leaves,

High o’er the public highway, in his shirtsleeves,

A public scandal ’twas to see the varlet:

(The schoolgirl apes, who just then with their mistress

Passed two and two that way, all blushed quite scarlet

Behind their fans, poor things, with shame and distress.)

Ay, worse—disgust mine utterance chokes—this fellow—

The Tartar—a bird’s nest upon his lap held

And made a fine feast off the egglets dappled,

Sucking their raw contents with lips all yellow.

“And when I would have chid the cool-faced rascal

He rounded on me thus: To prate is easy

In purple frock and ruffs; but look here, please ye,

Who’d recognise a human suit, I ask all,

Here in the sorry relics of my blouse?