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>E8& DEMAGOGUES. 
 
 SOUVENI R 
 
 BY 
 
 ALBYN. 
 
 H()iTiba8t and Bathos we alike detest. 
 Nor in the regions of Romance invest 
 Truth, only truth, and but a tithe of it 
 Will in this Souvenir of ours be writ. 
 
 Paok <», 
 
 187!). 
 
 AN ! 
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 JOHN JAMES STEWART 
 COLLECTION 
 
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 DUPES & DEMAGOGUES. 
 
 so U VENI R. 
 
 ■*- - ^n: 
 
 BY 
 
 ALBYN. psej^. 
 
 » 1 1 
 
 HoiiibuHl and UathoH we alike detest, 
 \«)r in the regions of lioniancc invest 
 Truth, only truth, and but a tithe of it 
 Will in tliia Souvenir of ours be writ. 
 
 Paok 9. 
 
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 MYBJA 
 
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 DEDICATION 
 
 To JOHN GIBSON, Esq., 
 
 HALIFAX. 
 
 From Chestnut Cottage where the Khu 
 Are pleasing playmates still of mine ! 
 And, tho' sometimes they fume and fret, 
 Their welcorne have not worn out yet. 
 With guests like them to be a guide 
 And ceremony left aside, > . 
 
 To Gibson, health and happiness; 
 This pen of Albyn's would express <. 
 In verse, not less familiar now ■:,'■■■■■ 
 
 To him, than prose may be to you ; , , • 
 
 An art the Muses learn'd the boy 
 That frequently with them did toy. 
 Where Oxnams rude and restless stream , ., . - 
 Gave birth to many a dazzl'ing dream, i^/. ; 
 And Cheviot in the distance dim — .:-., .; 
 
 Was almost all the world to him ; -. : 
 
 Nor is one charm of childhood there 
 That mem'ry has not kept with care. 
 
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 We look around ; another scene 
 But diff'rent the programme has been 
 Much ; O how much of good and ill 
 Repeated ; and repeating still — 
 Day after day, and year by year ; 
 What changes come and disappear. '■ 
 Friends and companions, one by one 
 Are to their resting places gone ; 
 And you and I are of the few 
 Associates left that once wo knew, 
 
 
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Nor know how soon the fiat may 
 Be sent to summon us away. 
 Some preparation should be made 
 For what no mortal can evade. 
 And our designs be what they may 
 Not trifled with from day to day 
 As ev'n before the rising sun 
 May have one-half his journey run. 
 Ills that admit of no redress 
 Might overwhelm us in distress, 
 And what we patiently await 
 May come, but come for us too late ! 
 And much as we may feel aggrieved — 
 Can never be from time retrieved. 
 With such considerations prone 
 To speak in a prophetic tone ; 
 Excuse me Gibson, that I now 
 Inscribe this souvenir to you. 
 Where prodigal as they have been 
 Both Dupes and Demagogues are seen : 
 And photographs unfinished, will 
 Say little of the artists skill. 
 But redolent of dirty dust 
 Knead in Aristocratic crust — 
 Exhibiting more than to hide v 
 
 The rottenness that is inside. 
 
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 The marble slab forgets its trust 
 And crumbles down into the dust ; 
 The cairn puts on a sullen air 
 When question'd of its purpose there ; 
 Nor less the " four grey stones" become 
 Oblivious of the past, or dumb. 
 Not so our verse ; the sculptor's art 
 Can not so thrill the human heart, 
 Nor does the painter's canvass shed 
 Unfading lustre on the dead ; 
 But lineaments the poets trace 
 Nor time, nor distance can efface. 
 
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 Of all the many we have known 
 Few faces now, besides your own 
 Gibson, are seen that we can greet. 
 Or call by name upon the street ; 
 Only for age, you seem the same 
 As when to Halifax you came. 
 Altho' since that auspicious day, 
 Some fifty years have passed away ; 
 Nothing beyond the courtesies 
 That others ev'ry hour practise — 
 Were ours, then by-and-bye we shared 
 A kind of mutual regard. 
 Ere long a more familiar caste : ; 
 Did ripen into friendship fast, ■ " 
 
 Tho' quiet kept, yet it is not 
 Of such a kind as soon forgot ; 
 And when we meet, and when we part, 
 There is a glow in Albyn's heart 
 Some cherish'd spot, some grove or glen 
 At homo are all before him then. 
 Perhaps some mound or muirland where 
 Are relics Time consents to spare ; 
 Or hap'ly some imposing scene 
 Where home and happiness have been ; 
 Whatever now the cause may be 
 It matters not to you or me J 
 
 As private worth, and patriot pride, 
 Like nurselings, nestle side by side. ■ 
 
 l\ 
 
 Our verse is not a mirror where 
 All-comers equally may share ; 
 Yet friends their foibles there see I 
 However intimate they be. ■ -'''I 
 Nor is it as an index made 
 The over-curious may invade. 
 And idle gossips gape and gaze, 
 Then load with censure or with praise 
 Or libel gen'rous deeds that's done. 
 And observation seeks to shun 
 
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 (Such as we have become aware s.. 
 By you are neither small nor rare) 
 But, blush not, Gibson, none of those 
 Shall at the present interpose ; 
 Tho' at another season they — . 
 Might dignify a Poet's lay. , : 
 
 !L?, 
 
 It is not that you more than some 
 Do prosper, and are rich become, 
 Nor is it that so far as known, 
 You have to Albyn f a\ ors shown ; 
 Nor in the hope of future gain 
 That he from Gibson may obtain ; 
 Nay, not for one or all of these 
 Tho' such no poet can displease ; 
 Gave birth to the distinguishment — '^ 
 That we to Gibson now present ; 
 But rather to that clannish tie 
 We Scotchmen measure friendship by ; 
 And in the twinlike thoughts that find 
 A fitting place in either mind ; 
 Not to be quenched or cast aside •■ 
 By either poverty or pride; ' ' 
 
 But, as unerring as the pole 
 They actuate the patriot's soul ; 
 Such souls, the Poet's always deem 
 Entitled unto their esteem. ■ • 
 
 And, as delay might intervene 
 Disastrously — as often seen, 
 Ev'n compliments may lose the zest , j 
 That should a compliment invest; ;, 
 And so — to Gibson's name assign •; 
 
 In future times a place with mine, i ? ;. 
 
 
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 Assail'd by those who vascillate 
 From sitle to side in church and state, 
 The weather vane that's made to show 
 The point from whence the wind does blow ; 
 
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 To changing is not more inclined 
 
 Than is a quassi Lib'ral's mind, v 
 
 Some pseudo parties in our day " 
 
 To tell the story their own way ; * 
 
 That never are or can be wrong, '*• -*' "\ ■ ; 
 
 But either draw or drive along — . ^'' - • * - 
 
 A class of politicians who. 
 
 Ten times hsbve made their ^'Jirst debut /»''* 
 
 A partisan on either side — 
 
 Most loaves and fishes can provide ; 
 
 In all their twists and turnings round 
 
 Inflexible ive have been found; 
 
 Unflinching — still in all the strife 
 
 That mingles with politic life, ,,,,,. .v, . 
 
 And tho' at present we are outs, 
 
 There are no reasonable doubts, ^ ■ ' 
 
 That when another term begins, . ■ 
 
 We (if alive) will then be ins. 
 
 
 ■ ■- 1 J.I- 
 
 
 
 Lib'rals in principle, the foe 
 Just as they find us, leave us so ; 
 No trimming ours, no turbulence 
 Nor treachery ! but common sense ! I 
 In caucus, nor in canvass we 
 Use in, or out of committee. 
 I What is of a deceptive kind — 
 No countenance from us can find ; 
 And as the estimate we place 
 On your consistency, embrace 
 This mode of showing ; though it seem 
 To some like an enthusiast's dream. 
 Without reserve the why, and how ? 
 This brochure we inscribe to you. 
 
 The Antiquarian Club some day, 
 A premium will not grudge to pay 
 For a torn leaf, or title page 
 
9 
 
 That now our leisure hours engage. 
 
 Perhaps, then utterly forgot 
 
 Tho' only half a cent'ry wrote ; 
 
 As yellow cover'd novels will 
 
 Eclipse it for a season ; still 
 
 The connoisseurs there is no doubt, 
 
 Our souvenir will ferret out ! 
 
 To form conjectures or infer — 
 
 Who, and what Shiels and Gibson were. 
 
 Written and dated froin our perch 
 At Dartmouth, in the first of March, 
 In eighteen hundred seventy-nine 
 Witness this nom de plume of mine. 
 
 Albyn. 
 
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LLBYN. 
 
 DUPES AND DEMAGOGUES, 
 
 A SOUVENIR. 
 
 Our theme is Indignation, — passions fierce 
 Burn in our bosom, and inflame our verse. 
 Impersonations of an evil name 
 Are broken loose a"nd our attention claim ; 
 Not unawares, words of a savage shape 
 And wing'd with fire may from our pen escape. 
 Poets are not like preachers, college-made, 
 A pen is oft their only stock in trade ; 
 To them has been forbidden time to waste 
 On how the nouns and pronouns should be placed. 
 What words accented, and what emphasised 
 Or causuras' are to be recognized. 
 Allied to nature's nurselings we may spurn 
 The polish'd gyves by Literarian worn. 
 We ask no favours, and have none to pile 
 On these we deem the villainous and vile ! 
 Tho' sensitive, too proud to crouch or whine 
 
 , O'er wantonness that may our verse malign. 
 
 A Yet own, to us the critic's eyes have been 
 ^ As mirrors where our blemishes are seen, 
 And out of sympathy, so we suppose, 
 Or, it may ev'n be courtesy, who knows ? 
 One of the old Parnassian Ladies may 
 Take oversight of what we have to say. 
 Though always pleased, and sometimes even gla(i 
 To profit by the experience they have had, 
 And in their presence passions ruftied plumes 
 A less imposing attitude assumes ; 
 Bombast and bathos we alike detest 
 Nor in the regions of romance invest ; 
 Truth, only truth, and but a tithe of it, : \ 
 Will in this souvenir of ours be writ. 
 
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 10 
 
 Do the Dominion Colonists from choice 
 In the delirium of their minds rejoice, 
 Or can it be from fever of the brain 
 Such multitudes of them are now insane; 
 In all the premises, some more, some less, 
 Commiseration claims in their distress ; 
 None more absurd, ridiculous and vain 
 So maniac-like, so needful to restrain ; 
 Among them all is not a single one 
 Can boast of more than mischief he has done, 
 And are the soulless supplicants who crave , 
 To be the puppets of a previous knave — 
 Unused to praise, but willing to defame, 
 And if they glory it is in their shame ! 
 In tricksters, stretchers, swindlers, and, who ? 
 Good Lord ! a briber, — him of the " debou." 
 
 It was supposed that infamy below, 
 Had found its level in the long ago ; 
 Surpassing all that ever had been done, 
 Sir John Macdonald had already won — 
 It seems that the Canadians are combined 
 A deeper still if pos ^ to find. 
 And they have found it, with a vengeance may 
 Make them a by- word to their dying day ; 
 Now and hereafter they must take their place 
 Among the abjects of the human race, 
 And plume themselves on being now the slaves, 
 Of John Macdonald and his kindred knaves. 
 And as the Nova Scotians imitate 
 Insanity among the would-be great ; 
 So must they in the ignominy share. 
 Makes the Dominion odious everywhere. 
 
 
 I. 'I 
 
 What strange perversity in life is seen 
 It seems so now, and must have always been, 
 In politics the Lib-Cons, as a class. 
 The patients in Mount Hope by odds surpass ; 
 
II 
 
 Their climax of ambition is complete, 
 In being cheated, so that they may cheat 
 
 
 The Amateurs and Antiquarians may 
 Perhaps be curious in some future day, 
 To ascertain, if possible, from whence 
 Or how came this zymotic pestilence, 
 And tlio' in politics ill posted we 
 Can sliow them something shapen like a key. 
 Fruits of depression covering the globe 
 Reach'd Canada, and seized upon the mob ! 
 First idleness, was theirs, then hunger came 
 And hunger is emphatic in its claim ; 
 It predisposed the people to disease 
 They sought the readiest remedy to seize ; 
 When forthwith a Right Honorable quack 
 Made known he could alleviate the attack, 
 Or even by a simple stratagem 
 At once restore prosperity to them. 
 
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 Evaporation seldom we employ 
 To lessen sorrow or exhaust our joy ; 
 A safety-valve more fitting to our mind 
 And more familiar, in our verses find ; 
 And quite as well adapted to beguile - 
 
 An overflow of either blues or bile. 
 Nor prompted now by indignation fail ' 
 
 Some prodigal's imposters to utiveil ; 
 And aid reformers to detect the fraud 
 That the Lib-Cons, so lavishly applaud ; 
 And make a bevy of the jugglers known 
 That have the bubble of protection blown. 
 Or by some episodes in their career , , r, 
 Show how beneath our eye-glass they appear, 
 That wretched sham ; that miserable hoax. 
 That myth ; that thin politic paradox 
 Protection 1 ! one and all of them should have 
 
12 
 
 Profcectioii far beyond what they couFd crave. 
 From all the- " ills that flesh is heir t{j," none 
 Should be neglected that was a Lib-Con, 
 And whether he was a Lib-Con, or not, 
 Provide<l always that he gave his vote 
 To have the rotten cabinet restored, 
 Thri.fc erst for treachery had been ignored. 
 
 Protection ! what a chann is in the word, 
 Tho' practically it is so absurd; 
 Pro+^^ection to the ships the storm o ertakes 
 Upon the ocean and upon the lakes, 
 The rapids of Saint Lawrence, and the rocks 
 Of Anticosti that the seaman mocks. 
 Protection such as farmer's hearts delight, 
 From weavil, mildew, and potato blight ; 
 Protection to the miner's ; and the more 
 That they <lemand a premium for their ore ; 
 Protection to the merchant discontent 
 With any profit less than cent per cent. 
 Protection to the tradesman who contrive 
 On prices that are ruinous to thrive ; 
 Especially protection to extend 
 So it may all the Lib-CJons, comprehend I 
 Such a protection as will be most fit 
 To drive out of creation ev'ry " grit," , 
 
 Protection that will paralyze ere long 
 Our nighest neighbors forty millions strong, r ! 
 And make them shiver in their shoes to find ''^ ' 
 What retribution is for them designed ; 
 And the humiliating figure they " , . r ! 
 
 Will make when all their trade is swept away ; 
 And the Canadians chuckling o'er the siffht 
 Of their canal boats destitute of freight; r 
 
 Whilst railroad cars, and craft of ev'ry kind :. 
 Across the line are to the toiler's mind; ■' y > i 
 And all the happiness that earth can yield 
 In the Dominion will be found unsealed. 
 At such a grand achievement is it strange 
 If madness should the multitude derange ? 
 
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 In ev'ry village inn, and country store, 
 Electors by the dozen and the score ; 
 CollectinjLi: early in the afternoon 
 Hold long discussions on the coming lx)on ; 
 Protection and the thirty -seven per cent. 
 Tariff ; iis operation and ext*3nt. 
 Half of them claquei-s, and the other half 
 As ignorant as any sacking c^lf 
 Of statesmanship ; more than from sea* to sea, 
 For the Canadians, Canada must be ! 
 This ev'ry blundering booby in the squad 
 Reiterat-es, not knowing he is mad, 
 And ev'ry sentence in the speckled speecn 
 If such a length a sentence ever reach 
 Is meant (that is if it have any aim) 
 To garnish Tupper's and Macdonald's fame ; 
 But, of the great Pacific Scandal, they 
 Have not a single syllable to say ! 
 Nor did the groups that were assembled there 
 The Springhill Mines, or Pictou Railroad, air, 
 And no allusion to the time was made 
 The hat ivent roiiiid for the retrenchers aid. 
 So too the poison bags, McCully's pen 
 Made so familiar, were forgotten then ; 
 Nor less the edifice, and how it grew 
 At Maplewood, was absent from their view 
 In their mind's eye, for other visions float 
 Our vantages immediate or remote ; 
 But rustic wit, and what they witty deem 
 The orator's raised in their own esteem, 
 And what Reformer's either did or said 
 By one and all a standing jest was made. 
 Nor less the lynx-eyed Lib'rals in their turn 
 Contemptuously did Tory talker's spurn ; 
 They saw by what to sanity pertains ;; , . i 
 That madness was already in their veins. 
 
 We envy not those with unblushing face ; 
 Boast what they did their country to disgrace 
 
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 14 
 
 What is't to us whatever name be their.s, ■ 
 If it be Sterns, or even if it be Stairs, 
 Walker, or Weeks, or Campbell the coal-man. 
 Who either lecture or lead on the van. 
 How are the promises fulfill'd that they 
 Gave the electors on election day ; 
 The golder. times they foisted upon fools 
 That willingly br^c .ne the Tory tools, 
 Or other designations that they claim 
 •Imagining that such will lend them fame. 
 Profit of course none will expect to find 
 From rogues and swindlers of the basest kind ; 
 What is Sir John Macdonald and his clan 
 But plunderers upon the broadest plan ; 
 The frothy Tupper, if not all a rogue 
 Is at the best a dangerous Demagogue, 
 The Pictou railroad, and the Springhill mines 
 Tell how the leaning of his love inclines. 
 
 O lovely land ! extending far and wide 
 From the Pacific to the Atlantic tide, — 
 Ocean to ocean — from the East to West ; 
 Of ev'ry charm that man may crave possessed. 
 Southward the limit quietly awaits — 
 To be establish'd by the United States ; 
 What they require by either fraud or force 
 Is theirs, or must be, as a thing of course, 
 And will remain indefinite as long, 
 As there is ought to rectify that's wrong. ' 
 Far otherwise as yet the northern bound 
 No line in chaos has for it been found ; 
 Perpetual snow and never ending frost 
 Forbids «,n adverse claimant to the coast ! ■ 
 And, neither Sioux nor the Blackfeet, care 
 In such a region to demand a share. *' ' -■ 
 
 
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 XV 
 
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 ii. 
 
 
 But ! how words are wanting to express 
 Canadian landscapes in their loveliness, 
 
15 
 
 
 Astounding cataracts, and inland seas 
 
 Primeval forests and vast prairies, 
 
 The mountains huge, the rivers broad and deep 
 
 That do>v n the vales in living grandeur sweep ! 
 
 The furious rapi'^-, and the bold cascades 
 
 That break the siience in the lonely shades ; 
 
 And awful cliffs of a stupendous height 
 
 To gaze on, dazzles, and distracts the sight, 
 
 And precipices naked a-^ they came 
 
 From Nature's hand, but strangers unto shame ! 
 
 Kor any courtesy seem they to show 
 
 Unto the waters that beside them flow ; 
 
 But even more than gallantry lasplay 
 
 In standing still abruptly in their way. 
 
 Nor less the exhibition we admire — 
 
 Of vegetation in her rich attire ; 
 
 Scene after scene, nor can the eye explore 
 
 At once a tithe of the exhaustless store. 
 
 Meadows where, hid among the summer flowers, 
 
 Enchantment holds levees in tranquil hours, 
 
 And pardonable if, or felt, or feign'd, 
 
 A glympse of Eden should be there obtain'd ; 
 
 The beautiful, majestic and sublime 
 
 Are everywhere ; and the delightful clime 
 
 Exhilarating, and a serenade 
 
 Unceasingly is by the forest made. 
 
 Here, as a Poet's eye like ours may range 
 
 O'er such magnificence, can it be strange 
 
 Without a syllable at our conmiand, 
 
 Inaudibly we breathe, " O lovely land " ! ; 
 
 Or inwardly to curse the idiot race 
 
 Does the Dominion and themselves disgrace. 
 
 And in their longings after lucre, can 
 
 Prefer an abject, to an honest man. 
 
 land ! land of beauty and of bliss, 
 How is it such a glorious realm as this 
 Should to the rotten rubbish of mankind f 
 In evil hour by madmen be consigned ; 
 
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 If false, incomprehensible the tale; ' ' ^^ 
 
 If true, it is a truth we mu.st "uewail. ■ 
 
 Who could imagine anything so bad 
 
 As a whole people should at once go mad ; 
 
 Where's the precedent seen without disguise 
 
 And with such glaring deeds before their eyes 
 
 That criminals, and crimes yet unatoned 
 
 Should be so universally condoned. 
 
 Who has forgot the tempting offer made. 
 
 If " Peter" would transfer his father's aid ; 
 
 And who are they do not remember well 
 
 The trick of Tupper's grand retrenchment sell. 
 
 Even Pictou Railroad, and the Springhill Mines 
 
 Are not less brilliant than the sun that shines I 
 
 And the Pacific scandal, all ^he globe 
 
 With horror heard of that amazing job. 
 
 The most gigantic of gigantic crimes 
 
 In either ancient or in modern times ! ' 
 
 Great villiany has been, but nothing yet 
 
 Upon the earth comparable to it ; 
 
 And many a man for a much less affair 
 
 Has danced the double shuffle in the air. 
 
 Yet these are reckon'd among the Lib.-Cons., 
 
 In purity the veriest paragons ! 
 
 And ev'ry Tory sharing in their fall 
 
 These robbers to their ravinings recall ; 
 
 Nor yet is any shadow cast before 
 
 To show when the delirium will be o'er. 
 
 Or tell what time the leaders do intend 
 
 This dynasty of devilment shall end ; 
 
 Nor yet how long the mingled hopes and fears 
 
 Will be kept tingling in the Tory ears. 
 
 We do not know, it is not easily known, 
 How much dishonor must be gulped down. 
 Before a candidate for place is fit — n ^' 
 In the Dominion Cabinet to sit ? 
 How much pollution of a pious kind 
 With patriotism is to be entwin'd ? 
 
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 Or Itase a reputation jshould lie ere 
 It may the title " Honouraljle " V)ear ? 
 No, that is quite l>eyoncl the Poet's skill 
 But Ottawa coukl answer if it will, 
 And the niinutia of the whole programme 
 That constitutes the miserable sham. 
 
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 A mighty action Tupper did achieve, 
 In the disposing, without law or leave 
 The Nova Scotia Province, for the price 
 Of eighty cents a head, not over nice ; 
 A fraud that startled even the Lib-Cons., 
 But dwindles to a speck beside Sir John's. 
 To his munificence there is no bounds. 
 He made a present of or.r fishing grounds, 
 Or in a drunken frolic for display 
 Unto the Yankees barter d them away. 
 What were the fisheries or the fishermen 
 To glorious Sir John Macdonald then ? 
 A bagatelle, a trifling affair ! ' 
 
 And tjuite below a Privy Councillor's care. 
 Yet these are counted " honourable," these 
 The only statesmen the Canadian's please. 
 " Like draws to like," the adage is not new, 
 But long experience proves it to be true. 
 Hence to take measures, of the rank and file 
 Below the cypher might create a smile. 
 Such are the officials the Canadian's prize 
 And Nova Scotian Tories idolize 
 Such too the record of the time when they 
 From place and pow'r were terrified away, 
 Not less prepared than \vhat they were before 
 For gulping down some " tens of thousands " more. 
 Where consciences that have no qualms unite - 
 With itching palms and quenchless appetite I ?• 
 It needs no sybil to make known the end 
 That on such great enormities attend ; 
 Steep'd in corruption of the grossest kind 
 And scope to revel in it unconfined. ,,;■ f,., ),.;.'> ^ -i. 
 
 
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 Newspaper hacks and hiretl scribblers, who 
 Veneer or varnish all they f^ay and do ; 
 Niagara's thunder smothers with the cheers 
 That day and night they din into our ears, 
 Yet " Mene, Tekel, Perez," on the wall — 
 These Ottawa Belshazzers must appal. 
 
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 Shades of the mighty who have passed away ; 
 The glory of Acadia in their day, 
 Our Howe, who from a race of patriots sprung. 
 In arts^ and science, a proficient — Young I . 
 
 Archibald the orator, and Huntington ! ■ 
 
 None were more dignified, in all that's gone. 
 Johnston and Haliburton, Statesmen they 
 That almost rivall'd (Cicero in their day ; 
 Doyle too, the soul of our Assembly, rone . 
 In parliament more brilliantly has shone. 
 O heavens ■ Can these lie quiet in their graves 
 And their loved country made the prey of knaves ; 
 Is the old Cabinet to be recast 
 With these survived, the wreckage of the past. 
 Promiscuously we placard on our list 
 Alike corrupted, and corruptionist ! 
 But patents take precedence, and Right Hon. ; 
 
 Imperiously points us to Sir John 
 Macdonald ; pshaw ! that dirty fellow's name 
 Is world-wide synonymous with shame ! 
 It is the bitterest of bitter gall — ■ ' ; . .. 
 
 That WE should have to mention him at all. 
 Oh ! how much better were it if he might „ , ; 
 Be in oblivion hidden out of sight ; , ^ , , ; 
 Or like another Pharoah and his host , . 
 
 Within the depths of Lake Ontario lost; •> 
 
 Instead of the white-washing without glue 
 His claquers have so often to renew. ,;.^ vr .,;.,,, ,;■ ^ 
 
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 Of Tupper, 'tis enough to say Springhill, 
 Vamped and varnished, he's a trickster still ; 
 
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 19 
 
 Oould any one in friendsliip put the truth 
 
 Pure and pelhicid into Tuppcr's mouth, 
 
 In some invective it would by and bye, 
 
 Be noticeable coming out a lie ! ! 
 
 " His soul's salvation ; " no, not that, oh no ! 
 
 He pledged it on " Retrenchment " long ago. 
 
 But something else to him as valueless 
 
 That may in pawn veracity express, 
 
 And for a while impose upon a few 
 
 That all he said was. actually true. 
 
 And legicms are in Halifax this day 
 
 That will corroborate all that we say; 
 
 Crowds in the Rink with cheers a thousand-fold, 
 
 Did hail with rapture ev'ry lie he told ; 
 
 Is it for nothing, storms of hisses now, 
 
 There greet the Doctor's supercilious bow ; 
 
 And idle tradesmen that in Richmond dwell, 
 
 Can " Tupperisms " most astounding tell. 
 
 Even rusted anvils, as they can express 
 
 The great retrencher's want of truthfulness, 
 
 And crumbling workshops creaking in the wind 
 
 To» cast reflections seem not less inclined. 
 
 Groups of mechanics he has paupers made 
 
 Cure — cruelly the fiend that them betray'd, 
 
 And wantonly with a fallacious tongue 
 
 The heart of many a loving parent wrung : 
 
 His eloquence ('which we admit is rare), 
 
 To them has been a mockery and a snare ! 
 
 The hope deferred that sickens has been theirs, 
 
 But now recoils and mingles with their prayers. 
 
 If slight the impression that such seem to make, 
 
 Woe is their portion that they overtake, 
 
 And who knows but, — to Ottawa some day — 
 
 Without a railroad ticket find the way. 
 
 As for McDougall we may let him pass, 
 With Langevin, perhaps a stronger Ass ; 
 Like Issachar in old he crouches down, 
 
20 
 
 Between two burdens, Tilly's and his ofwn ; 
 
 Each with a task perplexing how to hide, 
 
 The one his. poverty, the other pride. 
 
 To Pope and Masson, no respect we pay, 
 
 On them a couplet would be thrown away ; 
 
 The perch whereon they came to roost at night> 
 
 Is far too distant for the Poet's flight — 
 
 They do not know, as little do they care 
 
 How we, their serfs in Nova Scotia fare. 
 
 In Ottowa the appetite is keen. 
 
 And there the harpies naturally convene 
 
 Where (in our day O ! need it be told,) - 
 
 Leaves are ambrosia, and the lishes gold ; 
 
 Nor might the greediest of the greedy, dare 
 
 To rival Lib.-Cons. that's in oifiee there ; 
 
 Besides ; Sir Hugh as in the heretofore. 
 
 May f(?r the asking, give " ten thousand " more I 
 
 And where the Tories, saving Phipp.s and Plumb, 
 
 Are all in terror lest they lase a crumb. 
 
 Others in our abridgirient we omit, 
 
 As being for our catalogue unfit ; 
 
 As partly imbeciles, and partly drones, 
 
 And only by some accident, Lib-Cons. ; 
 
 Hence by some freak of fortune or of fate, 
 
 Are now, or would-be, pillars of the state. 
 
 It is not meretriciously they peer — 
 
 Out of obscurity to figure here. 
 
 And pardonable if we do forget 
 
 Who may be out or in the Cabinet. s 
 
 To please ourselves we pen a paragraph 
 Will make the Tories grin, the Lib'rals laugh 
 On a Pictonian, has already iiade 
 Some progress in the Lib.-Con. kind of trade 
 Who with Newspaper phrases at command, ' 
 Completely bungled what he took in hand ; 
 Of his adventures see a specimen 
 In the whitewashing of the Premier, when ' 
 He solemnly declared his hands were clean, 
 
 am 
 
21 
 
 Without a speck, and always so had been. 
 
 The last " ten thousand " from Sir Hugh, then might 
 
 Be in some corner huddled out of sight 
 
 Another blunder, equally as bad, 
 But not so glaring was the share he had. 
 In " bribing Peter," or th' attempt to bribe, 
 -And land his father in the Tory tribe. 
 But the Pictonians seemingly are vain, 
 To have him at the dirty work again. 
 And a portfolio must be the reward 
 Of what so providentially was marr d ; 
 But peradventure in the next aftair 
 We'll chant Te Dewni if he comes out square. 
 
 In photogiaphing questionables, some 
 There are we ought to shadow nearer home 
 Of course necessity has got no law 
 In Halifax, more than in Ottawa ; 
 Here truthfulness we solemnly avow 
 Is only in the Dictionary now, 
 Where it was seen in all its native grace, 
 PveswiYiption has possession of the place. 
 Few of the liungry looking harpies are 
 But wickedly at one another stare ; 
 The first among them all we are assured 
 To get the biggest loaf and fish secure<l, 
 Is Holmes ; tho' Holmes a Dignitary he, 
 Without liis henchman Woodworth, what is he ! 
 A sort of interogatory note 
 On certain information he forgot. 
 Or had imagin'd ; it was all the same 
 To him, if he the Cabinet could blame, 
 And always deep anxiety express'd 
 On their intentions ; so he n\ight invest 
 In speculations of a hostile kind 
 Can gain no entrance to an upright mind. 
 Of willingness he seems to have no lack 
 
22 
 
 But ill disciplined for a close attack, ' 
 
 Engage a shadow, if no other myth 
 
 Be found convenient to encounter with : 
 
 And shew'd adroitness quite as nmcli as zeal 
 
 In the harpooning of the " Province Seal." 
 
 But fail'd to have Cape Breton blood transfused 
 
 Into the Lib.-Con. faction ; some accused 
 
 Woodworth of that, but he was closely watch'd 
 
 Since the " Round Robin " in the House was hatch'd ; 
 
 He and his henchman ever on the raid, 
 
 And if not conquest, tliey confusion made. 
 
 With solemn air and countenance devout 
 
 Some sordid action sought to ferret out ; 
 
 And ever in his own capricious way — 
 
 Had something ill of Liberals to say. 
 
 Whatever is in Simon, (bless his soul) 
 A big palaver comprehends the whole ; 
 A rigmarole of rubbish lon^j and loud 
 May do to gratify a gaping crowd, 
 But face to face with facts and figures we 
 Another sort of Simon Holmes will see. 
 'Tis more than either " sound and fury " they 
 That have been famed for statesmanship display, 
 And no exemption Simon may obtain 
 More than Belshazzer that night he was slain. 
 
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 Now some Electors in Cape Breton say 
 There's an affinity in Simon's way 
 To the Cameleon, in the attribute 
 To change appearances as it may suit, 
 And dexterously employ them to evade 
 What promises in canvassing were made ; 
 But misconceptions candidates may blend 
 With something said they did not then intend 
 And surely no Cape Bretoner will dream 
 Officials should a single pledge redeem, 
 
23 
 
 Or that a Lib.-Con. Cabinet might not, 
 
 InstallM in office, have them all forgot ; 
 
 Besides, their clamours inay not be correct 
 
 Being minus now of what they did expect, 
 
 Nor is there aught that Holmes will not make plain. 
 
 When comes the time of bego:inrj votes again. 
 
 (And those who can on auguries rely 
 
 Already see a dissolution nigh) — 
 
 And make it out, cross-question as they will 
 
 There is no promise he did yet fulfil. 
 
 Few politicians are Mackenzies' who 
 
 Would only promise what he meant to do. 
 
 Cape Breton grievances may all be true, 
 
 But surely they are anything but new ; 
 
 Only the everlasting wail that comes 
 
 Up from the Island centres now on Holmes. 
 
 In the beginning of his terse tirades 
 Like some huge crane that in the shallow wades, 
 Slowly advances further in the lake 
 And gives himself a careless kind of shake, 
 A comprehensive preface that obtains 
 Extensive practice among other cranes. 
 But, keeping a commanding attitude 
 Lest any i)rey his savage grasp elude, 
 Makes a fierce onslaught with his wings outspread ! 
 Even so does Simon sl^iow some signs of dread. 
 As viciously he ventilates his ire, 
 Until, heels up, he flounders in the mire ; 
 Or else exhausted with his riijmarole, 
 Drops in his seat, a happy looking soul, 
 Quite satisfied tliat his superior skill — 
 Has utterly demolish'd Premier Hill. 
 
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 There is another Lib.-Con. on the list — 
 Become conspicous, must not now be miss'd, 
 That's Samuel Creelman ; if not greatly wronged 
 Unto the Liberals one time he belong'd, 
 
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 Tho' not a brilliant, yet with such esteem 
 
 As due to him, we necessary deem, 
 
 If inconsistencies in him we find 
 
 They must be selfish, never ill design'd. 
 
 He boasted strenuously in his " debou " 
 
 Of being " a Brick " — one of the thirty-two ; 
 
 Then sent by his constituents to aid 
 
 Howe, in the desperate onslaught that he made 
 
 Or was to make, among the Tories ; how 
 
 Or why, is not within our mem'ry now. 
 
 Liberals were men of principle, I ut poor 
 
 Sam did not say so, but he crossed the floor, 
 
 We'll not insinuate he turn'd his coat 
 
 Tho' such conjectures might be then afloat ; 
 
 Or that he ratted ! oh no, no — not that 
 
 Sam had a character ; he could not rat. 
 
 But it expedient sometimes may become 
 
 To change, and yet upon the wherefore dumb. 
 
 That he's an honorable man we must allow. 
 
 The question then comes up : what is he now ? 
 
 But passing this, a rather awkward task. 
 
 To solve the problem, earnestly we ask 
 
 What great achievments, early and direct. 
 
 Can Samuel for his countrymen effect. 
 
 True, Legislative Councillors at best 
 
 Are only but a tolerated pest ; 
 
 And as for any usefulness approach 
 
 What a fifth wheel would, fasten'd to a coach. 
 
 But 'tis hard times, and not Algebra must 
 
 In our assembled wisdom be discuss'd. 
 
 And little favour will be theirs from hence 
 
 Who either sit on, or have cross'd the fence. 
 
 What tho' the people's mad ; and some of course 
 
 More so than others ; 'tis so much the worse 
 
 As there's a method in their madness may 
 
 Be inconvenient at no future day, 
 
 And retribution that is justly due 
 
 To the protectionists Sam cant eschew, 
 
 Tho' void of that corruption in his mind 
 
 To be a Tory, were he so inclined ; , 
 
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 25 
 
 Rampage and roistering are not his forte 
 Altho' not wantins: in a keen retort. 
 
 How, Toryism is at last become 
 An epidemic and infectious, some 
 Of the choicest spirits we have known 
 It captivated, and then crush'd them down. 
 From it what may the intellect benumb 
 Has indirectly or directly come, 
 And glowing aspirations has suppress'd 
 In many a bosom — Howe among the rest — 
 Look at McLellan's person ; not his purse 
 As evidence of the o'erwhelming curse 
 And who can tell what may be Creelman's fate, 
 Tho' half a Liberal, in a chair of State. 
 
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 There is a lapse among the Tory tribe 
 A poet may be puzzled to describe ; 
 A lapse will no apology admit 
 Nor have forgiveness from an honest Grit. 
 On this — side justice calls on us to aid 
 On that — to silence friendship would persuade. 
 In the delemma for the Liberals' sake 
 We must cognizance of the blemish take, 
 Could aught so foul be fix'd upon the Grits 
 Lib.-Cons. with laughter would go into fits ; 
 Nor would the howl of hungry wolves compare 
 With what would then the whole Dominion scare, 
 And must, according to the Tory code. 
 In Tory tactics form an episode ; 
 But madness for reflection has no room 
 And Dupes rush on in rapture to their doom ; 
 Whilst Avhat the men of principle behold 
 Perhaps had better now be left untold. 
 
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 Nothing as yet so despicably mean 
 Among the Nova Scotia Grits has been 
 

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 And If we were to lacerate inclined, 
 
 (A harsher term would not be ill to find.) 
 
 Even charity itself would be disposed 
 
 To keep the moral orifice unclosed, 
 
 80 that the uninitiated may know 
 
 A miniature Volcano is below. 
 
 But ALBYN'S courage, tho' not wanting, fails 
 
 To ventilate the various details, 
 
 Lest he that savage sanctum should molest 
 
 In Granville Street, so like a hornet's nest. 
 
 The wound (we might have written crime instead) 
 May yet to serious consequences lead, 
 And a Criterion of the faction, not 
 So very venial to be soon forgot 
 I )()ne by a honourable (Councillor ! few 
 Will care to see come under our review 
 A Tory ; but a Tory undebauched, 
 Tho' to his party none seems more attached ; 
 Aav^ were it not the bribing Peter scrape, 
 He from our Brochure scathless might escape, 
 Willing to help the Lib.-C^ons. if he can, 
 But on the whole, a very harmless man ; 
 In politics, we scarcely can conceive 
 How any one would pin them to his sleeve ! 
 With all his eloquence, however grand — 
 " Hard times" will not depart at his command ; 
 Nor softer make the granite ; crust of crumbs 
 That at a premium to the poor man comes, 
 Nor makes him happier for a single hour 
 With half a dollar extra on his flour. 
 But if a bribe will l>uy a Tory vote, 
 'Tis certain where the coinage can be got ; 
 And undeniable, or imdenied at least 
 His share to make the Liberals a jest 
 In sanctioning what his confreres' say. 
 He's equally as ]>lameable as they. 
 And by those that we do associate with 
 The consequences cease to be a myth. 
 
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 27 
 
 Nor bribery to be commended, when 
 
 It has been done bv " Honourable " men ! 
 
 And tho' his claims to clemency be strong' 
 
 That aggravates, not paliates the wrong, 
 
 And weighed against M'hat good he does, will seem 
 
 In want of something to an even beam ! 
 
 And by the way he slipt into his seat 
 
 He shows more arrogance than what is meet ; 
 
 It is by sufferance, he must allow. 
 
 Not legal right, he occupies it now. 
 
 And has too much of overweening pride 
 
 In politics to be a certain guide. 
 
 Ah Doctor ! could you see as you ar j seen 
 
 Your mode had not so overbearing been. 
 
 More dignified a listener to the brawl 
 
 So vapid in the Legislative Hall ; 
 
 Could Beech-grove villa satiate your desire 
 
 For eminence, and curb ambitions ire, 
 
 The statesman's and the would-be satrap's fame 
 
 Might by-and-bye be coupled with your name ; 
 
 Unwearied efforts made to imitate 
 
 Your patron Tupper, is t jr you too great, 
 
 The " frog" and "ox" shows something that the \v^ 
 
 May profit by, but none of them practise. 
 
 How ill concealetl, and near the surface lies 
 
 The coveted, and long-expected prize. 
 
 Nor is it difHcult to comprehend 
 
 Where indications evidently tend. 
 
 The Senate Chamber ultimately may 
 
 All his fraternal services repay ; 
 
 But, in our indignation, we can show 
 
 Consideration, and so pass him now. 
 
 Before our leisure moments pass away, 
 We have a word most seriously to say 
 Of Moseley's jockeyship ; less common sense 
 Than cunning, kept him off, and on the fence 
 Where our Provincial Politicians sit 
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 To air their weakness, and to waste their wifc^ 
 
 Suggestive of a monkey has to ride 
 
 Upon two horses running side by side, 
 
 An adept in the skill that is required 
 
 To change position when 'tis so desired. 
 
 It is just possible that Moseley takes. 
 
 From Jacko lessons, in the moves he makes : 
 
 Now bolt upright — a feat all Tories dread. 
 
 Then with a twirl he stands upon his head ; 
 
 Else on the othe'" courser with a leap 
 
 He sits a straddle, or coiled in a heap. 
 
 Even so has Moseley on the fence between 
 
 Both parties in our Legislature been ; 
 
 Nor is their one so qualified to climb, 
 
 Or swing, into the Speaker's chair as him. 
 
 We glory not in ; nor do we revile 
 The non-com mission'd, or the rank and file. 
 But curee the Authors of the stratagem 
 So futile, yet so fatal unto them ; 
 Not less indignant at the gross deceit, 
 Than horrified at the successful cheat. 
 We deprecate the tactics so unique 
 Observable among the Tory clique, 
 And spread them like delapidated fiow^rs 
 To shrivel in this Souvenir of ours. 
 There is a family likeness in the whole 
 Seen unmistakably outside the soul. 
 What more than madness in the present day 
 Gave it existence, is not ours to say ; 
 Content to know the insolently vain, 
 Have shrunk to native nothingness again. 
 All of them have in either more or less 
 Some faculties that squids and skunks possess 
 With them good breeding always very thin 
 When out of office, is hauteur w^hen in, 
 And the last earthly foible they quit 
 Is to pile up aspersions on some Grit ; 
 But free to sanction, if they canixot hide 
 
 
29 
 
 Enormities upon the Tory side. 
 
 They, pseud o patriots certain of the fate 
 
 Th' unprincipled and profligate await — 
 
 It is enoujjh our wrath should rest on those 
 
 That openly their infamy expose ; 
 
 It is the Leaders — not the led of them 
 
 Now, and henceforth we utterly condemn. 
 
 Tliey would be counted magnates, yet are they 
 
 The very commonest of common clay 
 
 Dropped in the State kaleidoscop*- ; but lo ! 
 
 The People's mad ! and wills to have it so ! ! 
 
 None of the wicked words that day by day, 
 Baker and Johnston to each other say ! 
 Nor even can that gorilla-like grimace 
 So often seen upon the Hendd's face 
 One half the scorn, or the contempt reveal 
 tor either Dupes cr Demagogues we feel ; 
 Yet is a (juassi paradise 2^ro tern. 
 Established now at Ottawa for them, 
 And impudently idlers ev'rywhere 
 Are seen collected, or collected there. 
 
 We sicken, loathe, and really do abhor 
 The dark recesses that we must explore 
 Both in the deeds and characters of them — 
 On calm reflection that we do condemn. 
 Glad to abandon what may be supposed 
 An obligation could at once be closed ; 
 And the commission willingly resign 
 We have as an oflicial of the Xine — 
 The Nine ; auspicious Patronesses they 
 Prompt what the Poets either sing or say : 
 And as their protege would not presume 
 (Not willing to degrade our nun de plume) 
 To come in competition with the squad 
 Of Lib.-Con. claquers, knowing they are mad 
 
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 Claquers that in their callirif^ are <iu faie 
 
 And bellow long'and louiLboth night and day. 
 
 In trumpet tones the great exploits repeat 
 
 Tapper's achievnients, and Macdonald's feat — 
 
 At the street corners spout and speechify 
 
 In " Stretcher" style, for who 'twould pinch a lie ? 
 
 We venture not to make our scrape and bow 
 Within the cabins of the Canucks now ; 
 Nor set a foot within the thresholds where 
 Contamination must be in the air — 
 Much more deleterious than the common run 
 Of epidemics that are now begun. 
 Or hydrophobia ; or that awful scourge 
 The yellow fever, sent by Heaven to purge 
 The Southern cities, Memphis and Orleans, 
 So virulent, it bafHed human means. 
 No ? these diseases differ we allow 
 From what has seized on the Canadians now. 
 A visit there at present might be view'd 
 As out of place, and some way misconstrued. 
 And better to postpone thein or await — 
 Until the paroxysm does abate 
 And then inquire into the happiness 
 In hut, and hall which they did erst possess ; 
 And why it is, or who must bear the blame 
 That on them such a dispensation came — 
 As madness, frenzy, lunacy combined. 
 Has made them so to Devilry inclined. 
 And brought on them an avalanche of shame 
 To brand for ever the Canadian name. 
 All are infected, either more or less 
 Severe ; but Lib.-Cons. have it in excess ; 
 Some quite delirious ; but O how sad ! 
 None of them seems to know that they are mad. 
 
 Whatever ills this home of ours pervades, 
 We owe to Tupper and his false tirades. 
 
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31 
 
 lie? 
 
 Ami second-siglited, boldly wo avow 
 Tlmt as he sowed, %m reap in madness now. 
 Nor in Acadia was the process slow, 
 But early ripened into want and woe ; 
 On him our malediction justly due 
 We in '>e Poet's plenitude renew. 
 With this proviso : that his shadow may 
 Be never smaller ; it' so we can pray. 
 
 Pacific Scandal may go out of date. 
 And that " ten thousand " have no better fate 
 Tho' " the last time of asking," then for aid 
 It to Reformers memorable made — 
 Tupper's retrenchment, and the hyperbole 
 He lavish'd on the pledging of his soul ! 
 Altho' not less in magnitude it peers. 
 Amidst the debris of departed years — 
 May be consider'd of no consequence. 
 In something less than half a century hence. 
 Even what eclipsed that luminary Howe 
 Ma^'^ render dim all unto him we owe ; 
 Or what do now so prominent appear 
 Lord Lome's advent to our hemisphere : 
 When there is not a vestage to recall 
 The Levees that are held in Rideau Hall, 
 The seventeenth day of last September will, 
 In Nova Scotia, be remember'd still. 
 Then fraud and fallacy unblushing came 
 And sow'd dissension ev'rywhere, and shame 
 'Twas then that we a fitting tribute paid 
 For being serfs to the Canadians made ; 
 Ere then what ills were either felt or feign'd, 
 Integrity we rigidly maintained. 
 But never, never, will Election day 
 In our remembrance sutler by decay. 
 
 What time the shades of evening closed around 
 More energetic ev'ry one was found, 
 
32 
 
 Each neiu announcement greeted with a cheer 
 That echoed and re-echoed far and near ; 
 Majorities extravagantly wild 
 Protection Candidates had on them piled, 
 And the position perilous was made 
 To those Reformers question'd what was said. 
 Nor was the task a simple one to know 
 The diff'rence then between a friend and foe ; 
 So fierce the frenzy that afflicted some, 
 Did in the four and twenty hours l)ecome ! 
 True, it was not until the setting sun 
 In Dartmouth that the rampage had begun, 
 Where even the ladies did not always claim 
 Exemption when the paroxysm came, 
 And not without enthusiasm they 
 Bawl'd out the plaudits on Election day. 
 
 I; 
 
 One episode above all else that night 
 Electrified the Tories with delight, 
 And said by them to be a great " success," 
 The phrase of course was furnish'd by the " Press," 
 In stereotype kept readily to tell 
 Of plays and pic-nics that have pass'd off well ; 
 But as we have expressions quite as terse. 
 Should not be now repeated in our verse 
 As grand achievments better can describe-^- 
 What is accomplish'd by the Tory tribe ; 
 Such as the triumph of all triumphs, when 
 They burned the effigies of honest men : 
 Groups of the Grits unwillingly became 
 Mute auditors of the cremation game ; 
 And fortunately neither of the pair — 
 The Robber and Retrencher were not there, 
 But retribution need not be delay'd 
 Until the efflux of this half decade ; 
 A specimen unique when it was done 
 Of all the victories by the Lib.-Cons. won ! 
 At such a breach of social etiquette 
 Well might the Micmac where he was forget. 
 
 iiW ! 
 
33 
 
 And wake the war-whoop of the red men loud, 
 And long protracted in the startled crowd. 
 Not more excitement could be seen or heard 
 Had Stather's Bear among them there appeared, 
 Or by some accident, a hand Granade 
 A visit to tlie Dartmouthite^s had made. 
 
 An Indian Chief, stood by the steamboat gate 
 In Halifax ; calm, dignified, sedate. 
 No mere spectator could emotion trace 
 Upon the features of his furrow'd face ; 
 When suddenly a multifarious throng 
 Came boist'rously and blustering along, 
 Hats in the air, and heels as high display'd. 
 The tokens of Election day were made. 
 No programme theirs, but as they deem'd it best 
 The frenzied fools hilarity express'd. 
 And ev'ry new addition was encored 
 Or hail'd with rapture by the reckless horde ; 
 Not mirth, but madness — madness everywhere 
 Was seen in all fantastic figures there. 
 Not until then had such a promenade. 
 Various and vast, been in the City made ; 
 As on the street they improvised a dance 
 The Indian eyed them with a mingled glance — 
 In part derision, if we rightly guess. 
 Or it might be astonishment no less ; 
 Then gave a grunt intelligibly when 
 Words would be worthless among the red men. 
 And in an undertone was heard to say — 
 " That too much Devil, I must be away." 
 " Not any one there of the lUenoe, 
 " So much as that my people never do, 
 " I will outrun them." And off like a shot 
 He sprang, nor waited for the coming boat, 
 And a canoe unto the Dartmouth side — 
 Across the Harbour soon was seen to glide ; 
 He little knew what virus was to spare 
 From Halifax then operated there. ■ ? 
 
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 No stranger ho to ainbii8ca<le ; in haste 
 
 His fragile skiff on Sandy Beech was placed, 
 
 And mingling in among tlie crazy crowd 
 
 Began to whisper, but it was too loiul — 
 
 " Ugh ! certain that no good ; Ugh ! the white man 
 
 Make great big Devil, ev'ry time he can." 
 
 He did not know that all there said and <]one 
 Was the Election fever just begun ; 
 He did not know when Cabinets were changed 
 Conservatives at least became deranged, 
 Or if at any time a " Grit" should be 
 With Tory lymph innoculated, the 
 Leader, and more outrageous than them all 
 Among the Lib.-Cons. woidd be heard to bawl. 
 But we resume : The red man it is seen 
 Is not the red man that he (jnce has been ; 
 Albeit his sayings yet are of a kind 
 Pale-faces might do well to keep in n)uid , 
 Even scornful smiles upon the Mic-Macs' lips 
 The sarcasms of Senators eclipse. 
 
 "Too much of lie come out of wiiite man's mouth ' 
 The Indians say ; and what they is truth. 
 Not the whole truth ; but is too much within 
 As is a mole upon the outside skin, 
 Expressions improvised, or hyperbole 
 Float o'er — not always fasten to the soul. 
 Not of the sober second thoughts so prized 
 As sentiments corrected and revised. 
 But merely valves for letting off tlie steam 
 Extravagant in the enthusiasts' dreauj. 
 By connnon scribblers, fees and lucre may 
 Be deem'd illustrous in the present day ; 
 Encomiums (piite as worthless as they're wild 
 Profusely on their protegees are piled, 
 That sound like music in a serenade 
 With tinkling cymbals ; this wo would evade. 
 
35 
 
 man 
 
 
 I 
 
 Electioneering furnishes in part 
 Proof positive of all that Ave assert. 
 The cymbal sounds, no call f(jr that to-day, 
 Th' Election's o'er, there's noting else to say. 
 Well then why tingle ? is the good times come ? 
 Not yet ? on that the Oracle is dumb — 
 Sound, only sound ! the Micmacs tell the truth ! 
 " Too many lies come out of white man's ujouth. " 
 
 Amid the wretched hubbub that has been 
 Like an Oasis in the distance seen, 
 One trait alone connnendable appears, 
 Commingling with the days of other years, 
 Gives out a glimmering ray of reason still, 
 And lends our bosom a defightful thrill ; 
 Nor fails the favour of our high esteem 
 Tho' unto others it may trifling seem. 
 
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 John S. D. Thompson, we are almost proud 
 To write, distinguished from the hungry crowd 
 More for his father's sake, than for his own, 
 (Tho' nothing to his prejudice be known.) 
 A gifted one, a writer, facile, chaste 
 And exquisite in Literary taste, 
 Excepting Howe's, another pen was rare 
 In Nova Scotia, might with him compare. 
 A critic, in his criticisms keen. 
 But never, never bordering on spleen. 
 Delighted more to modify than maim, 
 And all he knew of caprice was the name. 
 Than his, there was no finer balanced mind 
 Among th' associates that he left behind. 
 And tho' not wanting in familiars, still 
 None of them all the blank he left could fill. 
 And if tlie son his father's footsteps tread. 
 Blameless he'll rest among the ]u)nor'<l dead ; 
 'Tis not unlikely when he sees or hears 
 Some new palaver of the new Premier's 
 
 
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 36 
 
 Or the Great Stretcher ; smiles but ill-suppress'd, 
 Will something more than Eticjuette attest. 
 
 When Solomon Ecclesiastes wrote, 
 
 If he did write it ! some sav he did not, 
 
 No criticism ours, we only state 
 
 What others more elaborately relate ; 
 
 But that is immaterial ; all allow 
 
 That it was written ; and we have it now, 
 
 And in the catalogue that he has made 
 
 Of what at various times he did and said. 
 
 Among the many faibles he had 
 
 To solve some sort of problem, he went mad ! 
 
 And in the intercourse his pen describes 
 
 On some occasions he had with the tribes. 
 
 There is no room for questioning what he did. 
 
 Nor is a copying of his fault forbid ; 
 
 But like enough among the Jewish men, 
 
 There might be no Electioneering then. 
 
 Nor any Tories either, bless their souls. 
 
 To make it requisite for holding polls. 
 
 Or probably the voters on the lists 
 
 Had not the scope of our Dominionists 
 
 Have at the hustings ; nor the madness they 
 
 Exhibit on the Declaration d,,y ; 
 
 Else in the axioms that he did compile 
 
 In his commanding brief emphatic style. 
 
 And in the scales of wisdom duly weigh'd, 
 
 Some hint at least would certainly be made 
 
 How victors and the vanquish'd should behave 
 
 And not as maniacs shout, and scream, and rave 
 
 That not a Grit will be found any more, 
 
 Between Columbia, and Capo Breton shore. 
 
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 As the Dominion, Cannucks do confess 
 Is deep and drowning in indebtedness ; 
 Mad as they are, some omens do appear, 
 Advising thera of peril that is near. 
 
37 
 
 Already at the Montmorentey Falls, 
 
 Of bankruptcy appalling, and appals 
 
 The souls of Tories troubled, they look round 
 
 Where something that is bouyant may be found ; 
 
 Clutch at two straws on the politic stream 
 
 (For such do Tupper and TVlacdonald seem) 
 
 But they are mail ! yes mad ; if they were not 
 
 The surf mig-ht show them that the things afloat 
 
 Are really reptiles of a dangerous kind. 
 
 Not difficult in Canada to lind ; 
 
 And w^hat avails the horror must ensue 
 
 When in midstream the breakers come in view ; 
 
 What will avail their shouts for help ; or what 
 
 The struggles made to reach this side or that ; 
 
 Auxilior aid will then be found too late 
 
 To stay the progress of impending fate, 
 
 Destruction yawns, and willingly or no 
 
 They must go down to the abyss below. 
 
 An eye thats covetous, has long been cast 
 On Elephants ; they have got one at last, 
 And made secure ; a wise man from the East 
 Is at the present keeper of the beast. 
 A scion of a famous Highland clan 
 No one disputes will keep it, if he can. 
 But Elephants are crafty, if they're dumb, 
 And if it should obstreperous become. 
 Or if it ever be contrary found 
 Nor stanchel up as Elephants are bound 
 To do, but snort and shake his ugly head 
 Till terror through the official staff be spread. 
 The King of Kentville, if he were well paid, 
 Might be induced to lend the keeper aid ; 
 Or to release his friend in such a case, 
 Consent to be install'd into his place, 
 Divide, as in their opposition days, 
 The profit Woodworth's, and to*^ Holmes the praise. 
 
 
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 " There must be something rotten," Hamlet said, 
 '' In Denmark State," when the court role lie weigh'd ; 
 The declaration certainly was sad, 
 But the Dominion nmst be worse ; 'tis mad. 
 Knaves ev'ry where are honourable deem'd 
 And lightly honest citizens esteem'd ; 
 'Esteem'd,' we wrote, but the idea's absurd ? 
 Few seem to know the meaning of the word, 
 But fewer still there are who do not hate 
 What nobleness there is within the State ; 
 Rogues are exalted, honesty abused. 
 The best are vilified, the worst are praised, 
 The upright are by upper-ten-dom spurned, 
 Their effigies by worthless blackguards burn'd. 
 And epithets as wicked as they're wild 
 Upon the purest characters are piled ; 
 But then the people's mad, and do not know 
 They're on the edge of overwhelming woe; 
 Stern retribution looms up far and wide. 
 More than McLellan's white-wash brush can hide ! 
 Albeit his Andierst vapouring supplies 
 Pro(»i" positive that he can Tupi)erize, 
 And over prurience in his patrons praise, 
 An itching in the artist's palm displays. 
 
 Two hiuidred more " Insane Asylums" may 
 In Nova Scotia at no distant day 
 Be requisite ; at least there should be ten 
 In ev'ry County for the Lib.-Con. men ! 
 And 'ere the paroxysm may be o'er. 
 In Halifax perhaps another score ; 
 One of them must be to Ward FiVK assign'd 
 And the attendants full employment find, 
 Between the old Town Clock and Water Street 
 Three more the city quota would complete ; 
 In a nice distributitju less than two, 
 Amonir the Dartmouthites would never do. 
 
One at. tlie Ropewalk ; or what better still 
 Were the selection near John Dooley's mill, 
 The other, for convenience more than taste. 
 At the Skate Factory should at once be placed ; 
 Or if the corporation should assert 
 Some dignity, and grave objections start. 
 Then resolutions and amendments might 
 On a discussion for a fitting site 
 Make voting ei^ual ; at the Warden's word ! 
 Motions and counter-motions are ignored ; 
 Or an adjournment, if the contest's keen, 
 May for some special purp(jse intervene, 
 And then the site, if it be anywhere 
 On re-consideration, in the air. 
 
 O, lonely land, e're the Retrencher's soul 
 Was put in pledge o'er thee to have control, 
 (A pledge as wortldess as the. wicked tongue 
 Fi-om whence the dazzling prodigy had sprung,) 
 E're Queen Victoria thee Acadia made 
 A kind of chattel in Imperial trade. 
 And with a flourish of her Royal pen 
 Shew'd how she valued Nova Scotia men, 
 And furnish'd evidence how much regar<l 
 Our loyal lieges from their Sovereign shared. 
 As if allegiance, and the love profess'd 
 By Colonists, were but an idle jest ; , 
 Yet O I h(jw fondly is thy rocky strand 
 En<leared to us our own a<lopted land, 
 111 can this pen, altho' accounted bold, 
 A tithe of Albyn's love for thee unfold I 
 Much less avert the sorrow and the shame. 
 Falls to our lot in the politic game ; 
 Even the Provincial prestige we could boast, 
 A bagatelle to Canada is toss'd. 
 
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 A sad presentiment our lesson fills 
 With a deep consciousness of coming ills, 
 Nor dimly shadow'd ; a distressing day 
 For Nova Scotia is not far away, 
 Less from the shoals and breakers seen ahead 
 Than fro a the skipper's competence we dread ; 
 Self-confidence but little can avail 
 Among rough billows and an adverse gale. 
 
 
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