Puck — March 13, 1878 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

comes on a Saturday; it is sufficient to know | doesn’t strike the ordinary observer as a man of that it comes on Saturday, and that there would | beauty so much as a man of use. But, in the be a general complaint if it was postponed un- | parlance most befitting the occasion, he can be til Monday. said to be ‘all there.” A magnificent bouquet We believe that the 17th of March is devoted | festoons his uniform, and a hat that fairly bris- to St. Patrick—(no doubt St. Patrick feels | tles with munificent patriotism, combining the highly flattered in consequence)—but why this | classic with the colloquial in a unique degree, should be is a matter that need not here be dis- | decks his noble head. cussed, If the seventeenth were not so devoted, But it is the morning after the procession, the sixteenth or the eighteenth might be, and | when Patrick awakens to the beautiful reality what difference would it make? St. Patrick | that yesterday was St. Patrick's day, that it wouldn’t be fooled out of his one day, any way | was his eye after all that was hit, and that the you fixed it. As it happens, this year the seven- | whiskey 7s all gone—it is then that the true teenth falls on the eighteenth, owing to St. Pa- | splendor of the festal day dawns upon him in trick’s day- falling on a Sunday. all its radiance, and he feels with a feeling that SPRING FEVER. ¥ the average man these months are apt to bring A subtle stirring-up of his interior; He feels as when she furls her weary wing In Paradise might feel a through-checked Peri or Something of that kind. And I feel just so— Quite comfortable; gloriously lazy: Yet fervent inwardly—tap me, I'd flow Poems erotic; harmless, sweet and hazy. I feel just that poetic. Vague desires, Vague hopes in guise of doubtful memories, ‘And memories like seeds of hope, like fires Of youth in old-time ashes—things like these Are troubling me just now. I find my life— Empty. That's it.’ No longer may I doubt it. St. Patrick was 2 man of many good quali- | defies all words that “It was a great day for ties. His well-known treatment of Irish snakes was his prime recommendation. He boxed Oireland, arrah, begorra!”—great in the truest sense of patriotic grandeur; and he wouldn’t Twant—a love! A solid love. ae them in large quantities, and exported them to | be anything but an Irishman for all the trea- i I want to get her, and be quick about it. uncivilized lands —thus doing a good thing | sures of the universe. for Ireland, while providing 2 home for indi Hitherto I have wandered through the world Unmashing and unmashed, nor thought how nice is ‘The state of spoons; nor dreamed that any girl 'd Ever disturb my peace. This is the cri T long to look into dark regal eyes: Or feel a violet sunshine flood my retina: Or brune or blonde, I seek a lover's: prize— There may be difficulty, though, in gettin’ her. Ah, in what country farmhouse, situate Within five minutes of what railway-station, Where wild advertisements tempt the giddy pate OF youthful clerk on annual vacation, In what warm summer hours, that fly too fleet, Among what summer-boarders shall I find her? Will June bring Love with roses ‘neath his feet ? Or hydrophobic August treat me kinder? * * * * I do remember, in my young spring days ‘They gave me pikery, boiled in molasses, When [felt thus. (Pikery’s a root they raise In stern New England—Dose a sherry-glass is.) One saving drop of rum was in the drink; A clove of garlic—even now I smell it. I used to hate my pikery—I think That's something like the proper way to spell it. T hated it all other draughts above, For that it wasted rum and tasted bitter. Bitter is Love; but bitterness of love To pikery is mild as birds that twitter. And while my heart feels, in the year’s fresh morn, Sensations mixed of blossoming and burning, A strange idea upon my mind is borne: ‘That pikery might still this vernal yearning. H. C, Buxver. gent snakes. In honor of this unselfish act of his, all true Irishman will see snakes on the day following the seventeenth. Although St. Patrick's day comes in the morning, it keeps on late enough to become generally pleasant. On this day, more than any other, does the true Irishman feel convinced that he isn't an Englishman. He rejoices at the truth, as it comes vigorously home to him, so heartily that he immediately takes a drink on it. It is this drink that he starts out with when he leaves home to join the procession. Wherein the patriotism of a procession con- sists is another thing that no fellow can find out. But that each processioner fairly teems with a wild love of his country is an accepted fact, made loudly known through melodious outcries of “Erin Go Bragh” and other re- marks of a similarly cuphonious though unin- telligible nature. ‘The green color comes conspicuously to the front, too. It is a good color for the eyes. It is not considered so correct for neckties as red, but it will do. Why Irishmen should prefer green to any other color, however, is another one of the perplexing questions of the day. But they do; and the true-born Irishman is so glad of it that he takes his second drink on it, every St. Patrick's day. It fills the soul of man with considerable awe and admiration to see a string of several thou- sand of our finest Irish-American citizens marching through the streets every year, waving the banner of freedom with a green supple- ment, and enveloping our American institu- tions in a wholesome flavor of ireland. Hur- PURIFYING POLITICS. Ir was in the days of the Municipal Reform League, when the patrician element of the population arose in its might to crush the Tam- many Ring, and asserted itself at the polls for that occasion only. A young gentleman, a member of the Columbia College Law School, was among those who were sent out to drum up the recreant voters, and awaken the dormant patriotism of the citizens. ‘To him was assigned an aristocratic district up-town. He accepted his task with cheerful devotion to the welfare of his fellow-townsmen, and made two false starts right away, on a quiet gambling-house and a female orphan-asylum. Next, however, he struck a private house, and opened the cam- paign. He asked the suspicious servant if he could sce the gentleman of the house. The G. of the H. was out. Could he see the mistréss of the house? What was his business ? “No matter. ‘Tell the lady a gentleman wishes to see her.” ‘The servant hesitated. ‘The ardent purifier of the ballot endeavored to propitiate her by offering to wait in. the hall while she notified her mistre: At last she started reluctantly up the stairs. But half way up she stopped; turned round—a vivid gleam of intelligence darted into her eyes—she descended, took the overcoat off the hat-rack, and then marched up-stairs with it, looking satisfied. The young man returned to the headquarters of the Leaghe that afternoon, and reported a dismally hopeless condition of apathy among the voters of his district, and retired gracefully rah for Ireland!—the country of mirth, melody fi he situati and potheen! The home of the Shaughraun, | {f™ the situation. the Diaoulmaugh, and the Colleen Bawn!—the land of Daniel O’Donnell—not to mention ST. PATRICK'S DAY comes on the 17th | Mike O'Donahue, Tim O'Flaherty and all the =) of March. It comes in the morning. It | rest! Sweet names to ring in our ears and gladden our hearts on St. Patrick’s day in the ST. PATRICK’S DAY. FROM OUR GERMAN EXCHANGES. CHRONIC, “ You are looking well, Mr. Whiff.” oe “Well? You know I’m not well. I'm never inthe morn- | wel], Just as soon as I stop being sick for a | is the day that brings joy to Erin’s heart, . and brings Erin out into thestreet in large and | morning! = The patriotic Hibernian takes enough of the enthusiastic numbers. It is a day that forms | , ae at itself into an unending procession. ‘To think | “cratur” with him when he starts in t! of St. Patrick’s day disassociated from any- | ing. to last him a short way. That is to say, | day, I feel worse for it the next morning.” thing like a procession, would require a strange | Sufficient to make things pleasant at the start. - and powerful mind. It must be said to his credit that when the sup- St. Patrick was not born on the 17th of | Ply runs out on the road--as supplies are sure March, But as nobody has ever claimed that | !0 do - he doesn’t hesitate about replenishing | ind mai he was, this asseveration may appear unneces. | his stock. of me afore he died, and in hie will he aad: sary. St, Patrick did not die on the 17th of| , He has no scruples about visiting Pat | «1 jeave to my son William both them sheep March. ‘This too is not said in refutation of | McGuffin’s for consolation; Pat McGuffin has | 0+ Sas lost lact week, if they gets found, and anybody else’s previous assertion. no scruples about being visited; and between | i °oxte they doesn't I’ leave ‘em to my faithful ‘These points are merely mentioned in order | them they. manage to celebrate St. Patrick's | 1" Ce Tea i’ | hoses thay wou't cat bana”? day with all that enthusiastic ec/at it deserves. pine 7 Dope (ney ge! 4 to lead up to the gentle conundru should St. Patrick's day come on the 17 On St. Patrick’s day the Hibernian looks March, in the morning ? particularly radiant. His beauty of face is not SIMILE, sO entrancing, so to speak, as the festive nature “This ere dorg of mine will eat anything—- ‘The only thing approaching an explanation ntran : that can be given is that it comes because it | of his attire, and the full-fledged masculinity of | meat and bread, and potatoes and pickles, and comes. Nobody stops to ask why salary-day | his form. As the head of a procession he | nuts and candy—like a pig.” A GRATEFUL SERVANT. comicbooks.com