 | Poems and Songs, Humorous and Satirical |  |
286
PETITION.
UNTO G--- R--- AND A--- H---, ESQRS., MANAGERS AT B--- DYE-WORKS, THE PETITION OF A--- R---,
Humbly Sheweth,
That,
That,
Tired of the Town, of the Saltmarket sick;
With pledging plagued and pestered to the quick;
And driven distracted by a desperate squad,
Whose clamorous clack would clatter meek men mad:—
Your humble suppliant, supplicating low,
Ventures to vent, in wailings wild, his woe;
Trusting you'll listen to his groaning grief,
And stretch a helping hand to his relief.
With pledging plagued and pestered to the quick;
And driven distracted by a desperate squad,
Whose clamorous clack would clatter meek men mad:—
Your humble suppliant, supplicating low,
Ventures to vent, in wailings wild, his woe;
Trusting you'll listen to his groaning grief,
And stretch a helping hand to his relief.
O dark and dreary be that doleful day,
When to this sink of sin seduced away,
He turned on blythesome B--- his back:—
May that day in the Heavens be ever black,
When he exchanged the haunts of hearty men,
For a dark, dismal, dingy, dusty den;
Condemned to draw in draughts of putrid air,
And pine amidst anxiety and care,
While turning over Mammon's meanest coin,
Bronzed o'er with blubber, herring scales and brine;
Obliged each day and hour to undergo
The pain of hearing tales of want and woe,
So finely framed, with so much feeling told,
As would make misers give, nor grudge, their gold:
Compelled to handle every dirty rag,
Stript from the hide of every hateful hag,
And doomed each finer feeling to degrade,
By bullying every blackguard trull and jade,
Who hither comes her tawdry trash to pop,
That she may drink it at the next dram shop.
When to this sink of sin seduced away,
287
May that day in the Heavens be ever black,
When he exchanged the haunts of hearty men,
For a dark, dismal, dingy, dusty den;
Condemned to draw in draughts of putrid air,
And pine amidst anxiety and care,
While turning over Mammon's meanest coin,
Bronzed o'er with blubber, herring scales and brine;
Obliged each day and hour to undergo
The pain of hearing tales of want and woe,
So finely framed, with so much feeling told,
As would make misers give, nor grudge, their gold:
Compelled to handle every dirty rag,
Stript from the hide of every hateful hag,
And doomed each finer feeling to degrade,
By bullying every blackguard trull and jade,
Who hither comes her tawdry trash to pop,
That she may drink it at the next dram shop.
That your said suppliant sadly suffers sore,
From these said ills on ills, and many more,
Which, but to name, or even to think of, must
Make man's flesh creep with loathing and disgust.
From these said ills on ills, and many more,
Which, but to name, or even to think of, must
Make man's flesh creep with loathing and disgust.
288
Now, may it therefore please you, Sirs, to list
To your Petitioner's sincere request,
And take his case into consideration,
To save him from this every day's damnation;
And into your employment take him back,
And he'll take any job however black,
Rather than stay in this detested place,
Cut off from all communion with his race,
(Or if it be the human race he sees,
Good God, it must be, sure, the very lees.)
He'll fire your furnaces, or weigh your coals,
Wheel barrows, riddle ashes, mend up holes,
Beat cloth, strip shades; in short, do any thing,
And your Petitioner will ever—sing.
To your Petitioner's sincere request,
And take his case into consideration,
To save him from this every day's damnation;
And into your employment take him back,
And he'll take any job however black,
Rather than stay in this detested place,
Cut off from all communion with his race,
(Or if it be the human race he sees,
Good God, it must be, sure, the very lees.)
He'll fire your furnaces, or weigh your coals,
Wheel barrows, riddle ashes, mend up holes,
Beat cloth, strip shades; in short, do any thing,
And your Petitioner will ever—sing.
A--- R---. 17th November, 1832.
| Poems and Songs, Humorous and Satirical | |