A Glimpse Of China. Over The Samovar. {69A}

(Foo-chow.)


"Yes, I used always to think
    That you Russians knew
How to make the good drink
    As none others do.

"And I thought moreover,
    (Not with the epicures),
You might search the world over
    For such women as yours.

"In both these matters now
    I perceive I was right,
And I really can't tell you how
    Much I delight

"In my third (Thanks, another cup!)
    Idea of the fun,
When your country gets up
    And follows the sun!

"And just as in Europe, see,
    There's a conqueror nation,
So why not in Asia be
    A like jubilation?

"Taught as well as organized, {69b}
    The eternal Coolie,
From being robbed and despised,
    Takes to cutting throats duly!

"But - please, don't be flurried;
    For I daresay by then
You'll be comfortably buried,
    Ladies and gentlemen!

"No more, thanks! I must be going!
    I'm so glad to have made this
Opportunity of knowing
    Some more Russian ladies!"

Francis William Lauderdale Adams

Francis William Lauderdale Adams (27 September 1862 – 4 September 1893) was an English writer, poet, dramatist, and social reformer. His literary work often reflected his radical socialist views. Adams lived a life marred by poverty and struggles with his health, eventually committing suicide at the age of 30. Despite his brief life, his contributions to literature and social thought remain significant.

Francis William Lauderdale Adams

A Death At Sea. (Coral Sea, Australia.)

Francis William Lauderdale Adams, Simple Poetry

The New Locksley Hall. "Forty Years After."

Francis William Lauderdale Adams, Simple Poetry

Analogy. (To D - - L - - .)

Francis William Lauderdale Adams, Simple Poetry

The Man Of The Nation.

Francis William Lauderdale Adams, Simple Poetry

English

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A Glimpse Of China. In A Chair.

(Foo-chow.)


From the bright and blinding sunshine,
    From the whirling locust's song,
Into the dark and narrow fissures
    Of the streets I am borne along.

Here and there dusky-beaming
    A sun-shaft broadens and drops
On the brown bare crowd slow-passing
    The crowd of the open shops.

We move on over the bridges
    With their straight-hewn blocks of stone.
And their quaint grey animal figures,
    And the booths the hucksters own.

Behind a linen awning
    Sits an ancient wight half-dead,
And a little dear of a girl is
    Examining - his head.

On a bended bamboo shouldered,
    Bearing a block of stone,
Two worn-out coolies half-naked
    Utter their grunting groan.

Children, al...

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A Glimpse Of China. In A Sampan.

(Min River, Fo Kien.)


Up in the misty morning,
    Up past the gardened hills,
With the rhythmic stroke of the rowers,
    While the blue deep pales and thrills!

Past the rice-fields green low-lying,
    Where the sea-gull's winging down
From the fleets of junks and sampans
    And the ancient Chinese Town!

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A Glimpse Of China. "Caste."

These Chinese toil and yet they do not starve,
    And they obey, and yet they are not slaves.
It is the "free-born" fuddled Englishmen
    That grovel rotting in their living graves.

These Chinese do not fawn with servile lips;
    They lift up equal eyes that ask and scan.
Their degradation has escaped at least
    That choicest curse of all - the gentleman!

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The China-Mender.

Good-Morning, Mr. What-d'ye-call! Well! here's another pretty job!
Lord help my Lady! - what a smash! - if you had only heard her sob!
It was all through Mr. Lambert: but for certain he was winey,
To think for to go to sit down on a table full of Chiney.
"Deuce take your stupid head!" says my Lady to his very face;
But politeness, you know, is nothing when there's Chiney in the case;
And if ever a woman was fond of Chiney to a passion,
It's my mistress, and all sorts of it, whether new or old fashion.
Her brother's a sea-captain, and brings her home shiploads -
Such bronzes, and such dragons, and nasty squatting things like toads;
And great nidnoddin' mandarins, with palsies in the head:
I declare I've often dreamt of them, and had nightmares in my bed.
But the frightfuller they ...

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A Dream Of Bric-A-Brac.

[C. K. loquitur.]



I dreamed I was in fair Niphon.
Amid tea-fields I journeyed on,
Reclined in my jinrikishaw;
Across the rolling plains I saw
The lordly Fusi-yama rise,
His blue cone lost in bluer skies.

At last I bade my bearers stop
Before what seemed a china-shop.
I roused myself and entered in.
A fearful joy, like some sweet sin,
Pierced through my bosom as I gazed,
Entranced, transported, and amazed.

For all the house was but one room,
And in its clear and grateful gloom,
Filled with all odours strange and strong
That to the wondrous East belong,
I saw above, around, below,
A sight to make the warm heart glow,
And leave the eager soul no lack, -
An endless wealth of bric-a-brac.

I saw bronze sta...

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Twopenny Post-Bag, Intercepted Letters, Etc. Letter V.

FROM THE COUNTESS DOWAGER OF CORK TO LADY---.


My dear Lady---! I've been just sending out
About five hundred cards for a snug little Rout--
(By the by, you've seen "Rokeby"?--this moment got mine--
The "Mail-Coach Edition"--prodigiously fine!)
But I can't conceive how in this very cold weather
I'm ever to bring my five hundred together;
As, unless the thermometer's near boiling heat,
One can never get half of one's hundreds to meet.

(Apropos--you'd have thought to see Townsend last night,
Escort to their chairs, with his staff, so polite,
The "three maiden Miseries," all in a fright;
Poor Townsend, like Mercury, filling two posts,
Supervisor of thieves and chief-usher of ghosts!)

    But, my dear Lady----, can't you hit on some noti...

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