Mortal muscle and human nerve
Cheap to purchase, and stout to serve.
Strained _too_ fiercely will faint and swerve.
Over-weighted, and underpaid,
This human tool of exploiting Trade,
Though tougher than leather, tenser than steel.
Fails at last, for his senses reel,
His nerves collapse, and, with sleep-sealed eyes,
Prone and helpless a log he lies!
A hundred hearts beat placidly on,
Unwitting they that their warder's gone;
A hundred lips are babbling blithe,
Some seconds hence they in pain may writhe.
For the pace is hot, and the points are near,
And Sleep hath deadened the driver's ear;
And signals flash through the night in vain.
Death is in charge of the clattering train!
* * * * *
"WHAT TO DO WITH OUR GIRLS." (_Paterfamilias's answer_.)--Give them
away! (Matrimonially, of course.)
* * * * *
[Illustration: "DEATH AND HIS BROTHER SLEEP."--Shelley.
(_See Major Marindin's Report to the Board of Trade on the Railway
Collision near Eastleigh._)]
* * * * *
[Illustration: "THE CAUSE" AND THE EFFECT.
Mr. ---- moved, "That this Mass-meeting pledges itself to support the
efforts of Messrs.
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