Pussyfoot Speaks

The Hippodrome meeting in Sydney on Tuesday night, for which Mr "Pussyfoot" Johnson was starred, was quite a dull affair. The reason was plain enough. Charges of "three, two, and one" are a new departure in connection with temperance reform, and the public refrained.

"If you prohibition people
Are in earnest when you go
To help the worthy movement
At a prohibition show,
You can't expect imported stars
To do their "stunting" free—
So you'll have to pay admission fee
Of one, two, and three.

"If you have a really keen desire
To cut the "demon rum,"
And knock the soul-less publican
Straight way to Kingdom Come,
If you want to teach the people
That this drink's a thing to shun,
What can be your objection, friends,
To three, two, and one?

"You pay to go to pictures,
And you pay to go to shows
That have neither moral uplift
Nor a punch; and, goodness knows,
When you get a good, clean show like this—
Imported spruikers, too—
Why should you grumble at a charge
For one, three, and two?"

But the show was rather gloomy,
The attendance was not large.
Poor Australian reformers
Never seek to make a charge
When they want to help the people;
They are plain and simple men,
So this tax on virtue's counted out
With eight—nine—TEN!