Sympathy

Victoria's Attorney-General, Mr. Robinson, has given a most sympa- thetic reply to bookmakers, who urged him to protect them against claims for the recovery of betting losses paid by cheque.

He was only a little bookie,
    Innocent, mild and sweet;
But the wicked plan
    Of some business man
Had thrown him into the street.
He was lonely, and broke, and
    starving,
His last lone copper gone;
And he said, "I'll go
    With my tale of woe
To this good man Robinson."

Was he treated with frowns and
    curses?
Was he brutally told to go?
    Nay! The good man cried,
    "It is not dry-eyed
That I hear your tale of woe."

He placed his hand on the bended
    head,
"O'Moses, child," he gushed,
    "Tho' the wicked scheme,
    You shall have your dream,
And the bad man shall be crushed."

Out in the streets O'Moore,
    Twisting his diamond ring,
Raised eyes aloft
    As he whispered soft,
"I'm on to a dead-sure thing!"

A moral there is to my story—
    A moral to hold and keep—
"Man yet may rise
    When an M.P. sighs
To see a bookie weep."