"I'll hear no more," Dame Fortune cried, "Happy the man who has one friend, "Or count my friends, the many friends I did but boast an idle boast - My books were read by three." LEGHORN, Febr. 23, 1862. LOUIS ROMA, CAPITALE D' ITALIA. Nap, I've heard say, 's the main spring that makes go Whilst the slaver runs down on the ground from his jaws. God keep the gate shut, make the good cause his own, And save from the robber both lapdog and bone! CASA CARTONI AI CAVALLEGGIERI, LEGHORN, Dec. 24, 1861. por Set all *TWO hundred men and eighteen killed For want of a second door! Ay, for with two doors, each ton coal And what is it else makes England great, But her cheap coal, and eye's tail turned But if a slate falls off the roof Or if a doctor's dose too strong Makes some half-dead man die, * At ten o'clock on the morning of Thursday, January 16, 1862, the great iron beam of the steam - engine which worked the pumps of the Hester coal pit near Hartley in Northumberland, snapped across, and a portion of the beam, 40 tons in weight, fell into the shaft, tearing away the boarded lining so that the earthy sides collapsed and fell in, filling up the shaft in such a manner as not only, to cut off all communication between the interior of the pit and the outer world, but entirely to obstruct all passage of pure air into, and of foul air out of, the pit. All the persons who were at work below at the time, two hundred and eighteen in number, were of course suffocated, nor was it until the seventh day after the accident that access could be had to the interior of the pit, or anything, We have coroners and deodands And householder's or doctor's foe, But if of twice a hundred men, And eighteen more, the breath Is stopped at once in a coal pit, For, God be praised! the chance is small Should come, for want of a second door, Besides, 'twould cost a thousand times As much, or something more, To make to every pit of coal A second, or safety door, As all the shrouds and coffins cost For those who perish now For want of a second door, and that 's No trifle, you'll allow; beyond the mere fact of their entombment, ascertained concerning the helpless and unfortunate victims of that 'auri sacra fames' which so generally, so heartlessly, so pertinaciously refuses the poor workers in the coal mines of England, even the sad resource of a second staple or air shaft. See the Illustrated London News of Jan. 25, and Febr. 1, 1862. And trade must live, though now and then A man or two may die; So merry sing "God bless the Queen," And, Jenny, let each widow have A cup of congo strong, And every orphan half a cup, And so I end my song, With prayer to God to keep coal cheap, For though we 're mortal too, no doubt, Has ready still, the chance is small And if we do, our gracious Queen And out of her own privy purse To have us decently interred And burial service shall for us In the churchyard be read, And more bells rung and more hymns sung Than if we had died in bed: For such an accident as this May never occur again, And till it does, one door 's enough For pumps, air, coal, and men; And should it occur which God forbid! Remember well, good Christians all, Not one whit worse the coal. CASA CARTONI AI CAVALLEGGIERI, Leghorn, Febr. 25, 1862. WHEN I was young I had so much of life, For that of which I 've much, and set all value So it's no matter whether young or old, |