BECOME OF _HUS_?"]

_Mr. William Sikes, Junior, loquitur_:--

Well, I _ham_ blowed! I say, look 'ere, you NANCY!
Old Gog and Magog _is_ woke up at last!
Goin' to hilluminate the City. Fancy!!
When this yer 'Lectric light is fairly cast
On every nook and corner, hole and entry
Of London, you and me is done, to-rights.
A Slop at every street-end standin' sentry,
Won't spile our game like lots o' 'Lectric Lights.

The Lights o' London? Yah! That's bin all boko.
Were London _lighted_, how could you and me
Garotte a swell, or give a tight 'un toko?
We ain't got arf a chance where coves can _see_.
'Tis darkness plays our game, and we've 'ad plenty,
But this means mischief, or my name ain't BILL.
Wy, not one pooty little plant in twenty
Could we pull orf if _light_ spiled pluck and skill.

It's beastly, NAN, that's wot it is. Wy, blimy,
Narrer ill-lighted streets is our best friends.
Yer dingy nooks and slums, sombre and slimy,
Is gifts wot Prowidence most kyindly sends
To give hus chaps a chance of perks and pickins;
But if the Town's chock-full of "arc" and "glow,"
With you and me, NAN, it will play the dickens.
We must turn 'onest, NAN, and _that_'s no go!