The cover image was created by the transcriber,based on the original cover, and is placed in the public domain.
THE
Cruise of the Catalpa.
A POEM.
BY
JOHN J. BRESLIN,
Chief of the Rescuers of the Fenian Prisoners fromFreemantle, Australia.
BOSTON:
PRESS OF ROCKWELL & CHURCHILL,
39 Arch Street.
1876.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by
DANIEL M. LYNCH,
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
[Written on board the “Catalpa.”]
ADESCRIPTIVE POEM
OF THE
Rescue of the Fenian Prisoners
FROM
FREEMANTLE, AUSTRALIA.
It was on Easter Monday, in ’Seventy-six,In Freemantle the jailers were all in a fix,From Fauntleroy,[1] down to Amen-timbertoe,[2]There was racing and chasing and bother, you know,For the Fenians had sliddered[3] right off in a row;But what’s that to any one, whether or no?
Oh! Wilson and Cranston and Hogan are gone,With Darragh and Hassett and staunch Harrington;For Collins and Johnston have opened the ball,And to join in the dancing, out step Jones and Hall,And they tripped to a tune that was far from being slow;But what’s that to any one, whether or no?[Pg 6]
Cops,[4] warders and soldiers are running a raceAnd the mounted policemen prepare to give chase;In the pensioner’s barracks the trumpet did blow,And old Finnerty’s[5] bugle was purple, I know;But the boys know their road, and are bound for to go;So what’s that to any one, whether or no?
There are two trotting teams on the Rockingham road,From the gloom of a prison each bearing its load,And full hearts are beating with freedom and joy,As they sweep ’round the sand hills and through the Blackboy.With the sunlight of Hope every face is aglow;But what’s that to any one, whether or no?...