Punch: Punch (75.1878)

206 PUNCH, OK THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [November 9, 1878.

PIG-STICKERS, BEWARE!

Oh, a capital sport is Pig-sticking-, no doubt,
If your seat is assured and your muscles are stout;
"With a tough-shafted spear, keen of point, and held
straight,'

And the pluck for a charge plus the nerve for a wait,
You may hnd in the Boar the best sport of the jungle :
But still 'tis a sport Avhere to falter or bungle
Is like to prove fatal. " Pig-stickers, beware! "—
A discouraging notice to post in his lair !
"When the jungle is beaten, the boar-spear in hand,
And the hog, bristles up and, tusks bared, makes his
stand,

To slip in one's seat, give a dubious glance
(Like a carver unskilled) at the point of one's lance,
Is not Pig-sticking form by a very long shot.
Forewarned is forearmed ; but blow cold and blow hot
Is a game that will bring one to grief in the chace,
And if in the jungle the Sportsman should trace
Bigger tracks than the Boar's, hesitation may prove
From circumspect caution the farthest remove.
If the sport you misdoubt, if the game you can't face,
The best thing, of course, is to give up the chace.
But if you mean business, its risks you must dare,
Nor be funked by the notice, " Pig-stickers, beware! "

At the Mxjsic-Halls.— The Birds that fly by night—the Acro-bats.

To Oculists.—Wanted, the site'for the eye of Cleopatra's Needle.