Crushed upon the leaden forms;

Muckintosh, the famous thinker,

Muckintosh, the great and mighty,

Felt a trembling, felt a quaking,

Saw the earth about him open,

Saw the flame and sulphur smoking,

Came the printer's little devil,

Far from distant lands the printer,

[Pg 75]

Man of unions, man of cuss-words,

From the depths of sooty blackness;

Came the towel of the printer;

Many things that Muckintosh saw,—

Galleys, type, and leads and rules,

Presses, press-men, quoins and spaces,

Quads and caps and lower cases.

But to Muckintosh bewildered,

All this passed as in a dream,

Till within his nervous hand,

Hand with joy and fear a-quaking,

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