A. E. Lancaster. The Old Lyceum (abridged). Hamilton Fish Armstrong, ed. 1917. The Book of New York Verse

Hamilton Fish Armstrong, ed. The Book of New York Verse. 1917.

The Old Lyceum (abridged)

By A. E. Lancaster

FOURTH AVENUE AND 23RD STREET
Lines read by Miss Annie Russell, at the Final Performance, March 22, 1902

THE END has come. Dare we, who face you thus,
To bid good-bye to you, as you to us,
Dare we expect a place, however small,
With those you love to turn to and recall?
Ah, yes! You are too generous to begrudge	5
The Little Girl who loved the Loyal Judge.
Her tempted parents now avoid temptation;
The Probate Judge is scarcely on probation;
Ditto the youth familiarly called Jim,
The clerk who lost the clue he found with vim,	10
The Ikensteins, on whom existence dawned
As numbering put the Pawners and the Pawned,
And Mrs. Brown, to better fortunes bred,
But now must keep a boarding-house instead;
Likewise, comparing one thing with another,	15
The Judge’s quite “incorrigible” mother,
Since Mrs. Gilbert throws on every role
The genial sunshine of a radiant soul.
Then, when destruction lays its ruthless hand
Where once the play and player took their stand,	20
Hope and not grief will cause our hearts to swell,
Since “au revoir” will lurk behind “farewell,”
And from afar there sounds a sweet Te Deum,
Because the New springs from the Old Lyceum!