T'S WON TO-DAY_?"]

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THE BURIAL OF THE "BROAD-GAUGE."

MAY 23, 1892.

["Drivers of Broad-Gauge Engines wandering disconsolately
about with their engine-lamps in their hands; followed by
their firemen with pick and shovel over their shoulder,
waiting in anxious expectation of the time when that
new-fangled machine, a narrow-gauge engine, should come down
a day or two after."--_Times' Special at Plymouth on Death of
Broad Gauge._]

Not a whistle was heard, not a brass bell-note,
As his corse o'er the sleepers we hurried;
Not a fog-signal wailed from a husky throat
O'er the grave where our "Broad-Gauge" we buried.

We buried him darkly, at dead of night,
The sod with our pickaxes turning,
By the danger-signal's ruddy light,
And our oil-lamps dimly burning.

No useless tears, though we loved him well!
Long years to his fire-box had bound us.
We fancied we glimpsed the great shade of BRUNEL,
In sad sympathy hovering round us.

Few and gruff were the words we said,
But we thought, with a natural sorrow,
Of the Narrow-Gauge foe of the Loco. just dead,
_We_ should have to attend on the morrow.

We thought, as we hollowed his big broad bed,
And piled the brown earth o'er his funnel,
How his foe o'er the Great-Western metals would tread,
Shrieking triumph through cutting and tunnel.

Lightly they'll talk of him now he is gone,
For the cheap "Narrow Gauge" has outstayed him,
Yet BULL _might_ have found, had he let it go on,
That BRUNEL's Big Idea would have paid him!

But the battle is ended, our task is done;
After forty years' fight he's retiring.[1]
This hour sees thy triumph, O STEPHENSON;
Old "Broad Gauge" no more will need firing.

The "Dutchman" must now be "divided in two"!--
Well, well, they shan't mangle or mess _you_!
Accept the last words of friends faithful, if few:--
"Good-bye, poor old Broad-Gauge, God bless you!"[2]

Slowly and sadly we laid him down.
He has filled a great chapter in story.
We sang not a dirge--we raised not a stone,
But we left the "Broad Gauge" to his glory!

[Footnote 1: The Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the
uniformity of railway gauges, presented their report to Parliament
on May 30, 1846.]

[Footnote 2: Words found written on one of the G.-W. rails.]

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