Irish Snap-Dragon. The Dynamite Game

John Gordon Thomson (1841-1911)

Fun 57-58 (4 January 1893): 5

Source: Hathi Digital Library Trust web version of a copy in the University of Minnesota library.

The artist has rendered Ireland as a fair maiden in this cartoon that alludes to Fenian terrorist acts that took the from dynamiting. — George P. Landow

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Irish Snap-Dragon

.

There’s a game which is play‘d at this time of the year,
And to frolicsome parties is specially dear,
Where upon a warm dish they pour out and ignite
While the point of the pastime — Snap-Dragon its name —
Is to snap up a nicey-nice thing from the flame
Without scorching your fingers, and then — oh, yum yum! —
Pop it into your mouth, when you find it's a plum.
There is plenty of fun, if 'tis heartily play'd,
In observing some revellers sadly afraid
About singeing their digits, while others more bold
Plunge their hands in the blaze, though without catching hold
Of the coveted morsel, a few having luck
And receiving the happy reward for their pluck.
Yet when sportsmen like Gladstone and Morley conspire
With Miss Erin to snatch Home Rule out of the fire,
It's rough, very rough, if the spirits don’t burn
In their regular, proper, methodical turn,
But explode with a horrid concussion that serves
To impart a bad shock to their sensitive nerves:
For when dynamite forces go banging about,
That there’s something wrong somewhere one cannot well doubt. [9]

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Last modified 4 February 2016