(The illustration for the verse is well worth looking at.)
"Ow, tramp, now tramp to prison cell, Or quit the trade that pays so well. The scamps who whine for charity, Cleared from our streets ere long will be: A clause in Mr. Villiers' Act Is fatal to all tramps in fact; And beggars who disturb our peace Must now their odious calling cease.
Sham injured workmen will no more Display their wounds from door to door. No more the lame will howl their woes, Or clap their crutches on our toes. No more the blind, with ghastly eye, Will glare on all who pass them by, No more, when they are frozen out, Will hulking navvies bawl and shout. Sham paralytics now no more Will shake and shiver, as of yore: Sham widows will no more be seen,
With eyes upturned and aprons clean, And hired babies in their arms, And hired brats, who bellow psalms. Artistic tramps will now no more Chalk "I am starving!" at your door; Or on the pavement lie forlorn, Beside the mackerel they have drawn.
Hence! ye tramps who dog our heel, And beg or bully, whine or squeal: Hence, ye one-legged cripples, hence! Impostors ye who make pretence Of having for your country fought: Away to prison, and be taught, By exercise upon the Mill The benefit of Villiers' Bill; Which (and 'twill soon be law, we trust) Provides that all, who _can_ work, _must_.