Genre:

Song, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Prognostication, Politics, Crime, Manufactories, Human Development, Music, Environmentalism, Internationalism, War, Observatories

    Song sung to the air of 'There's a Good Time Coming Boys', this opens by describing the imminent appearance of a comet, whose day of arrival has not yet been ascertained by John R Hind, and which is expected to be 'stronger' and 'longer' than the 'last Comet' (the great comet of 1858). Proceeds to describe some of the dramatic social and political changes that might take place when the comet is finally seen. These include 'Workhouses shall ope their doors, / None shall die of honger, / Organmen shall quite our shores', 'poor needlewomen may / For fair work receive fair pay', 'To the [American Civil] war an end there'll be, / When Americans shall see / The Comet Coming' and 'Universal Peace there'll be'. Concludes by anticipating the amount of dust created if the comet should strike 'the Earth's upper crust', and wonders whether Hind and Charles G Talmage, who also works in George Bishop's South Villa Observatory, are in fact mistaken.