Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

From a late London Paper.

CURIOUS EPITAPH.

Here cool the ashes of
MULCBERGRIM.
Late of this parish, blacksmith:
He was born in Seacoal lane.
And bred at Hammersmith.
From his youth upwards he was
much addicted to vices,
And was often guilty of forgery;
Having some talents for irony,
He thereby procured many heats
in his neighbourhood
Which he usually increased by
blowing up the coals:
This rendered him so unpopular, that,
When he found it necessary to
adopt cooling measures,
His conduct was generally accompanied with
a hiss,
Though he sometimes proved a warm
Friend, yet, where his interest
was concerned,
He made it a constant rule to
Strike while the iron was hot,
Regardless of the injury he might
do thereby;
And when he had any matter of
moment upon the anvil,
He seldom failed to turn it to his
own advantage.
Among numberless instances that
might be given of the cruelty of
his disposition,
It need only be mentioned, that
he was the means of hanging
many of the innocent family of
the Bells
Under the idle pretence of keeping
them from jangling;
And put great numbers of the
Hearts of Steel into the hottest flames,
Merely (as he declared) to soften
the obduracy of their tempers.
At length, after passing a long life in
the commission of these black actions,
His fire being exhausted, and his
bellows worn out,
He filed off to that place where only
the fervid ordeal of his own
forge can be exceeded;
Declaring with his last puff.
That "man is born to trouble as the
sparks fly upwards!"