Augustus Edwin Mulready, British
News Junkie Begging For a Fix, 1874
Oil on cardboard
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MASTERPIECE #3218
Augustus Edwin Mulready, British
News Junkie Begging For a Fix, 1874
Oil on cardboard
Info, or links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here, here, here (if truncated, can be read in full for free on Fridays), here, here, and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page.
/// Children labor, but poverty’s real,
so the larger boy chooses to steal
what the street sweeper earned.
The extortion concerned
soggy papers and one orange peel.
/// The small boy had been hoping for Luck.
In a Moment he knew he was stuck.
From his pocket he fished,
not the two cents he’d wished,
but a frog that was coated with muck.
/// A rich banker perusing the Times
had looked up from accounts of his crimes.
He frowned down at each urchin
who, for pennies, are searchin’—
both held down, while straight upward he climbs.
/// Ginger paperboy wizard is yelling,
“Get today’s Daily Prophet.” He’s selling
them for only two sickles,
(that’s about sixteen nickels).
“A new Wizarding War, it’s foretelling!”
(Apologies to readers unfamiliar with
the Harry Potter books or movies.)
/// His young customer got off his broom
when he heard this prediction of gloom.
Each sale’s profit is measly
for the paperboy, Weasley,
so his family’s not rich, we assume.
/// In the “Prophet” are photos in motion
which, if seen, would incite a commotion
among all nearby Muggles,
so Wycliffe Weasley struggles
to conceal with a befuddle potion.
/// Paper’s purchaser, Parsifal Potter,
had flown here over both land and water.
Their descendants will strive
to keep goodness alive,
and destroy their world’s most evil plotter.