AUCTION SALES

"An American message states that the Austrian Government is selling the castles formerly in the hands of the Hapsburgs to the municipalities in which they are situated." Cable.

Castles to sell! Old castles to sell! The serfs of the Hapsburgs built them well. Tower and buttress and grey mossed wall, O'er the vine-glad valley their shadows fall And high and far in the glowing light Shine the narrow windows of waning light That tell or the sword and the iron heel And the terrible lordship lapped in steel, That ever with death in its red right hand Made a Right Divine in a cringing land. Castles to sell! Who'l1 buy? Wholl buy'? The blood that the Hapsburgs shed is dry; The fence of steel is broken and gone; The kings are down and the world moves on. Hands are redder than their of old: For the times are changed and the serf grows bold: And never a castle wall could stay The maddened of the vengeful Day Oh, the old grey stones of the watch-tower tell That the lesson of blood was learned to well! Castles for sale! There's an auctioneer Shouting the bids in the whole world's ear. The wall is high and the moat is deep But truck of the dead like this goes cheap. Look, and see, in the vaults below Nought but fungus of doom will grow; And the banquet hall no more can ring To the idle laugh of a drunken king. No more offers. Its going! Its gone! Sold for a song and the world moves on. Castles to sell! Old castles to sell! What are they good for? Who can tell? Dry museums of ancient things And scarce as dry and dead as the kings. Bring me the mummy and mammoth bone And the chopper sword and the axe of stone; Set up the armour of ancient fear And the tattered flags of yesteryear; And over the portal set the line: This is the end of their Right Divine.
George Street Pseudonym of David McKee Wright N.S.W. The Bulletin 30 January 1919