Civil service jingles and other things

By HARRY McDONALD WALTERS
Ottawa
1911
Mr. Walters has invited me to write a few prefatory lines to his volume of “Civil Service Jingles and Other Things”, and I cheerfully comply, although it may be at the risk of doing harm to his really meritorious enterprise. It has been my privilege to read many of these selections in manuscript, and some of them have already seen the light of day in print. I have frankly encouraged him to make up the present collection and give his fellow civil servants an opportunity to have it in library form. He may have been influenced in a positive way by this advice, and to that extent I find an excuse for adding my commendation now. I really like these aptly named “Jingles”, which have clearly been written more for the idle hour than the study. They appeal to me as revealing a bright and observing mind, combined with the rare gift of putting ideas into an entertainingly satirical shape. They are witty without being unwholesome, and while they are not in any sense pretentious, they are nevertheless distinctly creditable to Mr. Walters’ genius.
J. L. Payne.
We are a fine body of men,
All truly good knights of the pen,
For our knowledge and work
Gets all of the credit “ye ken.”
You never hear about we,
And the reason is clear as can be,
If they take notice of us,