THE LITTLE CHRISTMAS STAMP
BY ARTHUR G. BURGOYNE.
(Air: “Wearing of the Green.”)
Nowadays for letter-writing
Here’s the popular receipt:
First with chit-chat that’s inviting
Coyer deftly ev’ry sheet.
Seal it neatly and address it;
Blot the superscription damp.
Then don’t mail the note unless it
Has a little Christmas Stamp.
Refrain:
Oh, the little Christmas Stamp!
Oh, the cheery Christmas Stamp,
With its message to the fireside and the workshop and the camp!
Trav’ling over vale and mountain, over lake and plain and swamp,
As a messenger of mercy goes the little Christmas Stamp.
Postal bureaus are not able
In their wisdom to invent
Any brighter, fairer label
On our letters to be sent.
They may try a new creation,
Or the old designs revamp,
But the meanwhile the population
Craves the little Christmas Stamp.
Stamps of England show the florid
Bearded visage of King Ed.
Stamps from Egypt’s deserts torrid,
Show the Sphynx’s grinning head.
Other stamps show deer and fishes,
Or a pictured urn or lamp,
But the one that bears good wishes
Is the little Christmas Stamp.
Russia sports her eagles mighty
On her postal guarantees;
Spain depicts her monarch flighty,
Germany her own main squeeze.
Other pow’rs use landscapes charming,
Which in narrow space they cramp,
But the one design heart-warming
Marks the little Christmas Stamp.
Now this stamp won’t pay for transit
On our own or other soil,
But ’tis plain to him that scans it
That it pays for Red Cross toil.
And to keep the white plague under
And upon that pest to tramp,
Buy the latest postal wonder,
Buy the little Christmas Stamp.