THE BEST POLICY.

Great Paper (with the booster circulation),

I much admire your latest enterprise;

I positively cheer with acclamation

When, daily, lines like these arrest my eyes:

"Another of our Readers Breaks His Neck;

Photo of Relatives Receiving Cheque."

Yes, yes, I know you meet more claims and vaster

Than does your noisy rival on the press;

Methinks the Furies, plotters of disaster,

Intend your scheme to be the true success;

And, of the pair, 'tis you appear to be

The surer passport to eternity.

So, sighing not for realms that are infernal,

I'll buy the meaner sheet, the over-matched;

Or, better still, some nice old-fashioned journal

To which no startling terror is attached;

Let others read you, heroes who can brave

The instant peril of a bloody grave!