THE FOILING OF “THE BLARE.”

(Suggested to a slightly Hibernian brain by the recent ebullition of generosity on the part of the popular press, which insures its readers against holiday accidents whilst boating and bathing.)

When I bolt from this city of vapour

To bite the salubrious breeze,

Do you know why I gambol and caper

And plunge with a shout in the seas

Twice the lad that I was

For a lark? It’s because

I subscribe to that bountiful paper,

The Blare, if you please.

For I know that if currents are shifty,

If cramp should arrive unaware,

I shall die, but my end will be thrifty,

And my host (being also my heir)

Will be amply consoled

By the thought of the gold

(Which amounts to two hundred and fifty)

He’ll get from The Blare.

“Pray take from your forehead those creases,”

I cry to my friend on the yacht,

“I admit that the mainsail’s in pieces

And most of the sheets in a knot;

But remember that if

We go ponk on that cliff

It’s The Blare will be paying your nieces

A nice little pot.”

But whatever may crash into cruisers

Or wherries when I am afloat,

When the waves have destroyed me like bruisers,

I call on my country to note,

If The Blare should pretend,

When I’ve passed to my end,

I was one of its constant perusers,

It lies in its throat.

To my tenantless rooms in the City

The rags have been sent, and it’s there

That I’ll burn them unopened and gritty

Or, if (and it’s little I care)

I am whelmed in the wave,

I shall laugh from my grave

At the blow that I’ve dealt the banditti

Who publish The Blare.

Evoe.


“With one accord they all say, ‘Welcome to Ireland!’ ‘No more delightful place,’ says Mr. Birrell; ‘A kindly welcome everywhere,’ says Mr. Devlin; ‘The most peaceful place in the world,’ says Mr. Redmond.”—Daily Graphic.

Mr. Redmond has overlooked the Balkans.