TO A COMING CHAMPION.
The exodus was ended; stilled the urging
To “wait and let the passengers off first;”
I and my fellow-sufferers were surging
Along the gangway in one short sharp burst,
Clutching the straps so thoughtfully provided
Stamping on any feet that lay about,
And, Lady, it was then that you decided
This was where you got out.
I noted with an awestruck admiration
The gallant way in which you faced the press,
What force, what vigour, what determination,
What almost everything but politesse;
And then I gave back several hasty inches
Before your mænad rush; I felt alarmed
Lest you should use a hatpin in the clinches
While I was all unarmed.
So in a more or less intact condition
You made your exit through the trellised gate,
And (this, I must admit, is mere suspicion)
Asked of a porter was your hat on straight;
And lo! the bard, left dreaming suo more,
Mused upon things the future hid from view;
He looked adown the years and saw the glory
England would win through you.
For in my morning sheet I’d seen it bruited,
Mid talk of Jazz and Fox Trot, plaids and checks,
That boxing was a sport precisely suited
To what it quaintly called the gentler sex;
I thought about the coming day when bevies
Of beauty would be found inside the ropes,
And saw you, eminent among the “heavies,”
The whitest of white hopes.
I saw—and at the vision England’s stock ran
High above par—how in the padded strife,
Beneath the auspices of Mr. Cochran,
You’d whip the world, or should I say his wife?
Our land once more would boast the champion thumper,
The doughtiest dealer of the hefty welt,
The holder of—but no, by then a jumper
Will have replaced the belt.
“OFFICERS’ HEAVY-WEIGHTS.
Final: Lt. W. R. Nicol (R.F.A.) knocked out Lt.-General Lord Rawlinson, Commanding at Aldershot.”—Sportsman.
That’s more than Ludendorff could do.
“Some years have passed since I last saw Mr. ——, and last evening I found him considerably aged. His one black hair is very grey.”
Provincial Paper.
Probably the result of depression caused by loneliness.
“The Prince of —— has returned recently from England where he was educated. He is to marry several wives, as is the custom of ——. His education is to continue.”—North China Daily News.
We can well believe it.
“The Chester Vase resolved itself into a contest between a four-year-old and some three-year-olds, but in this case the four-year-old was Buchan, a Trojan among minnows.”—Provincial Paper.
The writer seems to be a student of “classic” form.
