"SHIPS THAT PASS IN THE NIGHT."
I, who before these lines appear (or don't)
Must face the Board reviewing my diseases,
Am fluttered, as the sentient soul is wont,
Thinking how rum the case of me and these is;
We'll come together—just because it pleases
Some higher Pow'r—and then for ever part.
Not having learnt each other's views on Art,
Nor in our only chat got really heart to heart.
They'll sound my heart, it's true, but in a way ...
Perhaps they'll ask me if I've had enteric;
But can I tell them that I've writ a play
And have a nephew who is atmospheric?
Or that my people meant me for a cleric
(But Satan didn't)? or even that I shan't
Be left much money by my maiden aunt?—
These are the human links that bind us, but I can't.
Nor can I hope to get behind the mask
That shrouds from me their human cares and graces.
"Is your name William?" I shall want to ask,
And burn to know if this one bets on races,
Or that one has a pretty taste in braces,
Or if a third, who only says, "Just so,"
Beneath his tunic has a heart aglow
With treasured words of praise dropped by his golfing pro.
We'll part, we'll part! Nor with a soulful cry
Will one strong human citadel surrender.
M.O.'s who dandle babes no less than I
Will leave me cold; M.O.'s who have a tender
Passion for my own type of sock-suspender
Won't utter it. Though on my heaving breast
They lean their heads, they'll lean them uncaressed;
We'll part, nor overstep the auscultation test.
"AMERICA'S BLOCKADE.
By David G. Pinkney, the well-known chip-owner."—Evening News.
A chip of the old blockade.
"Businesses suitable for ex-soldiers: generals and others; taking £40 wkly, price £35. Call or stamp."—The Daily Chronicle.
We can almost hear our Generals stamping.
"It was an extremely difficult thing to effect a hit with anti-aircraft guns. A 'ricohetting' pheasant was nothing to it."—The Globe.
We take this remarkable bird to be a sort of bouncing "rocketer."
Extract from a testimonial sent to a patent-medicine vendor:—
"If you remember I came to you three days after I was bitten by my cat on the recommendation of a lady friend."—Straits Times.
We think it was cowardly of the lady to employ an agent.
