BLIMP!

There are many things Dora kept dark

That she's now letting into the light,

And to-day an astounding aerial barque

Has suddenly sailed into sight;

But its past makes no sympathies burn,

And its future leaves interest limp,

Compared with the rapture I feel when I learn

That its name is the Blimp.

Who gave it its title, and why?

Was it old EDWARD LEAR from the grave?

Since Jumblies in Blimps would be certain to fly

When for air they abandon the wave.

Was it dear LEWIS CARROLL, perhaps

Sent his phantom to christen the barque,

Since a Blimp is the obvious vessel for chaps

When hunting a snark?

And to-day, in the first-fruits of joy,

I scarcely believe it is true

That Blimp is a word we shall one day employ

As lightly as now Bakerloo;

And my reason refuses to jump

To the fact that a man, not an imp,

Can flash through the other and land with a bump

From a trip in a Blimp.


"It needs no very profound knowledge of the politics of South-Western Europe to surmise that neither Rumania nor Greece would lend military assistance of this kind without being promised something in return.—Manchester Guardian.

But a rather more profound knowledge of the geography might be useful.