The hours they run, but on Lushington

The papers are pouring still—

And how record for a Phantom Board,

With a merely mortal quill?

Those letters come by messengers dumb—

A hundred thousand a year—

To this room or that, for ghost-clerks to thumb,

And be opened, here and there:

Who registers? None, all; all, some:

Who minutes? Ghost-hands in air.