(_Addressed to either pioneer of journalistic insurance._)
GREAT PAPER (with the booster circulation),
I much admire your latest enterprise;
I positively cheer with acclamation
When, daily, lines like these arrest my eyes:
"ANOTHER OF OUR READERS BREAKS HIS NECK;
PHOTO OF RELATIVES RECEIVING CHEQUE."
Yes, yes, I _know_ you meet more claims and vaster
Than does your noisy rival on the press;
Methinks the Furies, plotters of disaster,
Intend your scheme to be the true success;
And, of the pair, 'tis you appear to be
The surer passport to eternity.
So, sighing not for realms that are infernal,
I'll buy the meaner sheet, the over-matched;
Or, better still, some nice old-fashioned journal
To which no startling terror is attached;
Let others read you, heroes who can brave
The instant peril of a bloody grave!
* * * * *
[Illustration: LIGHTENING THE DARKNESS.
[The LORD MAYOR has opened a fund to assist the National Institute for
the Blind in its endeavour to increase and cheapen the supply of BRAILLE
literature.]]
* * * * *