[A cinema has been showing a picture of M. PADEREWSKI, bearing
the legend, "The new President of Poland: once a world-famed
violinist."]
The President of POLAND
Was born to place and power;
Yet, ere he found his mission
In filling this position,
He was a great musician--
Men say so to this hour.
But, dash it! while the whole land
Admits his old repute,
It wonders, "Did this fellow,
At whom Queen's Hall would bellow,
Perform upon the 'cello,
Or did he play the flute?"
The day AUGUSTUS JOHN is
Created Duke of Wales,
His countrymen will never
Stop boasting of how clever
He is at Art, whatever
(Though Burlington still rails).
But one small detail gone is
From their forgetful nuts;
Their recollection's shady--
Did JOHN'S artistic heyday
Mean costumes for _The Lady_
Or things for _Comic Cuts?_
When HALL CAINE rules a nation
As Superman of Man,
His subjects will assure us
In daily dance and chorus:
"Ere HALL presided o'er us,
Men read him as they ran.
For once his circulation
Spread over Seven Seas."
Yet memory by chance errs
In these ecstatic dancers--
Oh, did he edit _Answers_,
Or write "Callisthenes"?
* * * * *