_by Walter Gregory Muirheid._
_Illustration by R. A. Lüders._
Pray, maiden of ye ancient time,
Fair stranger of a foreign clime,
Tell me, as gaze ye o’er the sea,
What thoughts arise to comfort thee?
Hast lover there in ship of state,
Or waitest thou beside the gate
To welcome him from war’s alarms
To the fond shelter of thine arms?
Perchance that through the ages vast
In prophecy thy gaze is cast
And to Manhattan’s glad and gay
Hotels, cafés and Great White Way
Thy fancies take their wing, and show
The Pleiades with lights aglow,
Till in thy limpid, lucent eyes
Bright visions of our feasts arise.
[Illustration: “_Fair stranger of a foreign clime._”]
Canst bridge the span of ages vast,
O maiden of a fabled past?
Then come! We’ll do our best to please;
We’ll make thee guest at Pleiades!
And ne’er in palmy days of Rome
Couldst thou, fair maiden, feel at home
More than at Pleiads’ tables round
Where fellowship and faith abound.
For ne’er in Rome were men like these
Good fellows of the Pleiades,
And ne’er were maidens half so fair
As they who seek diversion there;
Yet ne’er was time these fellows gay
Would deem another in the way,
And so make haste, fly o’er the sea,
The Pleiades will welcome thee!
[Illustration: _Drawn by Wm. J. Steinigans._
See the lady? Does the lady want the soap? The lady certainly does.
Will the pup bring the soap to the lady? It will not—the pup is a
gentleman pup and the lady is a suffragette. The pup wants her to
get it herself.]