(_On hearing it correctly imitate the hoot
of a motor-horn._)
"Poor little foal of a despised race"--
Thus in an earlier day a poet broke
Into blank verse about thee, and awoke
Compassion for thy patient, pleading face.
But time thy ancient burden of disgrace
Has ta'en away long since, and, though in joke
Sometimes we may address thee as "the moke,"
No more we seek thy service to debase.
For thou art changed, O much-enduring ass!
No longer scorned but honoured in our day,
When an entire and influential class--
Our politicians--emulate thy bray;
Whilst thou, in bland reciprocal salute,
Hast tuned thy note to mock the motor's hoot.
* * * * *
"The balloon immediately began to drift over the enemy's lines.
Although he threw his rifle, field glasses, and everything movable
overboard, the balloon went still higher."
_Continental Daily Mail._
Well, what did he expect?
* * * * *
"APPRENTICE.--Smart Lad to learn up-to-date business; must be
mechanically bent."
_Liverpool Echo._
The simple plan of putting him across your knee will not suffice.
* * * * *
From a review of Sir CHARLES WALDSTEIN'S _Aristodemocracy_ in an
evening paper:--
"That, however, is only a side-issue in a volume which treats
the provident questions of politics with perfect humility and
with much persecution. It is a book which, as we began by saying,
deserves a much better title."
Some people might even say that it deserved a better reviewer.
* * * * *
The Chalmers Invasion.
With Sir ROBERT CHALMERS as the new Irish Under-Secretary and Sir
MACKENZIE CHALMERS (no relation) as one of the members of the
Commission of Enquiry into the Rebellion, Ireland no doubt will find
another grievance, singing:
How happy could I be with either,
Were t' other dear Chalmers away!
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Expert in Military Matters._ "HE SAID HE WAS AN
ORFICER; BUT I KNEW HE WASN'T, COS HE HADN'T A BUSTER BROWN BELT ON."]
* * * * *