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330

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

April 28, 1915

THE SLACKER.

THE "ORION'S" FIGUREHEAD AT WHITEHALL.

All wind and rain, the clouds fled fast across the evening sky—
Whitehall aglimmer like a beach the tide has scarce left dry;
And there I saw the figurehead which once did grace the bow
Of the old bold Orion,
The fighting old Orion,
In the days that are not now.

And I wondered did he dream at all of those great fights of old,
And ships from out whose oaken sides Trafalgar's thunder rolled;
There was Ajax, Neptune, Temeraire, Revenge, Leviathan,
With the old bold Orion,
The fighting old Orion,
When Victory led the van.

Old ships, their ribs are ashes now; but still the names they bore
And still the hearts that manned them live to sail the seas once more,
To sail and fight, and watch and ward, and strike as stout a blow
As the old bold Orion,
The fighting old Orion.
In the wars of long ago.

They watch, the gaunt grey fighting ships, in silence bleak and stern;
They wait—not yet, not yet has dawned the day for which they burn!
They're watching, waiting for the word that sets their thunders free,
Like the old bold Orion,
The fighting old Orion,
When Nelson sailed the sea.

Oh, waiting is a weary game, but Nelson played it too,
And, be it late or be it soon, such deeds are yet to do
As never your starry namesake saw who walked the midnight sky—
Old bold Orion,
Fighting old Orion,
Of the great old years gone by.

And be the game a waiting game we'll play it with the best;
Or be the game a watching game we'll watch and never rest;
But the fighting game it pays for all when the guns begin to play
(Old, bold Orion,
Fighting old Orion)
Like the guns of yesterday.

Another Impending Apology.

"Mr. Wing opened a more thorny subject by his inquiry whether the sale of alcohol will be prohibited in the Houses of Parliament, so as to 'bring its pulse into accord with the other palaces of the King'... Mr. Wing, who was evidently full of his subject..."

Scotsman.

An Infant in Arms.

"COOK.—At Winnipeg, Canada, on 15th April, to Mr. and Mrs. E. A. D. Cook, a daughter. Serving with the Cameron Highlanders. (Née Annie Johnston.) (By cable.)

Scotsman.

As her parents were so doubtful about her patronymic this youthful Amazon determined to enlist at once, and make a name for herself. }}

Onomatopoeia.

"A well-known boatman, Joe Studd, says: I was awakened by the buzz zof the enginzes."

Evening Star.

This typographical effort to imitate the sound of a Zeppelin does our contemporary credit.

The Kaiser in Art.

Artists! Men may always know
Portraits of our pious foe
By his fierce moustachio.

Is that why it seems to you,
When you're drawing Wilhelm II.,
Any sort of face will do?