Volume 152 — A CHÂTEAU IN FRANCE.
Reading edition
Artists reared it in courtly ages; Watteau and Fragonard limned its walls; Powdered lackeys and negro pages Served the great in its shining halls; Minstrels played, in its salons, stately Minuets for a jewelled king, And radiant gallants bowed sedately To lovely Pompadours curtseying. Pigeons cooed in its dovecots shady; Down in the rose-walk fountains played; Many a lovelorn lord and lady Here in the moonlight sighed and strayed; Here was beauty and love and laughter, Splendour and eminence bravely won; But now two walls and a blackened rafter Grimly tell the tale of the Hun. My lady's chamber is dust and ashes; The painted salons are charred with fire; The dovecot pitted with shrapnel splashes, The park a tangle of trench and wire; Shell-holes yawn in the ferns and mosses; Stripped and torn is the avenue; Down in the rose-walk humble crosses Grow where my lady's roses grew. Yet in the haunted midnight hours, When star-shells droop through the shattered trees, Steal they back to their ancient bowers, Beau Brocade and his Belle Marquise? Greatly loving and greatly daring— Fancy, perhaps, but the fancy grips, For a junior subaltern woke up swearing That a gracious lady had kissed his lips.
Commercial Candour.
From a butcher's advertisement:—
"TOUGH & INDIFFERENT MEAT IS DEAR AT ANY PRICE. TRY ——— & Sons And prove it for yourselves."
"A certain amount of discussion took place, and it was acknowledged that the number of horses in training had been exagggerated."—Daily Chronicle.
Nevertheless there is certainly one gee too many.
The Lokalanzeiger publishes an appeal for a new German National Anthem. We understand that the best composition that has been sent in up to the time of going to press begins as follows:—
Who is William? What is he That all our swine adore him?
ROYAL ACADEMY DEPRESSIONS.
The Plough Girl. "Now then, Mabel, not so much posing or you'll have the horses bumping into that rainbow."
Old Lady (regarding the mannequin)."I don't think that dress would really suit me. Chin-chin doesn't seem to care about it either."
The unhappy diner who has been refused a second helping.
Mr. Martin Harvey.—"It is a far, far better Hamlet than anyone has ever done."
The mutual admiration of the Breton and the Bishop.
The Terrier. "Excuse me, Guv'nor, but when you've finished reading the despatches you might look and see if they're going to do anything about us."
The Angel and the Veteran (to conscientious objector)."Young man, what did you do in the great war?"