Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, February 11, 1920 by Various


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Page 18

* * * * *

"Gentleman, Interested in Tattooing and largely covered, would like to
hear from other enthusiasts to compare notes."--_Times._

We trust the "bare-back" mode is not going to spread to the more modest
sex.

* * * * *

From a "stores" circular:--

"THIS WEEK'S ECONOMY OFFERS.

Honey in Sections, each 3/9, three for 14/0."

The economy consists, of course, in buying them one at a time.

* * * * *

WATER-BABIES.

In a limbo of desolate waters,
In the void of a flood-stricken plain,
You will find them--the sons and the daughters
Of tropical rain.

For when rivers are one with the ocean,
When the ricefields and roads are no more,
There's a feeling of magic, a notion
Of fairyland lore;

And the babies of Burma can revel
In a nursery of whirlpool and slime,
Where it thunders and rains like the devil
For weeks at a time.

They paddle their rafts through the jungle;
They swim through a network of leaves;
They clamber with never a bungle
To dive from the eaves.

'Tis an orgy of goblins, an image
Of nudity flouting the flood,
Of shorn-headed brownies who scrimmage
And splash in the mud.

As we row neath a tamarind, one'll
Roll off with a gesture of fright,
Bobbing up like a cork at our gunwale
And gurgling delight.

But never a stanza shall measure
The joy of that desperate crew
Of four-year-olds scouring for treasure
Astride a bamboo.

Their fathers smoke, huddled in sorrow,
Their mothers chew betel and fret,
And the pariahs howl for a morrow
Which shall not be wet;

The plovers wheel o'er them complaining,
And it's only the babies who pray
That the skies may be raining and raining
For ever and aye.


J.M.S.

* * * * *

ANOTHER MESOPOTAMIAN SCANDAL.

"The commodious and fast ss. 40 will leave Basrah for Baghdad and all
intermediate ports on Saturday morning at 9 A.M. Passengers will embark
at 10 A.M."--_Basrah Times._

* * * * *

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