suspicious lurkers,
From lands less free! I grudge you room
Among my hosts of honest workers.
Had I the settling of your doom,
Your shrift were short, and brief your stay.
As 'tis, I'll watch you on your way.

A Land of Liberty! Precisely.
And curs of that advantage take.
But, if you want my tip concisely,--
We hate the wolf and loathe the snake:
And as you seem a blend of both,
To crush you I'd be little loth.

Freedom we love, and, to secure it,
Take rough and smooth with constant mind.
Espionage? We ill endure it,
But Liberty need not be blind.
Sorrow's asylum is our isle;
But we'd not harbour ruffians vile.

To flout that isle foes are not chary,
When of its shelter not in need;
But, when in search of sanctuary,
They fly thereto with wondrous speed.
Asylum? Ay! But learn--in time--
'Tis no Alsatia for foul crime.

Foes dub me sinister, satanic,
A friend of Nihilists and knaves;
Because I will not let mere panic
Rob me of sympathy with slaves,
And hatred of oppressors. Fudge!
Their railings will not make me budge.

I've taken up my stand for freedom,
I'll jackal to no autocrat;
But rogues with hands as red as Edom,
Nihilist snake, Anarchist rat,
I'd crush, and crime's curst league determine.
I have no sympathy with vermin.

Doors open, welcome hospitable
For all, unchallenged, is my style;
But trust not to the fatuous fable
That _Caliban_'s free of my isle
With prosperous _Prospero's_ free consent.
Such lies mad autocrats invent.

Such for some centuries they've been telling,
Crime, like an asp, I'd gladly crush
Upon the threshold of my dwelling,
But shall not join a purblind rush
Of panic-stricken fools to play
The oppressor's game, for the spy's pay!

But you, foul, furtive desperadoes,
Who, frightened now by those you'd fright,
Would fain slink off among the shadows,
To plot out further deeds of night,
Our isle's immunity you boast!--
You're reckoning without your host.

I'll keep my eye on you; my Juries
I think you'll find it hard to scare;
_We_ worship no Anarchic furies,
For menace are not wont to care,
Here red-caught Crime in vain advances
"Extenuating Circumstances!"

* * * * *

COUPLET BY A CYNIC.

(After reading certain Press Comments on the Picture Show.)

Philistine Art may sta